Lawsuit accuses major food companies of marketing ‘addictive’ food to kids

Companies like Kraft Heinz, Mondelez and Coca-Cola, were hit with a new lawsuit accusing them of designing and marketing “ultra-processed” foods to be addictive to children, causing chronic disease.

Major food companies, including Kraft Heinz, Mondelez and Coca-Cola, were hit with a new lawsuit in the US on Tuesday accusing them of designing and marketing “ultra-processed” foods to be addictive to children, causing chronic disease. The lawsuit 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 demonizing food by ignoring its full nutrient content, misleads consumers and exacerbates health disparities.”