Groundbreaking Case Seeks To Hold Food Conglomerates Accountable for Engineering a Public Health Crisis
DiCello Levitt has partnered with San Francisco City Attorney David Chiu, Andrus Anderson, and Morgan & Morgan, in a first-of-its-kind lawsuit against some of the nation’s largest manufacturers of ultra-processed foods. The lawsuit alleges that these corporations knowingly engineered and marketed addictive products with little nutritional value, flooding the country with foods they knew would make Americans sick.
The defendants include Kraft Heinz Company, Mondelez International, Post Holdings, The Coca-Cola Company, PepsiCo, General Mills, Nestlé USA, Kellogg, Mars Incorporated, and ConAgra Brands.
“These companies created a public health crisis with the engineering and marketing of ultra-processed foods,” said San Francisco City Attorney David Chiu in a press release. “They took food and made it unrecognizable and harmful to the human body. We must be clear that this is not about consumers making better choices. Recent surveys show Americans want to avoid ultra-processed foods, but we are inundated by them. These companies engineered a public health crisis, they profited handsomely, and now they need to take responsibility for the harm they have caused.”
“DiCello Levitt is proud to stand with the City of San Francisco in this groundbreaking litigation,” said DiCello Levitt Partner Diandra “Fu” Debrosse, who co-chairs the firm’s Mass Tort Litigation Practice Group and is a member of the firm’s Public Entity Group. “San Francisco is leading the way in holding corporations accountable for engineering a public health crisis that has compromised, and continues to compromise, the health of San Francisco’s children and adults.”
“This case represents a critical moment in the fight to protect public health and address one of the most important issues of our time,” said DiCello Levitt Founding Partner Adam Levitt. “For decades, these corporations have put profits ahead of people, knowingly flooding our food supply with products that harm families. We are proud to stand up against these food titans to set a precedent that will safeguard future generations.”
The lawsuit seeks to enjoin deceptive marketing practices, require corrective actions, and secure restitution and civil penalties to help offset the astronomical health care costs associated with ultra-processed food consumption. Read the San Francisco City Attorney’s press release about the historic filing online here.
Our team on the matter is led by Diandra “Fu” Debrosse and includes Adam Levitt, Alexius Miller, Elton Darby, and Omega Adams.
About DiCello Levitt
At DiCello Levitt, we’re dedicated to achieving justice for our clients through public client, class action, mass tort, antitrust, environmental, securities, financial services, business-to-business, whistleblower, personal injury, and civil and human rights litigation. Our lawyers are highly respected for their ability to litigate and win cases—whether by trial, settlement, or otherwise—for people who have suffered harm, global corporations that have sustained significant economic losses, and public clients seeking to protect their citizens’ rights and interests. Every day, we put our reputations—and our capital—on the line for our clients.
DiCello Levitt has achieved top recognition as Plaintiffs Firm of the Year and Trial Innovation Firm of the Year by the National Law Journal, in addition to its top-tier Chambers and Benchmark ratings. For more information about the firm, including recent trial victories and case resolutions, please visit www.dicellolevitt.com.
Media Contact
Caitlin Whitehurst, Director of Communications, cwhitehurst@dicellolevitt.com
