San Francisco initiated legal action against several leading national food producers on Tuesday, asserting that highly processed items from companies such as Coca-Cola and Nestle are contributing to a public health emergency.
TL;DR
- San Francisco sued Coca-Cola, Nestle, and others for health issues caused by ultraprocessed foods.
- The lawsuit claims these foods contribute to Type 2 diabetes, fatty liver disease, and cancer.
- San Francisco seeks to stop deceptive marketing and fund healthcare costs from these products.
- Ultraprocessed foods are defined as chemically manipulated ingredients designed to stimulate cravings.
City Attorney David Chiu identified 10 businesses in the legal action, encompassing the producers of widely consumed items like Oreo cookies, Sour Patch Kids, Kit Kat, Cheerios, and Lunchables. The legal filing contends that extremely processed food items are associated with conditions such as Type 2 diabetes, fatty liver disease, and cancer.
“They took food and made it unrecognizable and harmful to the human body,” Chiu said in a news release. “These companies engineered a public health crisis, they profited handsomely, and now they need to take responsibility for the harm they have caused.”
Ultraprocessed items encompass sweets, crisps, cured meats, fizzy drinks, performance beverages, morning grain products, and other items formulated to “stimulate cravings and encourage overconsumption,” Chiu’s office stated in the announcement. These kinds of foods are “formulations of often chemically manipulated cheap ingredients with little if any whole food added,” Chiu penned in the legal action.
The other businesses listed in the legal action include PepsiCo; Kraft Heinz Company; Post Holdings; Mondelez International; General Mills; Kellogg; Mars Incorporated; and ConAgra Brands.
None of the companies named in the suit immediately responded to emailed requests for comment.
U.S. Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. Has frequently spoken out regarding the detrimental effects of ultraprocessed foods and their association with long-term illnesses, and has made them a focus of his Make America Healthy Again initiative. Kennedy has advocated for prohibiting these types of foods from The Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, which aids low-income households.
August report from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention determined that a majority of individuals in the United States consume over fifty percent of their daily caloric intake from highly processed food items.
In October, California Governor Gavin Newsom signed a first-in-the-nation law a plan to gradually eliminate specific ultraprocessed food items from school menus throughout the coming ten years.
The lawsuit filed by San Francisco references multiple scientific investigations detailing the detrimental effects of ultraprocessed food items on well-being.
“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 further requests monetary sanctions to aid municipal administrations in covering healthcare expenditures stemming from the intake of ultraprocessed food items.
