SAN FRANCISCO—San Francisco City Attorney David Chiu announced the filing of the first governmental lawsuit against 10 major ultra-processed food companies (UPF), which include Kraft-Heinz, Pepsi-Co, Coca-Cola, Mondelez International, General Mills, Nestlé, Kellogg, Post Holdings, Mars Incorporated, and ConAgra Brands on Tuesday, December 2.
While San Francisco is not a plaintiff, California Assembly Bill 1264 has proposed to introduce a legal definition for ultra-processed foods in the state, which includes ongoing regulatory interest in the issue.
Pepsi-Co, Coca-Cola Company, Mondelez International, which include Chips Ahoy! and Oreo, Kellogg, Mars Incorporated, ConAgra Brands are named in the lawsuit for its role in making and marketing ultra-processed foods. Kraft-Heinz and Post Holdings are named as defendants in the lawsuit.
The lawsuits allege that these companies deliberately engineered these products to be addictive, using deceptive marketing tactics, similar to the ‘Big Tobacco’ industry, to target children and failed to add warnings for consumers about health risks such as Type 2 Diabetes and non-alcoholic fatty liver disease.
The basis of the lawsuit is that the city and county governments are now being burdened by the costs of treating diseases that come from the consumption of non-alcoholic fatty liver disease, comprising from a large portion of the American diet. It accuses the companies of designing and marketing the ultra-processed foods to become addictive, most especially towards gullible, young children, causing chronic diseases.
The lawsuit draws parallel to successful litigation bought against the tobacco industry by public agencies, which the Office of the City Attorney of San Francisco participated in and won significant settlements.
