{"id":78604,"date":"2025-12-02T19:36:13","date_gmt":"2025-12-02T19:36:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/78604\/"},"modified":"2025-12-02T19:36:13","modified_gmt":"2025-12-02T19:36:13","slug":"kraft-coca-cola-others-sued-by-san-francisco-over-ultra-processed-foods","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/78604\/","title":{"rendered":"Kraft, Coca-Cola, others sued by San Francisco over ultra-processed foods"},"content":{"rendered":"

The city of San Francisco sued Kraft, Mondelez, Coca-Cola\u00a0and other makers of ultra-processed foods<\/a> on Tuesday, accusing them of knowingly sickening California residents with addictive and harmful products.<\/p>\n

City Attorney David Chiu filed the\u00a0lawsuit\u00a0in 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\u00a0lawsuit\u00a0accuses the companies of violating California laws on public nuisance and deceptive marketing.<\/p>\n

\u201cThese companies engineered a public health crisis, they profited handsomely, and now they need to take responsibility for the harm they have caused,\u201d Chiu said in a statement.<\/p>\n

City Attorney David Chiu filed the\u00a0lawsuit\u00a0in 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. REUTERS<\/p>\n

As ultra-processed foods have proliferated, rates of obesity, cancer and diabetes have increased, the\u00a0lawsuit\u00a0claims. According to Chiu\u2019s office, heart disease and diabetes\u2014both linked to ultra-processed foods\u2014are among San Francisco\u2019s leading causes of death, with higher rates of diagnosis among minority and low-income communities.<\/p>\n

Representatives for Oreos owner Mondelez, Coca-Cola and Kraft-Heinz did not immediately respond to requests for comment.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

Although the definition of ultra-processed foods remains under debate, researchers\u00a0generally apply it\u00a0to many packaged snack foods, sweets and soft drinks made using processing techniques, additives and industrial ingredients, and mostly containing little whole foods.<\/p>\n

According to Chiu\u2019s office, heart disease and diabetes \u2014 both linked to ultra-processed foods \u2014 are among San Francisco\u2019s leading causes of death, with higher rates of diagnosis among minority and low-income communities. REUTERS<\/p>\n

The\u00a0lawsuit\u00a0accuses the companies of violating California laws on public nuisance and deceptive marketing. REUTERS<\/p>\n

In a report put out by US Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. in May, the Trump administration\u00a0pointed to ultra-processed foods<\/a>\u00a0as among the causes of an epidemic of chronic illnesses in children in the country.<\/p>\n

The\u00a0lawsuit\u00a0marks the first time a municipality has sued over claims food companies have knowingly marketed addictive and harmful ultra-processed foods.<\/p>\n

The\u00a0lawsuit\u00a0marks the first time a municipality has sued over claims food companies have knowingly marketed addictive and harmful ultra-processed foods. Getty Images<\/p>\n

San Francisco is represented by attorneys from Morgan & Morgan, the firm that was behind an earlier\u00a0lawsuit\u00a0over 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.<\/p>\n

That\u00a0lawsuit\u00a0was dismissed in August after a Pennsylvania federal judge said the plaintiff\u00a0had failed to connect specific products<\/a>\u00a0to his health conditions, a problem that could dog many similar claims.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The city of San Francisco sued Kraft, Mondelez, Coca-Cola\u00a0and other makers of ultra-processed foods on Tuesday, accusing them…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":78605,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[30],"tags":[387,5301,1570,45337,1016,14464,37136,101,103,102,104,106,105,37132],"class_list":["post-78604","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-san-francisco","tag-business","tag-coca-cola","tag-health","tag-kraft","tag-lawsuits","tag-obesity","tag-robert-f-kennedy-jr","tag-san-francisco","tag-san-francisco-headlines","tag-san-francisco-news","tag-sf","tag-sf-headlines","tag-sf-news","tag-ultra-processed-foods"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/78604","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=78604"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/78604\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/78605"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=78604"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=78604"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=78604"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}