The city of San Francisco sued Kraft, Mondelez, Coca-Cola and other makers of ultra-processed foods on Tuesday, accusing them of knowingly sickening California residents with addictive and harmful products.
City Attorney David Chiu filed the lawsuit in San Francisco Superior Court, alleging that the companies employed tactics similar to those used by the tobacco industry to design and market products intended to addict consumers. The lawsuit accuses the companies of violating California laws on public nuisance and deceptive marketing.
“These companies engineered a public health crisis, they profited handsomely, and now they need to take responsibility for the harm they have caused,” Chiu said in a statement.
As ultra-processed foods have proliferated, rates of obesity, cancer and diabetes have increased, the lawsuit claims. According to Chiu’s office, heart disease and diabetes—both linked to ultra-processed foods—are among San Francisco’s leading causes of death, with higher rates of diagnosis among minority and low-income communities.
Representatives for Oreos owner Mondelez, Coca-Cola and Kraft-Heinz did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
Sarah Gallo, senior vice president of product policy for the Consumer Brands Association, a trade group representing many of the companies, said in a statement that 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.”
The city is seeking restitution and civil penalties to offset its healthcare costs, along with a court order prohibiting the companies from engaging in deceptive marketing and requiring them to alter their practices.
Although the definition of ultra-processed foods remains under debate, researchers generally apply it to many packaged snack foods, sweets and soft drinks made using processing techniques, additives and industrial ingredients, and mostly containing little whole foods.
In a report put out by US Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. in May, the Trump administration pointed to ultra-processed foods as among the causes of an epidemic of chronic illnesses in children in the country.
The lawsuit marks the first time a municipality has sued over claims food companies have knowingly marketed addictive and harmful ultra-processed foods.
San Francisco is represented by attorneys from Morgan & Morgan, the firm that was behind an earlier lawsuit over similar claims brought by a Philadelphia man, who said he was diagnosed with Type 2 diabetes and non-alcoholic fatty liver disease as a 16-year-old due to his consumption of ultra-processed foods.
That lawsuit was dismissed in August after a Pennsylvania federal judge said the plaintiff had failed to connect specific products to his health conditions, a problem that could dog many similar claims. Attorneys for the plaintiff have asked the judge to reconsider the ruling and allow the lawsuit to proceed.
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