San Francisco Takes Oreo And Coca-Cola Makers to Court Over Health Risks

San Francisco City Attorney David Chiu filed a landmark lawsuit on Tuesday in San Francisco Superior Court against 10 major food and beverage giants, including the makers of Oreo cookies, Coca-Cola, KitKat bars, Sour Patch Kids, and Lunchables, accusing them of engineering a public health crisis through the design and deceptive marketing of ultra-processed foods (UPFs). Described as the nation's first government-led action of its kind, the suit alleges that these companies have profited immensely while knowingly contributing to soaring rates of obesity, type 2 diabetes, fatty liver disease, heart conditions, and certain cancers by formulating addictive products that hyper-stimulate cravings and overconsumption.

The defendants—PepsiCo, Kraft Heinz Company, Post Holdings, Mondelez International, General Mills, Nestlé USA, Kellogg, Mars Incorporated, Conagra Brands, and The Coca-Cola Company—are charged with violating California's Unfair Competition Law and public nuisance statutes by using "chemically manipulated cheap ingredients with little if any whole food added" to create hyper-palatable snacks, sodas, cereals, and processed meats that mimic natural bliss points in the brain, similar to tobacco's addictive effects. Chiu, speaking at a press conference beside a table laden with the accused products, emphasised that these firms downplayed health risks despite internal knowledge of harms, imposing "enormous costs" on taxpayers for treating diet-related illnesses—estimated at billions annually for California alone.

UPFs, which comprise over 60% of caloric intake in the average American diet, are classified by the NOVA system as industrially formulated items laden with emulsifiers, artificial flavours, high-fructose corn syrup, and preservatives that disrupt satiety signals and promote binge eating, according to studies cited in the complaint from the New England Journal of Medicine and The Lancet. The suit draws parallels to successful tobacco and opioid litigations, arguing that companies like Mondelez (Oreo and KitKat) and Coca-Cola have lobbied against warning labels and funded misleading research to obscure links between their products and chronic diseases, which now affect one in three U.S. adults with obesity and contribute to 11 million global deaths yearly.

Also Read: Delhi’s Pollution Crisis Exposed: 2 Lakh Respiratory Cases in 3 Years

San Francisco seeks unspecified monetary damages to reimburse public health expenditures, civil penalties, and a court injunction mandating reformulation of products, transparent labelling of UPF content, and cessation of child-targeted marketing tactics such as cartoon packaging and social media ads. The case, brought on behalf of the State of California, could set a precedent for other municipalities grappling with similar epidemics, especially as a new state law effective in 2035 will ban "ultra-processed foods of concern" in K-12 schools, defining them for the first time in U.S. regulations.

The targeted firms have not yet responded publicly to the filing, but industry observers anticipate vigorous defences invoking free speech protections and claims that personal choice, not manufacturers, drives consumption. Public health advocates, including the Center for Science in the Public Interest, hailed the suit as a "game-changer" that could accelerate federal scrutiny under the FDA's proposed front-of-package labelling rules.

Also Read: Ola Electric's 250-Member Team Targets Service Crisis After Years of Complaints​