San Francisco sues Coca-Cola, Kellogg over ultra-processed foods. What does this mean?

In a historic move, San Francisco on Tuesday became the first state to file a lawsuit against food manufacturers over highly processed snacks and drinks that officials argue are harming Americans’ health.

The San Francisco case, which includes 10 of the most popular food manufacturer names known for highly processed fare – Kraft Heinz Inc., Mondelez International, Post Holdings, The Coca-Cola Company, PepsiCo, General Mills, Nestle USA, Kellogg, Mars Inc. and Kangra Brands – argues that food products continue to market, but people continue to produce food. Addictive food to maximize profits.

The lawsuit does not seek a ban on the sale of any of the products, but instead a statewide injunction barring the companies from continuing what the city describes as “deceptive marketing,” specifically targeting children in black and Latino communities. The city is also asking the companies to pay an unspecified amount to avert what officials have called a public health crisis.

The case is reminiscent of the legal battles against big tobacco companies in the 1990s in which states tried to recoup billions in health care costs related to the treatment of smoking-related diseases. The war ended with a master settlement agreement that provided funds to the states and also restricted tobacco advertising, marketing, and promotion.

But tobacco companies, including Philip Morris and RJ Reynolds, bought major food companies in the 1980s and used the same marketing techniques that once led people to buy addictive cigarettes to now buy foods that are delicious but often unhealthy, said San Francisco City Atty. David said.

“Like the tobacco industry, they knew their products were making people very sick, but they hid the truth from the public, profited countless billions and left Americans to deal with the consequences,” Chew said during a news conference Tuesday. “We are talking about foods that are not found in nature, created by combining synthetic chemicals with industrial processes.”

“You can see some of the worst offenders here,” he said, pointing to a table filled with staple snacks like Oreos, strawberry-flavored Cheerios, snackables, hot pockets and Cheetos that are beloved by many Americans, including countless children.

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

The Consumer Brands Assn., a trade organization that represents many of the companies named in the suit, said in a statement that there is no universal scientific definition of ultra-processed food.

Manufacturers continue to introduce new products with increased protein and fiber, with lower sugar and sodium and no added artificial colors, Sarah Gallo, senior vice president of product policy, said in a media statement.

“Trying to classify foods as unhealthy simply because they are processed, or demonizing foods with regard to their total nutrient content, misleads consumers and exacerbates health disparities,” Gallo said. “Companies adhere to rigorous evidence-based safety standards established 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. Now, about 70% of US food is ultra-processed fare, many of which contain significant 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, according to the researchers.

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 grains and yogurt, are associated with a lower risk of chronic disease.

In the lawsuit, San Francisco argues that the variety of products found in grocery stores today “deceptive of consumer choice” but Americans are largely forced to “choose between different combinations of chemicals that make them sick,” according to a city news release.

Ultra-processed foods are usually cheaper than unprocessed fare, but Chew argued during the news conference that consuming highly processed products comes with its own costs. Research has linked diets high in ultra-processed foods to a variety of health conditions including obesity, type 2 diabetes, heart disease and mental health disorders.

In 2024, researchers from the Harvard TH Chan School of Public Health focused on the health consequences 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 highly processed foods of any type had a 4% lower risk of all-cause mortality than those who ate the least ultra-processed foods.

However, experts at UC Davis noted that many studies have observed ultra-processed foods, 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 of the studies focused heavily on food frequency, or how often people consume certain items.

“The only thing we know about ultra-processed foods is that when we give them the option to eat them, they are very tasty and it is very easy for you to eat more calories than usual and as a result you gain weight.” said Angela Zivkovic, professor of nutrition at UC Davis.

This has made it more difficult to pin the cause of specific health ailments on certain foods, said Diana Winters, associate director of the Resnick Center for Food Law and Policy at UCLA.

“It’s big because for years, I think people have talked about the idea of ​​going after food companies like governments and individuals go after tobacco companies, but the concern was that we didn’t have the data to show causation,” Winters said.

However, over the years, “studies have shown more and more that certain processing causes these diet-related illnesses,” Winters said. “The idea that we now have the data to show these specific health effects to show it in court is an important point.”

Chiu said ultra-processed foods are high in sodium, added sugar, saturated fat and chemicals designed to make food easy and delicious to eat and overeat. He said that his mother took a bribe with Pringles to teach him how to swim. “To this day, I still love my Pringles, but they were designed to be very addictive,” he said.

Confrontation with additives in foods and highly processed fare has proven to be a rare dual issue. US Secretary of Health and Human Services Robert F. Kennedy Jr. criticized ultra-processed foods as part of his Make America Healthy agenda. In California, Governor Gavin Newsom signed the first law in the country in October to remove ultra-processed foods from school lunches.

Last year, he signed Assembly Bill 2316 to ban schools from serving food dyes known as Blue 1, Blue 2, Green 3, Red 40, Yellow 5 and Yellow 6, industry staples that can give foods unnaturally vibrant colors to make them more appealing.

Food experts like Gabby Hedrick, director of the undergraduate program in nutrition at George Washington University’s Milken Institute School of Public Health, argue that consumers would benefit from more education about ultra-processed foods as well as a nationwide policy on front-of-label packaging.

“We have many examples in other countries where we can see that when you put a label on the front of the package that indicates that a food is high in added sugar, saturated fat or sodium, it can help consumers understand the food they are buying more easily without having to look at the complex nutrition facts label,” Hedrick said.