New York, Dec 11 (EFE).- An individual in the United States has sued some dozen major companies such as Coca Cola, Pepsico, Kraft Heinz, Nestle USA and Kellogg, accusing them of marketing ultra-processed foods that are addictive to children, according to his lawyers.
The firm Morgan & Morgan reported this civil suit filed on behalf of Bryce Martínez in the Philadelphia Court of Common Pleas, and is considered the first of its kind against the food sector and follows the pattern of those raised against tobacco companies in the US.
The defendants are Kraft Heinz, Mondelez International, Post Holdings, The Coca-Cola Company, PepsiCo, General Mills, Nestle USA, Kellanova, WK Kellogg Co., Mars and ConAgra Brands, according to the text of the lawsuit.
Martinez alleged that the defendants’ actions caused him to develop type 2 diabetes and nonalcoholic fatty liver disease when he was 16 and, consequently, that he will “live the rest of his life sick, suffering, and getting sicker.”
The plaintiff asked the court for a jury trial and sought financial compensation for physical and material damages.
According to a statement from the lawyers, the lawsuit, the result of more than a year of research, includes numerous studies that demonstrate the widespread health effects of ultra-processed foods, including cancers, cardiovascular diseases, irritable bowel syndrome, dementia and adverse mental health outcomes.
It also includes information on «the strategic and intentional promotion, advertising and marketing history» of the plaintiffs that allegedly took to target children with ultra-processed foods additives.
These also included internal memos, strategic meetings and the extensive research allegedly conducted to leverage human biology and neurology to create addictive substances.
“Diseases that had been largely confined to elderly alcoholics, such as Type II Diabetes and Fatty Liver Disease, emerged in children. Although such diseases were unheard of in children 40 years ago, they are now common, and treating them constitutes a large fraction of pediatric medical practice,” said the lawsuit.
Mike Morgan, a partner at Morgan & Morgan, said in a statement that the history of ultra-processed foods was an appalling example of companies that prioritize profits over the health and safety of people who buy their products.
The 148-page text of the lawsuit included numerous data on ultra-processed foods, defined as inventions of modern industrial technology and containing little or no amount of whole foods.
“The explosion and ensuing rise in UPF (ultra processed foods) in the 1980s was accompanied by an explosion in obesity, diabetes, and other life-changing chronic illnesses,” it underlined.
The Morgan & Morgan statement claimed that studies showed that ultra-processed foods constituted more than 73 percent of the US food supply and 67 percent of the diet of American children on average.
According to the public agency Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, from 2017 to March 2020 the prevalence of obesity among American children and adolescents was 19 percent, or 14.7 million. EFE int-ar/sc
