KRAFT, Mondelez, Coca-Cola and several other major food companies on Monday succeeded in winning the dismissal of a lawsuit that accused them of designing harmful “ultra-processed” foods addictive to children.
US District Judge Mia Perez in Philadelphia granted the companies’ motion to dismiss after finding that the plaintiff in the case, 19-year-old Bryce Martinez, failed to connect specific food products to his Type 2 diabetes and non-alcoholic fatty liver disease.
Martinez, a Philadelphia resident, said he was diagnosed with the illnesses at age 16 after consuming the companies’ products. The lawsuit was seen as a test case because it accused the companies of using the same strategies the tobacco industry once did in knowingly addicting Americans to popular food products despite their health risks.
While the definition of ultra-processed foods is under debate, researchers have considered it to apply to many packaged snack foods, sweets and soft drinks made with substances extracted from whole foods or synthesised artificially. Perez said that the lawsuit listed more than 100 food brands but Martinez failed to name any specific products as causes of his illnesses.
Representatives for Kraft Mac & Cheese and Heinz ketchup maker Kraft Heinz, Oreo cookies and Ritz crackers baker Mondelez and soft drink company Coca-Cola did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
General Counsel Stacy Papadopoulos of the Consumer Brands Association, an industry group representing food and beverage makers, said in a statement the lawsuit should never have been filed.
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“Classifying foods as unhealthy simply because they are processed misleads consumers and exacerbates health disparities,” she said.
Mike Morgan, an attorney for Martinez, said in a statement that they were evaluating options for next steps in the case.
“The scientific evidence demonstrating the addictive nature of these products is compelling, and we remain confident in the merits of our case,” Morgan said.
Ultra-processed foods have come under more scrutiny during the second Trump administration. US Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. said in May that the “central focus” of the National Institutes of Health and the Food and Drug Administration will be on studying ultra-processed foods, sugars and food additives.
Also in May, a commission led by Kennedy issued a report that said processed food, chemicals, stress and over-prescription of medications and vaccines may be factors behind chronic illness in American children.
Martinez’s lawsuit alleged food companies have long known their products are harmful and deliberately engineered them to be as addictive as possible. It alleged they are drawing from the same “cigarette playbook” as tobacco giants Philip Morris and R.J. Reynolds, which for a time owned the companies that became Kraft Heinz and Mondelez. REUTERS
