NEW YORK, Dec 11 — Major food companies, including Kraft Heinz, Mondelez and Coca-Cola, were hit with a new suit in the United States yesterday accusing them of designing and marketing “ultra-processed” foods to be addictive to children, causing chronic disease.
The suit was filed in the Philadelphia Court of Common Pleas by Bryce Martinez, a Pennsylvania resident who alleges he developed type 2 diabetes and non-alcoholic fatty liver disease, diagnosed at age 16, as a result of consuming the companies’ products.
His lawyers at the firm Morgan & Morgan, a major US plaintiffs’ firm, described the case as the first of its kind.
The other companies being sued are Post Holdings, PepsiCo, General Mills, Nestle’s US arm, WK Kellogg, Mars, Kellanova and Conagra.
“There is currently no agreed upon scientific definition of ultra-processed foods,” Sarah Gallo, senior vice-president of product policy for the Consumer Brands Association, an industry group representing food and beverage makers, said in a statement.
“Attempting to classify foods as unhealthy simply because they are processed, or demonising food by ignoring its full nutrient content, misleads consumers and exacerbates health disparities.”
Evidence has grown in recent years that highly processed foods are linked to a wide range of chronic health problems. Food described by researchers as “ultra-processed” includes many packaged snack foods, sweets and soft drinks made with substances extracted from whole foods or synthesised artificially.
Current US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) commissioner Robert Califf has said that ultra-processed foods are likely addictive. Robert F. Kennedy Jr., president-elect Donald Trump’s pick to lead the US Health and Human Services Department, has criticised the food industry and the FDA for failing to regulate it.
Martinez’s suit alleges food companies have long known their products are harmful and deliberately engineered them to be as addictive as possible. It argues they are drawing from the same “cigarette playbook” as tobacco giants Philip Morris and R.J. Reynolds, which for a time owned the companies that became Kraft Heinz and Mondelez.
The suit includes claims for conspiracy, negligence, fraudulent misrepresentation and unfair business practices. It seeks an unspecified amount of compensatory and punitive damages.
— Reuters
