Source: Radio New Zealand
The lawsuit alleges the companies deliberately designed the foods to be addictive, in full knowledge they make people sick. File photo. RNZ / Cole Eastham-Farrelly
A US attorney who is suing some of the biggest food manufacturers is accusing them of deliberately designing products to be addictive – despite the harm they are known to cause.
David Chiu has brought a lawsuit against prominent ultra-processed food manufacturers, including Coca-Cola, Nestle, Kellog and Craft Heinz.
The lawsuit argues the US government is picking up the bill for the serious health consequences from their products, such as obesity, diabetes and cancer.
It also alleges the companies deliberately designed the foods to be addictive and marketed them to maximise profit, in full knowledge they make people sick.
Ultra-processed foods are not just junk food, but anything full of chemical-based preservatives, emulsifiers, sweeteners like high fructose corn syrup, hydrogenated fats, and artificial colours and flavours.
Chiu – a San Francisco city attorney – told Checkpoint studies showing the danger of these foods spurred on the legal action.
“The massive data sets that have come out that show that ultra-processed foods are making us sick, plain and simple.”
With products from all companies involved in the lawsuit also available in New Zealand, Chiu said it should be a worry here.
“Our case is about companies that have designed these foods to be addictive, marketed it to maximize profits, and like the tobacco industry years ago, they knew their products made people very sick, but they hid the product, hid the truth from the public.
“They’ve made untold billions. They’ve left taxpayers to clean up the mess.”
Chiu said the comparisons to the tobacco industry were more than just a coincidence, with some of the big tobacco companies buying out major food companies throughout the 1960s and 70s.
“Big tobacco literally transferred its people, its ideas, its technology around addiction science from the tobacco industry to this food industry, this ultra-processed food industry. And they used the big tobacco playbook to research, design, and market addictive products.”
While some argued that consumers had a choice when it came to what food they bought, Chiu said the industry’s massive reach had essentially removed that decision.
“The industry likes to say that consumers have choice. You can buy whatever you want, and if someone wants to buy Pringles or potato chips or crackers, that is up to them.
“The ultra-processed food industry has worked to create this illusion of choice, but they’re actually depriving consumers of choice. You don’t really have a choice when 70 percent of what you see in the supermarkets are ultra-processed foods.”
In the court documents, Chiu mapped the increase of chronic diseases against the growth in ultra-processed foods.
He said the link between the foods and diseases was clear.
“As the level and consumption of ultra-processed foods have risen, so have chronic diseases. Obesity, type 2 diabetes, fatty liver disease, heart disease, kidney disease, even depression, and this has been particularly alarming in children.
“We are seeing preventable diseases that no one has seen in kids, such as obesity and type 2 diabetes.”
While companies may market their products as healthy, Chiu warned that consumers must be aware of what they were purchasing.
“There are well-known definitions of ultra-processed foods within the scientific community. And in California state law, our state legislature recently passed a definition of ultra-processed food, which is quite clear.
“We are talking about foods that are made-up of artificial ingredients that are created by combining these artificial chemicals with industrialized processes.”
Chiu said he was not aiming for a full ban of all ultra-processed foods, but wanted more accountability from the companies creating and selling them.
“What we want to ensure is a couple of things. One, that this industry is held accountable when it comes to deceptive practices and advertising. We need to have real transparency in what these products are.
“We have had as a society to pay for billions and billions and billions of dollars of healthcare for the diseases, the cancers, the obesity, the type 2 diabetes that so many folks are receiving.
“We believe that we should receive some restitution to pay for the health care costs that have come about through the actions and the knowing actions of this industry. “
He hoped that the lawsuit would be a first step in encouraging others to put pressure on the companies responsible.
“All of our reliance on ultra-processed foods is decades in the making. We can’t reverse it overnight, but we certainly can get some accountability and move this conversation forward.
“I also encourage others who care about this, whether they are in government or elsewhere, to hold this industry accountable.”
Sign up for Ngā Pitopito Kōrero, a daily newsletter curated by our editors and delivered straight to your inbox every weekday.
– Published by EveningReport.nz and AsiaPacificReport.nz, see: MIL OSI in partnership with Radio New Zealand
