Setting checked attribute in MVC Razor causes problems

Something strange happens when set the checked attribute of a checkbox group to a MVC model.

When I set the checked prop in the view:

@foreach (FoodVM.filter item in Model.SelectedFood)
       {
             <input type="checkbox"
                    name="food"
                    class="filter-checkbox"
                    value="@item.name"
                    @(Model.SelectedFood.Contains(item) ? "checked" : "") />

        }

...then the each loop does not accurately detect what is checked or unchecked. The state of the checked attrs never seems to change. When I uncheck a checkbox, it still falls into the :checked condition.

 $('.checkbox-filter').click(function (e) {

 var obj = {};

 $("input.checkbox-filter:checked").each(function (index, el) {
     var name = $(el).attr("name");
     var val = $(el).val();
     obj[name] = val;
    //^ this always returns the original checked value

 });

 var url = '/c?' + $.param(obj);

});

Does it have something to do with the model in the page? In this instance, I do not want to use the Html helpers, I'd like to stick with the plain html input.

In HTML, everything works as expected: http://ift.tt/1Auw8RY

I even tried setting the prop('checked', true) through JQ to completely circumvent the setting of the checked prop through MVC, but that had no effect.