Advertising Age reported on a lawsuit charging big food
companies emulate Big Tobacco; that is, packaged food corporations deliberately
make addictive products promoted by marketing campaigns targeting children and
minorities.
Not sure why
the lawsuit is only attacking packaged food manufacturers versus also going
after brands like Mickey D’s. After all, it could be argued
McNuggets and McRibs are the equivalent of menthol cigarettes.
Lawsuit
alleges major food makers knowingly used Big Tobacco tactics
The makers of
Oreo, Pop-Tarts, Slim Jim and other products face a lawsuit over childhood
disease
By Ally Marotti
Packaged food
giants face a lawsuit alleging that they knowingly make addictive products that
cause illnesses such as type 2 diabetes and target children with those
products.
Food and
beverage marketers named in the lawsuit include Coca-Cola Co., Conagra Brands,
General Mills, Kellanova, Kraft Heinz, Mars, Mondelēz International, Nestlé
USA, PepsiCo, Post Holdings and WK Kellogg Co.
Pennsylvania
resident Bryce Martinez filed the lawsuit on Dec. 10 in Philadelphia Common
Pleas Court. The lawsuit alleges that Martinez developed type 2 diabetes and
non-alcoholic fatty liver disease when he was 16 because he frequently ate the
companies’ products.
Martinez “is
one of many casualties of defendants’ predatory profiteering,” the complaint
says. “(He) is now suffering from these devastating diseases, and will continue
to suffer for the rest of his life.”
The lawsuit
comes as the spotlight is turning upon the ingredients in some of the country’s
most popular packaged food brands. President-elect Donald Trump’s pick for
secretary of health and human services, Robert F. Kennedy Jr., has broadly
critiqued processed foods. He has vowed to remove them from school lunch
programs and disallow them from being bought with food stamps.
Kennedy has
specifically discussed the harms of high-fructose corn syrup and processed
grains. If his nomination is approved, he will oversee a department that has
partial oversight of Americans’ diet through the Food and Drug Administration.
The lawsuit
filed in Pennsylvania earlier this month targets ultra-processed foods, which
it says are “industrially produced edible substances that are imitations of
food.” They contain little to no whole food, and have come to dominate the
American diet since the 1980s, the lawsuit says. On average, children now
derive two-thirds of their energy from ultra-processed foods.
The lawsuit
points to the rise of type 2 diabetes and fatty liver disease, which “had been
largely confined to elderly alcoholics,” in children. It ties the increasing
prevalence of such diseases to the 1980s, when tobacco companies bought major
U.S. food companies. For example, tobacco company Philip Morris bought Kraft
Foods in 1988.
The tobacco
companies then “used their cigarette playbook to fill our food environment with
addictive substances that are aggressively marketed to children and
minorities,” according to the lawsuit.
The lawsuit
alleges that the companies that make ultra-processed foods are “well aware of
the harms they are causing and (have) known it for decades. But they continue
to inflict massive harm on society in a reckless pursuit of profits.”
Representatives
from each company did not respond to a request for comment. The exception was
Conagra: Its spokesperson declined to comment on pending litigation.
The Consumer
Brands Association, a trade association that represents many of the country’s
packaged food companies, said in a statement that such companies adhere to FDA
standards and “deliver safe, affordable and convenient products that consumers
depend on every day.”
“Americans
deserve facts based on sound science in order to make the best choices for
their health. There is currently no agreed upon scientific definition of
ultra-processed foods,” Sarah Gallo, senior VP of Product Policy, said in a
statement. “Attempting to classify foods as unhealthy simply because they
are processed, or demonizing food by ignoring its full nutrient content,
misleads consumers and exacerbates health disparities.”
At its heart,
this lawsuit is a product liability case, said R. Mark McCareins, a clinical
professor of business law at Northwestern University’s Kellogg School of
Management.
“The cost of
doing business in the U.S., with our civil justice system, are suits like
this,” he said. “The fact that somebody filed a lawsuit does not mean that …
the companies did anything wrong, and they are more than free to defend
themselves.”
In such cases,
attorneys typically must prove causation—in this case, did the ultra-processed
foods cause the diseases—and that the companies knew about the harm. Typically,
expert testimony is vital.
