San Francisco Sues Major Food Companies Over Ultra-Processed Products, Citing Health Crisis

The lawsuit alleges companies engineered addictive ultra-processed foods despite known health risks, pushing costs onto public systems and taxpayers.

Boxes of PepsiCo's Frito-Lay Flamin' Hot flavored snacks including Cheetos, Fritos, Doritos tortilla chips, and Funyuns are displayed alongside packaged foods for sale at a warehouse grocery store in Hawthorne, Calif., on Dec. 2, 2025. Patrick T. Fallon/AFP/Getty Images

San Francisco has filed a first-of-its-kind lawsuit against some of the country’s largest food and beverage manufacturers, accusing them of engineering and aggressively marketing ultra-processed foods they knew were making Americans sick in order to boost profits.

The complaint, filed on Dec. 2 in San Francisco Superior Court, targets nearly a dozen major corporations, including Kraft Heinz, Mondelēz International, Post Holdings, Coca-Cola, PepsiCo, General Mills, Nestle USA, Kellanova, WK Kellogg, Mars, and Conagra Brands. It alleges that the companies’ ultra-processed food products have fueled epidemics of obesity, diabetes, heart disease, and certain cancers while saddling governments with soaring health care costs.

“These companies created a public health crisis with the engineering and marketing of ultra-processed foods,” San Francisco City Attorney David Chiu said when announcing the suit.

“They took food and made it unrecognizable and harmful to the human body. ... These companies engineered a public health crisis, they profited handsomely, and now they need to take responsibility for the harm they have caused.”

City Says Companies Engineered Products to Be Addictive

The lawsuit, brought on behalf of the people of the state of California, claims that the defendants violated the state’s Unfair Competition Law and public nuisance statute through unfair and deceptive marketing. It seeks to halt alleged deceptive practices, require corrective measures, and obtain restitution and civil penalties to help offset health costs tied to ultra-processed food consumption.

“Defendants did everything in their power to deprive consumers of an informed choice,” the complaint states. “They designed food to be addictive, they knew the addictive food they were engineering was making their customers sick, and they hid the truth from the public. They relentlessly promoted these dangerous products, made untold billions of dollars from doing so, and then they left taxpayers to foot the bill for the resulting public health crisis.”

Ultra-processed foods are described in the complaint as former whole foods that have been broken down; chemically modified; combined with additives such as artificial sweeteners, emulsifiers, and colorants; and reassembled using industrial techniques. They include sodas, energy drinks, boxed macaroni and cheese, breakfast cereals, chips, candies, and many processed meats.

Ultra-Processed Diets, Rising Chronic Disease Rates

Over roughly the same period in which such foods came to dominate the U.S. diet, obesity rates have surged and diagnoses of Type 2 diabetes, fatty liver disease, inflammatory bowel disease, and colorectal cancer in younger adults have climbed, the filing notes.

A 24-year study published on Nov. 13 in JAMA Oncology found that young people with the highest intake of ultra-processed foods had 45 percent higher odds of early-onset colorectal adenomas—colon polyps that often precede cancer—than those with the lowest intake. Researchers said the risk appeared to rise in a “fairly linear” way as consumption increased, “meaning that the more ultra-processed foods [a person eats], the more potential that it could lead to colon polyps.”

Federal data point to how widespread these foods have become. A recent Centers for Disease Control and Prevention brief estimates that 55 percent of total calories consumed by Americans aged 1 and older now come from ultra-processed products such as burgers, pizza, sweet baked goods, and sugary drinks. Among youth aged 1 to 18, the share rose to nearly 62 percent of calories.

Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s Make America Healthy Again Commission has warned that such diets lead to nutrient depletion, increased intake of calories, and exposure to harmful additives, and has urged a shift toward minimally processed, whole foods. Multiple federal agencies, including the Department of Health and Human Services, the Food and Drug Administration, and the Department of Agriculture, are working on a uniform federal definition of ultra-processed foods as part of a broader diet-related disease strategy.

San Francisco’s complaint also draws a direct line between “Big Tobacco” and “Big Food,” noting that cigarette makers R.J. Reynolds and Philip Morris bought major food companies in the 1960s and 1970s and applied their expertise in creating and marketing addictive products to snacks, beverages, and other packaged foods. The filing alleges that companies intentionally designed products to trigger cravings and targeted children with intensive advertising.

“These companies were extraordinarily successful,” the complaint states, noting that ultra-processed foods now make up more than 70 percent of grocery store products and more than half of the diets of individuals in the United States.

“[Ultra-processed foods] sit on the pantry shelves of nearly every household in America, and American children get two-thirds of their daily energy from [these products],” the complaint reads.

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

In a statement responding to the lawsuit, the Consumer Brands Association, which represents many of the companies named, defended its members and questioned the scientific basis for the city’s claims.

“The makers of America’s trusted household brands support Americans in making healthier choices and enhancing product transparency,” Sarah Gallo, senior vice president of product policy and federal affairs at the trade group, said in a statement to The Epoch Times.

She said manufacturers are offering products with “increased protein and fiber, reduced sugars and sodium, and no synthetic color additives,” noting that “there is currently no agreed-upon scientific definition of ultra-processed foods.”

“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,” Gallo said, noting that companies “adhere to the rigorous evidence-based safety standards established by the [Food and Drug Administration].”

The case is expected to draw close attention from public health groups and the food industry as a possible test case for using tobacco-style litigation against makers of ultra-processed foods.