San Francisco City Attorney’s Office has just launched a historic lawsuit against some of the largest manufacturers of ultra-processed foods:
- Kraft Heinz Company — a giant behind Lunchables, processed cheeses, ready-to-eat meals and many other ultra-processed staples.
- Mondelez International — maker of household brands like Oreo, Chips Ahoy, and many snack cookies and treats.
- The Coca‑Cola Company — a global beverage titan, long criticised for sugary drinks.
- PepsiCo — another major drinks/snacks corporation.
- Post Holdings — known for processed cereals and other packaged foods.
- General Mills — maker of many breakfast cereals and processed food products.
- Nestlé USA — the U.S. arm of a global food conglomerate, with many processed-food brands under its umbrella.
- Kellogg Company — known for cereals, snacks, convenience foods associated with ultra-processed diets.
- Mars, Incorporated — known for snacks, sweets, and processed foods.
- Conagra Brands — producer of processed meals, snacks and other mass-market food products.
The lawsuit argues these companies engineered a public-health crisis: designing foods for maximum addictiveness, marketing them aggressively; often targeting children and vulnerable communities, and downplaying or hiding their long-term health harms including obesity, diabetes, heart disease, cancer, and other chronic conditions:
- Deceptive advertising / misrepresentation — marketing UPFs as “normal” or safe foods, often implying they are healthy or innocuous.
- Failure to warn — not clearly informing consumers about health risks (e.g. high risk of obesity, type 2 diabetes, fatty-liver disease, etc.) tied to heavy UPF consumption.
- Targeting vulnerable populations — including children, low-income families, and minority communities.
- Negligence and breach of implied/express warranties — since food should reasonably be safe for ordinary use.
- The health harms allegedly linked to UPFs include obesity, type 2 diabetes, non-alcoholic fatty liver disease, various chronic conditions.
- In broad frames: the lawsuit argues that these companies engineered foods to maximize profit — using additives, flavor enhancers, shelf-life extenders and aggressive marketing — at the expense of public health.
This is the first lawsuit of its kind in the United States, and it seeks not just financial penalties but structural change: real warnings, real accountability, and an end to deceptive marketing practices that have normalised chemical-laden “food” as everyday nutrition.
