"On December 2, 2025, San Francisco City Attorney David Chiu announced the first-ever lawsuit filed by a U.S. government entity against ten major food manufacturers for engineering addictive products. The lawsuit targets Kraft Heinz, Coca-Cola, PepsiCo, Mondelez, Post Holdings, General Mills, Nestle USA, Kellogg, Mars, and ConAgra Brands. Chiu stated, "They took food and made it unrecognizable and harmful to the human body."
This watershed moment challenges the entire industry's foundational practices, establishing whether corporations face accountability for intentionally creating product addiction."
Yup, you read that right, it's highly likely true, because quite frankly, that is what people do to every category of food and beverage consumption across the globe. Can't get enough of those sticky buns? You thought you could until someone else comes along and offers up in a restaurant warm sticky bun topped with a scoop of ice cream with splats of chocolate swirling down upon it. Shall they sue the restaurants also for adding addiction upon an addiction.
Oh no, it can't be the sticky bun manufacturer's fault that people got addicted, it's the tobaccos industry's fault. All because, technically big tobacco companies bought out the maker of the stinky buns and used deceptive practices to entice people into further addiction.
"Beginning in the 1960s, tobacco giants Philip Morris and RJ Reynolds strategically acquired major food companies. Philip Morris purchased Kraft, General Foods, and Nabisco, while RJ Reynolds acquired Hawaiian Punch and Del Monte. Rather than operating independently, tobacco companies integrated these brands into existing corporate structures, deliberately transferring addiction expertise into food manufacturing.
A Philip Morris executive captured the strategy: "You can have a complete meal of Philip Morris foods, followed by one of our cigarettes." This calculated consolidation maximized consumer dependency across multiple product categories."
When it comes to the tobacco companies buying out Kraft foods, I don't remember reading that it was big tobacco who decided to use that food coloring into the cheese packets that was unhealthy a few years back forcing Kraft to change to a healthier alternative use of turmeric as a colorant. People can go one step further up from that since it's now been found by Consumer Report study that most turmeric, including organic, sold in this country has been found to all contain some levels of lead. Is that a direct result of some targeting by big tobacco? No, the unhealthier brand was already unhealthy to begin with when the tobacco company bought out Kraft. Now I could see it if they added a touch of nicotine.
I am not trying to defend the tobacco companies but many of these companies they bought they bought because they were already formulated and top selling brand in the marketplace. If they got more creative with advertising tactics, who doesn't do that? When it comes to creative ways to attract people to consume food, who's next in those unhealthy endeavors. Should the promoters of contest to see how many hot dogs a person can consume in one setting be sued? How about pizza? After all, they are promoting unhealthy eating.
How about the alcohol producers? You'll never see it, the outrage would be so huge, politicians would be endlessly bombarded by constituents to ban any movement toward messing with their libations. You could literally accuse them of the same thing. Finding different creative ways to encourage people to drink by adding attractive other ingredients to give an appearance they are healthier printing pictures of a twist of strawberry, berries, and other assorted ingredients to liquors, hops and brews. What about the beers that have two, three, four times the amount of alcohol in them, many sold much cheaper further enticing a choice that is unhealthy, addictive, and much worse to one's health.
But the biggest insult to injury is the plastic industry, which ironically, on the same day this article gets posted up, there's yet another alarming story of plastic consumption by humans via micro and nano plastics making its way into our bodies via the meat and milk we consume. Plastics, in the end, will end up being the biggest environmental hazard to humans that ever graced this earth, far outpacing leaded gasoline, leaded paint, asbestos, Pfas, or any other widely known environmental health hazard. It will be a cold day in hell before you ever see they go up against the petroleum industry over this environmental catastrophe. Humans are consuming it, wildlife is consuming it, fish are consuming it yet let's worry about some unhealthy food colorings, sugars, and creative marketing strategies targeting people who actually had a choice in making healthier decision while ignoring the ultimate big one doing the most damage that increasingly over the last few decades people find themselves with less choice how their food comes packaged or served.
