San Francisco Sues Big Food Over Ultra-Processed Products

San Francisco filed a landmark lawsuit against some of the world’s largest food corporations on December 02, 2025, accusing them of playing a primary role in the growing public health crisis linked to ultra-processed foods. 

The lawsuit initiated by City Attorney David Chiu, targets major companies behind everyday products such as soft drinks, packaged snacks, sugary cereals, and processed meals. 

The villains named in the litigation include: Coca-Cola, PepsiCo, Kraft Heinz Company, Nestlé USA, Kellogg's, Mondelez International (makers of Oreo), Post Holdings, General Mills, Mars Incorporated, and ConAgra Brands. 

City officials claim these corporations have spent decades engineering foods to be highly addictive, while aggressively marketing them – especially to children and vulnerable communities. 

According to the complaint, these products are not just convenient or affordable options, but are deliberately designed to maximize cravings and overconsumption. The city argues that this has contributed directly to rising rates of obesity, type 2 diabetes, heart disease, and other chronic illnesses affecting millions of people. 

San Francisco is also accusing the companies of using deceptive marketing practices, similar to tactics once used by the tobacco industry. This includes downplaying health risks, funding research that shifts blame away from their products, and promoting the idea that personal responsibility – not the food itself – is the primary cause of diet-related disease. 

As a result, the city is seeking financial compensation to help cover the massive healthcare costs associated with these conditions. Officials are also pushing for changes in how these products are marketed and potentially regulated in the future. 

Food industry representatives have pushed back against the claims, arguing that their products meet all current safety standards and that consumers have the freedom to make their own dietary choices. They also point out that the definition of “ultra-processed food” remains debated and not clearly established in law. 

The case is still in its early stages, but it could have far-reaching consequences. If successful, it may open the door for other cities and governments to take similar legal action, potentially reshaping how the global food industry operates. 

For now, the lawsuit marks a significant shift in how public health officials are approaching the role of large food corporations – raising a broader question: to what extent is modern diet a matter of personal choice, and how much of it is influenced by design?

On Sunday, there were two Scottish Premiership matches that I needed to look out for, with Rangers hosting a slick Motherwell side and Heart of Midlothian in Edinburgh derby action against Hibernian.

The Steelmen defeated the title chasers 3-2; the Jambos beat the Hibees 2-1. Meaning, Hearts still top the table and 3 points ahead of Celtic, who remain in second place. 

And we are in the final four games of the season.

WSD 2022 Global Iranian Community: Continuity

WSD 2022 Global Iranian Community had their World Speech Day event for the second year running. On March 14. 

Credit to Dr. Zahra Moharrer for hosting the event on Google Meet. We're happy to see continuity!

#unexpectedvoices #worldspeechday

The durian season is upon us and Nestle is premiumizing their ice cream range with Musang King ice cream. It is made from real Musang King (6.5%) and the 750ml tub ice cream is priced at RM25. 

In fact, I fancy it so much that I finished three tubs within this month alone! 

Like most Malaysians, we love our durians and Nestle know this! Besides, when you can’t get the real thing, this’ll do!

87 Million Cases and the Despairing Mermaid

As of today at 00:00 GMT, the world has reported more than 87 million Covid-19 cases and approaching 2 million deaths. 

A picture of a mermaid being surrounded by trash in Bali's Kuta Beach in Indonesia has gone viral.

The woman in a mermaid costume is actually Laura (left), whose Instagram name is Laura in Water Land. She's a 35-year-old ocean advocate based in Belgium and has been utilizing the power of social media to raise awareness about environmental and sustainability issues. 

In an interview with Coconuts, Laura said that the idea behind the visual was to get people’s attention to the issue of plastic waste and consumption using her mermaid stunt. 

Describing her feeling as paralyzed upon seeing the plastic waste strewn all over Kuta Beach two days ago – she said she was overwhelmed with despair over an issue that couldn’t be solved by an individual. 

Still, there are people who cared, whether local officials, residents and/or volunteers and they came out in force to clean up the beach. Truly, the community has risen up to the challenge to protect our much-abused planet. 

She had taken to Instagram to pen down her feelings saying that the plastic tide will keep on happening until polluters STOP MANUFACTURING and selling things we use for minutes that pollute the ocean and environment for centuries. 

It shouldn’t be up to communities to clean up this trash… and she identified the corporations responsible: @cocacola, @lifeatdanone, @lemineraleid, @nestle, @pepsico, @unilever, @minumvit, @mondelez_international. And others too, for sure. 

Therefore, corporations must STEP UP! Indeed, the world wants them to put the environment before greed. As she says, clean ups and recycling are not the long term solution. 

Stop making thrash and there won’t be thrash.

Japan Goes Crazy Over Kit Kat

Kit Kat is big in Japan. I would go so far as to say the country goes crazy over the confectionery product from Nestle.

From cheesecake to wasabi to purple sweet potato, the crispy wafer bar is available in hundreds of varieties, according to Yuji Takeuchi, marketing manager for Nestlé Japan. 

And it’s up to Yasumasa Takagi (right) to keep the fresh flavors coming. The classically-trained pastry chef has added over 50 to the Kit Kat canon so far. 

Takagi invited Takeuchi into his kitchen in Tokyo to see how he creates yummy new flavor profiles for customers who are always hungry for more.

 

The Kit Kat first came to Japan in 1973, but the first 100 percent, truly on-brand Japanese Kit Kat arrived at the turn of the millennium, when the marketing department of Nestlé Japan, the manufacturer of Kit Kats in the country, decided to experiment with new flavors, sweetness levels and types of packaging in an effort to increase sales. 

Strawberry! A pinkish, fruity Kit Kat would have been a gamble almost anywhere else in the world, but in Japan, strawberry-flavored sweets were established beyond the status of novelties. The strawberry Kit Kat was covered in milk chocolate tinted by the addition of a finely ground powder of dehydrated strawberry juice. It was first introduced in Hokkaido – coincidentally and serendipitously – at the start of strawberry season.

Since then, the company has released almost 400 more flavors, some of them available only in particular regions of the country, which tends to encourage a sense of rareness and collectibility. Bars flavored like Okinawan sweet potatoes, the starchy, deep purple Japanese tubers, are available in Kyushu and Okinawa. The adzuki bean-sandwich bars are associated with the city of Nagoya, where the sweet, toasted snack originated in a tea shop at the turn of the 20th century and slowly made its way to cafe menus in the area. Shizuoka, where gnarly rhizomes with heart-shaped leaves have been cultivated for centuries on the Pacific Ocean, is known for its wasabi-flavored bars. 

The most popular kind of Kit Kat in Japan is the mini – a bite-size package of two ingots – and Nestlé estimates that it sells about four million of these each day. In any given year, there are about 40 flavors available, including the core flavors – plain milk chocolate, strawberry, sake, wasabi, matcha, Tokyo Banana and a dark-chocolate variety called “sweetness for adults” – plus 20 to 30 rotating new ones. 

In case you didn’t know, the Kit Kat – first produced as a crisp, four-finger chocolate wafer bar in the 1930s, in the UK by the chocolate manufacturer Rowntree’s – was self-consciously packaged as a kind of workingman’s chocolate. Meaning, it was supposed to be plain and unpretentious. 

Today, it is so much more than that and to the Japanese, it is more than just an ordinary sweet treat!

Maggi Noodles Ban

In India, Delhi banned the sale of Maggi noodles for fifteen days after high levels of lead were found in batches tested there.

The announcement Wednesday came about two weeks after initial concerns about Maggi noodles were raised in the state of Uttar Pradesh.

 

On Thursday, the Himalayan state of Uttarakhand also banned the snack "in public interest", reports say.

 

India food minister Ram Vilas Paswan has already ordered nationwide testing of the packaged noodles.

 

Anxieties over the brand's food safety sent Nestle India's stock to plunge nearly 17% over a week.

 

Still, Maggi issued a statement this week saying that the company submitted almost 600 batches to an external laboratory and found the lead levels were well within the limits allowed by food regulations.

 

The Maggi brand is a darling among many Indians with its "two-minute noodles" catchphrase. Many look to it as a quick snack that is a departure from the traditional staple of rice, bread and lentils.

 

Given the product’s popularity, it is not surprising that the proscription is getting prominent coverage in the media and also on social media platforms. Hashtags like #Maggi, #Maggiban, #Maggiinasoup, #MaggiKeSideEffects have trended in the past few days.

 

And still others have taken to Twitter to give their "humorous take" on the ban.