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PORTSIDE CULTURE

SAN FRANCISCO SUES ULTRAPROCESSED FOOD COMPANIES  
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Heather Knight
December 2, 2025
The New York Times
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_ The city attorney accuses large manufacturers of causing diseases
that have burdened governments with public health costs. _

David Chiu, the city attorney of San Francisco, will file a lawsuit
against a host of companies that make ultraprocessed foods., Rachel
Bujalski for The New York Times

 

The San Francisco city attorney filed on Tuesday the nation’s first
government lawsuit against food manufacturers over ultraprocessed
fare, arguing that cities and counties have been burdened with the
costs of treating diseases that stem from the companies’ products.

David Chiu, the city attorney, sued 10 corporations that make some of
the country’s most popular food and drinks. Ultraprocessed products
now comprise 70 percent of the American food supply and fill grocery
store shelves with a kaleidoscope of colorful packages.

Think Slim Jim meat sticks and Cool Ranch Doritos. But also aisles of
breads, sauces and granola bars marketed as natural or healthy.

It is a rare issue on which the liberal leaders in San Francisco City
Hall are fully aligned with the Trump administration, which has
targeted ultraprocessed foods as part of its Make America Healthy
Again mantra.

Mr. Chiu’s lawsuit, which was filed in San Francisco Superior Court
on behalf of the State of California, seeks unspecified damages for
the costs that local governments bear for treating residents whose
health has been harmed by ultraprocessed food.

The city accuses the companies of “unfair and deceptive acts” in
how they market and sell their foods, arguing that such practices
violate the state’s Unfair Competition Law and public nuisance
statute. The city also argues the companies knew that their food made
people sick but sold it anyway.

It is unclear how successful the suit will be. In August, a federal
judge in Philadelphia dismissed
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of the nation’s first private lawsuits over ultraprocessed foods,
filed by a young consumer who was diagnosed with Type 2 diabetes and
nonalcoholic fatty liver disease at age 16. The judge, appointed by
President Joseph R. Biden Jr., ruled that the plaintiff’s claims
lacked specifics about which products he had consumed and when. (The
plaintiff’s lawyers at Morgan & Morgan have since filed an amended
complaint, according to the firm.)

But the San Francisco city attorney’s office has had success as a
groundbreaking public agency on health matters. The office previously
won $539 million from tobacco companies and $21 million from lead
paint manufacturers.

In 2018, the office also sued multiple opioid manufacturers,
distributors and dispensers, reaching settlements with all but one
company worth a combined total of $120 million. San Francisco then
prevailed at trial over the holdout, Walgreens, scooping up another
$230 million.

Mr. Chiu, a former Democratic state legislator and San Francisco
supervisor, recently walked the aisles of a Safeway supermarket in the
Excelsior District, a working-class neighborhood near the city’s
southern border.

He picked up a box of Lunchables, a “lunch combination” as the box
put it, which contained pepperoni pizza, a fruit punch-flavored Capri
Sun and a Nestle Crunch chocolate bar. Mr. Chiu struggled to pronounce
the ingredients, listed in tiny type measuring a few inches long,
which included diglycerides, xanthan gum, calcium propionate and
cellulose powder “added to prevent caking.”

“Modified food starch. Potassium sorbate,” Mr. Chiu continued,
ticking off more ingredients on the same label. “It makes me sick
that generations of kids and parents are being deceived and buying
food that’s not food.”

He sounded a lot like Robert F. Kennedy Jr., the U.S. secretary of
health and human services, who has brought his Make America Healthy
Again movement to Washington. Mr. Kennedy has railed against
ultraprocessed foods, which are typically made in labs and contain
ingredients not found in home kitchens, for contributing to chronic
diseases

Research has linked these foods to obesity, Type 2 diabetes,
cardiovascular disease, cancer and cognitive decline.

Mr. Chiu stressed that he does not agree with Mr. Kennedy on other
health topics, including vaccine skepticism. But he said that the
science is indisputable when it comes to ultraprocessed foods.

“Many of the perspectives of this administration are not backed by
science, but this is different,” Mr. Chiu said. “Even a broken
clock is right twice a day.”

In the San Francisco lawsuit, the defendants include the Coca-Cola
Company; PepsiCo; Kraft Heinz Company, which makes Lunchables and
Kool-Aid; Post Holdings, the cereal maker; and Mondelez International,
which makes Oreos and Chips Ahoy. The lawsuit also names General
Mills; Nestle USA; Kellogg; Mars Incorporated; and ConAgra Brands.

None of the companies responded to requests for comment about ongoing
government actions against ultraprocessed foods.

The Consumer Brands Association, a trade group that represents many of
them, said that the manufacturers were working to introduce products
with more protein and fiber, less sugar and no synthetic dyes. The
group added that there was no agreed-upon scientific definition of
ultraprocessed foods.

“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,” Sarah Gallo,
the group’s senior vice president of product policy, said in a
statement after the lawsuit was announced on Tuesday. “Companies
adhere to the rigorous evidence-based safety standards established by
the F.D.A. to deliver safe, affordable and convenient products that
consumers depend on every day.”

States and cities have taken on ultraprocessed foods in other ways
with regulations and legislation.

Democrats and Republicans in California, who are usually deeply
divided, passed a bill this year that defined ultraprocessed foods and
laid a foundation for banning them from schools, which Gov. Gavin
Newsom called a bipartisan win.

In 2010, San Francisco banned fast-food restaurants from giving free
toys, such as those found in McDonald’s Happy Meals. As mayor of New
York, Michael Bloomberg tried, but ultimately failed, to ban large
sodas, including Big Gulps. Numerous cities have taxed soda and other
sugary drinks, and California, Arizona and West Virginia have banned
some ultraprocessed products, including food dyes, in schools.

Processed foods have been around since the 1800s. During World War II,
they were a useful way to provide soldiers with shelf-stable food,
including canned meats and chocolate bars that did not melt. After the
war, companies realized that they could sell these kinds of products
to families by emphasizing that they would save time.

In the 1970s, the country had an excess of corn and wheat and turned
the crops into cheap ingredients, such as high-fructose corn syrup and
modified starch. Companies heavily marketed ultraprocessed foods to
children, using mascots such as Tony the Tiger and Count Chocula.

Tobacco companies, including Philip Morris and R.J. Reynolds,
diversified their holdings by purchasing major food companies in the
1980s and used the same marketing techniques they use to promote
cigarettes to sell ultraprocessed foods.

Mr. Chiu, the father of a boy in fourth grade, said it has been a
constant struggle to limit ultraprocessed foods at home. His family
lives at Candlestick Point in the city’s southeast corner, where few
healthy food options exist.

“When we’re busy, we stop off at supermarkets that are filled with
ultraprocessed foods,” Mr. Chiu said. “It’s extremely difficult
when you’re walking down the aisles and your child is tugging at
your sleeve to buy the products marketed to them.”

Winding through the aisles, he called out more products. Hot Pockets.
Go-Gurt squeezable yogurt tubes. Cheetos. His personal ultraprocessed
Kryptonite, he acknowledged, is Pringles. He found them at the end of
the cold beverage aisle, just past the White Claws and other hard
seltzers, but kept walking.

Asked after he perused the store whether he felt hungry or repulsed,
he laughed.

“A little bit of both,” he said.

A correction was made on Dec. 2, 2025: An earlier version of this
article misattributed a statement to Jocelyn Kelly, a spokeswoman for
the Consumer Brands Association. It has been removed.

When we learn of a mistake, we acknowledge it with a correction. If
you spot an error, please let us know at [email protected]
more

 

Heather Knight is a reporter in San Francisco, leading The Times’s
coverage of the Bay Area and Northern California.

 

* Ultra Processed Food
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* food
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* food companies
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* Gov. Gavin Newsom
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