San Francisco sues nation's top food manufacturers over ultraprocessed
foods
[December 03, 2025] By
JAIMIE DING
The city of San Francisco filed a lawsuit against some of the nation's
top food manufacturers on Tuesday, arguing that ultraprocessed food from
the likes of Coca-Cola and Nestle are responsible for a public health
crisis.
City Attorney David Chiu named 10 companies in the lawsuit, including
the makers of such popular foods as Oreo cookies, Sour Patch Kids, Kit
Kat, Cheerios and Lunchables. The lawsuit argues that ultraprocessed
foods are linked to diseases such as Type 2 diabetes, fatty liver
disease and cancer.
“They took food and made it unrecognizable and harmful to the human
body,” Chiu said in a news release. "These companies engineered a public
health crisis, they profited handsomely, and now they need to take
responsibility for the harm they have caused.”
Ultraprocessed foods include candy, chips, processed meats, sodas,
energy drinks, breakfast cereals and other foods that are designed to
“stimulate cravings and encourage overconsumption,” Chiu's office said
in the release. Such foods are “formulations of often chemically
manipulated cheap ingredients with little if any whole food added,” Chiu
wrote in the lawsuit.
The other companies named in the lawsuit are PepsiCo; Kraft Heinz
Company; Post Holdings; Mondelez International; General Mills; Kellogg;
Mars Incorporated; and ConAgra Brands.
None of the companies named in the suit immediately responded to emailed
requests for comment.
U.S. Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has been vocal about the
negative impact of ultraprocessed foods and their links to chronic
disease and has targeted them in his Make America Healthy Again
campaign. Kennedy has pushed to ban such foods from the Supplemental
Nutrition Assistance Program for low-income families.
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Bottles of Coca-Cola products sit on a shelf at a store in Dania
Beach, Fla., Oct. 20, 2020. (AP Photo/Wilfredo Lee, File)
 An August report by the U.S. Centers
for Disease Control and Prevention found that most Americans get
more than half their calories from ultraprocessed foods.
In October, California Gov. Gavin Newsom signed a
first-in-the-nation law to phase out certain ultraprocessed foods
from school meals over the next decade.
San Francisco's lawsuit cites several scientific studies on the
negative impact of ultraprocessed foods on human health.
“Mounting research now links these products to serious
diseases—including Type 2 diabetes, fatty liver disease, heart
disease, colorectal cancer, and even depression at younger ages,"
University of California, San Francisco, professor Kim Newell-Green
said in the news release.
The lawsuit argues that by producing and promoting ultraprocessed
foods, the companies violate California’s Unfair Competition Law and
public nuisance statute. It seeks a court order preventing the
companies from “deceptive marketing” and requiring them to take
actions such as consumer education on the health risks of
ultraprocessed foods and limiting advertising and marketing of
ultraprocessed foods to children.
It also asks for financial penalties to help local governments with
health care costs caused by the consumption of ultraprocessed foods.
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