In a press conference, San Francisco City Attorney David Chiu said that the lawsuit, filed earlier this week in California Superior Court, is intended to hold the companies “accountable for their unfair and deceptive practices, for violating California’s unfair competition law and public nuisance laws.”
The city of San Francisco has filed a landmark lawsuit accusing some of the country’s largest manufacturers of producing highly processed foods that are inherently unhealthy.
According to ABC News, the companies named as defendants in the lawsuit include Kraft Heinz, Mondelez Post, Coca-Cola, PepsiCo, General Mills, Nestle, Kellanova, Kellogg, Mars, and ConAgra.
In a press conference, San Francisco City Attorney David Chiu said that the lawsuit, filed earlier this week in California Superior Court, is intended to hold the companies “accountable for their unfair and deceptive practices, for violating California’s unfair competition law and public nuisance laws.”
Chiu said that so-called “ultra-processed” foods have created an unusual health care crisis, exacerbating rates of chronic disease and placing a significant burden upon local governments.
“We have reached a tipping point in the scientific research about the harm of these products,” Chiu said. He noted that studies, including a paper recently published in the Lancet, provide evidence indicative of a “very clear link between ultra-processed foods and chronic diseases [such as] type 2 diabetes, fatty liver disease, heart disease, kidney disease, colorectal cancer, Crohn’s disease, [and] depression.”
ABC News reports that, in responding to the lawsuit, the companies chose to communicate through their industry trade group, the Consumer Brands Association.
“The makers of America’s trusted household brands support Americans in making healthier choices and enhancing product transparency. That’s why food and beverage manufacturers continue to introduce new product options that include increased protein and fiber, reduced sugars and sodium, and no synthetic color additives,” said Sarah Gallo, the Consumer Brands Association’s senior vice president of product policy. “There is currently no agreed upon scientific definition of ultra-processed foods and attempting to classify foods as unhealthy simply because they are processed, or demonizing food by ignoring its full nutrient content, misleads consumers and exacerbates health disparities.”
Gallo said that the companies all “adhere to the rigorous evidence-based safety standards established by the FDA to deliver safe, affordable and convenient products that consumers depend on every day.”
Chiu, however, said that local governments—cities, and counties—have had to bear the burden of chronic diseases like diabetes. Speaking to the press, Chiu said that these companies effectively copied “the addiction science and marketing techniques that filled the big tobacco playbook,” providing the example of the very colorful packaging that adorns supermarket shelves across the country.
The industry’s tactics, according to Chiu, include using cartoon mascots and “integrated marketing strategies with toy manufacturers and child-focused media companies” that specifically target minorities and kids from lower-income communities.
“Many ultra-processed foods don’t seem unhealthy, but they’re falsely marketed as healthy,” Chiu said, adding that some companies now employ chemicals that can make foods “addictive.”
Chiu told reporters that the aim of the lawsuit is to “obtain restitution and civil penalties to recover the enormous cost borne by governments, public health costs that stem from chronic disease due to ultra-processed foods.”
Sources
San Francisco files landmark lawsuit, comparing ultra-processed food companies to ‘big tobacco’
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