San Francisco sues Coca-Cola and Kellogg over ultra-processed foods. what does that mean

San Francisco took historic action on Tuesday, becoming the first government to file a lawsuit against a food manufacturer over ultra-processed snacks and drinks that officials say are wreaking havoc on Americans’ health.

The San Francisco lawsuit names 10 of the most popular food manufacturers known for highly processed foods — Kraft Heinz Co., Mondelēz International, Postal Service Holdings, Coca-Cola Co., PepsiCo, General Mills, Nestlé USA, Kellogg’s, Mars Inc. and Conagra Brands — arguing that the food industry knew its products could make people sick but continued to sell addictive foods to maximize profits.

The lawsuit does not seek to ban the sale of any products, but instead seeks a statewide order prohibiting the companies from continuing what the city calls “deceptive marketing” to children, particularly those in Black and Latino communities. The city is also requiring the companies to pay an undisclosed amount of money to mitigate what officials say is a public health crisis.

The lawsuit is reminiscent of the legal battles against Big Tobacco in the 1990s, when states sought to recoup billions of dollars in medical costs related to treating smoking-related illnesses. The fight ended with a master settlement that provided funds to states and restricted tobacco advertising, marketing and promotion.

But San Francisco city attorneys say tobacco companies including Philip Morris and Reynolds bought big food companies in the 1980s and used the same marketing techniques that once got people to buy addictive cigarettes and now buy highly palatable but often unhealthy food products. David Chiu.

“Like the tobacco industry, they knew their products were making people very sick but hid the truth from the public, profited from countless billions of dollars, and left Americans to deal with the consequences,” Chiu said at a news conference on Tuesday. “We’re talking about food that doesn’t exist in nature but is made by combining man-made chemicals with industrialized processes.”

“You can see some of the worst offenders here,” he said, pointing to tables piled high with snack staples like Oreos, strawberry-flavored cereal, lunch items, Hot Pockets and Cheetos, favorites of many Americans, including countless children.

The companies named in the lawsuit did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

The Consumer Brands Association, a trade group representing many of the companies named in the lawsuit, said in a statement that there is no universal scientific definition of ultra-processed food.

Sarah Gallo, senior vice president of product policy, said in a media statement that manufacturers are continuing to introduce new products that increase protein and fiber, reduce sugar and sodium, and contain no synthetic color additives.

“Trying to classify foods as unhealthy simply because they are processed, or demonizing foods by ignoring their full nutritional content, misleads consumers and exacerbates health disparities,” Gallo said. “Companies adhere to strict evidence-based safety standards set by the FDA to provide safe, affordable and convenient products that consumers rely on every day. Americans deserve facts based on sound science to make the best choices for their health.”

The share of ultra-processed foods on grocery store shelves increased dramatically in the 1980s and 1990s. About 70% of the U.S. food supply now consists of ultra-processed foods, most of which contain large amounts of added ingredients such as sugar, salt, fat, and artificial colors or preservatives. Products such as frozen meals, soft drinks, hot dogs, packaged cookies, cakes and salty snacks such as chips fall into this category, the researchers said.

But not all ultra-processed foods are inherently unhealthy, according to the Yale School of Public Health, which notes that some foods that fall into this category, such as whole-wheat bread and yogurt, are associated with a lower risk of chronic disease.

San Francisco argued in the lawsuit that the variety of products in today’s grocery stores “gives the illusion of consumer choice,” but Americans are largely forced to choose between “different chemical profiles that make them sick,” according to a news release from the city.

Ultra-processed foods are generally cheaper than non-processed foods, but Chiu said at the news conference that consuming highly processed products has its own costs. Research shows that diets rich in ultra-processed foods are linked to a variety of health conditions, including obesity, type 2 diabetes, cardiovascular disease and mental health disorders.

In 2024, researchers at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health focused on the health effects of specific types of ultra-processed foods, collecting data from participants every four years for more than three decades. The study found that participants who ate the most ultra-processed foods had a 4% higher risk of death from any cause than those who ate the least.

However, experts at UC Davis point out that the vast majority of studies on ultra-processed foods are observational, meaning people are asked to report what they eat and scientists take that information and use statistical analysis to explore associations with various health outcomes. Most studies are heavily biased toward food frequency, or how often people eat certain items.

“The only thing we really know about ultra-processed foods is that when we have the option to eat them, they are so delicious and so easy to overeat that you end up eating more calories than usual, ultimately leading to weight gain,” Angela Zivkovic, a professor of nutrition at the University of California, Davis, said based on her research.

That makes it harder to link the causes of specific health illnesses to certain foods, said Diana Winters, associate director of the Resnick Center for Food Law and Policy at UCLA.

“It’s important because for years, I think people have been talking about the idea of ​​going after food companies, the same way governments and individuals go after tobacco companies, but the concern is we don’t have the data to show cause and effect,” Winters said.

Over the years, however, “research has increasingly shown that specific processing is causing these diet-related diseases,” Winters said. “We now have data showing these specific health effects that can even be shown in court, which is a turning point.”

Chiu said ultra-processed foods contain high amounts of sodium, added sugars, saturated fats and chemicals that are designed to make food easier to eat, more enjoyable, and potentially overeating. He said his own mother once bribed him with Pringles to take swimming lessons. “To this day, I still love my Pringles, but they were designed to be highly addictive,” he said.

Fighting additives in food and highly processed foods has proven to be a rare bipartisan issue. U.S. Secretary of Health and Human Services Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has been critical of ultra-processed foods as part of his “Make America Healthy Again” agenda. In California, Gov. Gavin Newsom signed a first-in-the-nation law in October to remove ultra-processed foods from school lunches.

Last year, he signed Assembly Bill 2316, which bans schools from serving foods containing blue 1, blue 2, green 3, red 40, yellow 5 and yellow 6 dyes, industrial staples that can give foods unnaturally bright colors to make them more appealing.

Food experts like Gabby Headrick, director of the undergraduate program in nutrition at the George Washington University Milken School of Public Health, believe consumers would benefit from more education about ultra-processed foods and a national front-of-label package policy.

“We have many examples in other countries where when you put a label on the front of the package that says the food is high in added sugars, high in saturated fat or high in sodium, it helps consumers more easily understand what they’re buying without having to look at complex nutrition facts labels,” Hedrick said.