On Tuesday, the city of San Francisco initiated legal action against several leading food manufacturers, accusing them of contributing to a public health emergency through their ultraprocessed products. Among the companies targeted are industry giants like Coca-Cola and Nestle.
The lawsuit, spearheaded by City Attorney David Chiu, lists ten companies, including producers of well-known items such as Oreo cookies, Sour Patch Kids, Kit Kat, Cheerios, and Lunchables. The legal claim highlights connections between these ultraprocessed foods and health issues like Type 2 diabetes, fatty liver disease, and cancer.
“These manufacturers have taken food and transformed it into something detrimental to human health,” Chiu stated in a press release. “By creating and profiting from a public health crisis, they must now be held accountable for the damage they have inflicted.”
Chiu’s office describes ultraprocessed foods as items like candy, chips, processed meats, sodas, energy drinks, and cereals, which are designed to trigger cravings and promote overeating. These products are often composed of chemically altered, inexpensive ingredients with minimal real food content, as noted in the lawsuit.
PepsiCo, Kraft Heinz Company, Post Holdings, Mondelez International, General Mills, Kellogg, Mars Incorporated, and ConAgra Brands are also named in the legal proceedings.
At the time of reporting, none of the companies involved had provided responses to emailed requests for comment.
U.S. Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has been vocal about the negative impact of ultraprocessed foods and their links to chronic disease and has targeted them in his Make America Healthy Again campaign. Kennedy has pushed to ban such foods from the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program for low-income families.
An August report by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention found that most Americans get more than half their calories from ultraprocessed foods.
In October, California Gov. Gavin Newsom signed a first-in-the-nation law to phase out certain ultraprocessed foods from school meals over the next decade.
San Francisco’s lawsuit cites several scientific studies on the negative impact of ultraprocessed foods on human health.
“Mounting research now links these products to serious diseases—including Type 2 diabetes, fatty liver disease, heart disease, colorectal cancer, and even depression at younger ages,” University of California, San Francisco, professor Kim Newell-Green said in the news release.
The lawsuit argues that by producing and promoting ultraprocessed foods, the companies violate California’s Unfair Competition Law and public nuisance statute. It seeks a court order preventing the companies from “deceptive marketing” and requiring them to take actions such as consumer education on the health risks of ultraprocessed foods and limiting advertising and marketing of ultraprocessed foods to children.
It also asks for financial penalties to help local governments with health care costs caused by the consumption of ultraprocessed foods.
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