Big Food vs. The People
239 lawsuits. 595 years of litigation. One playbook.
As you may have guessed, this issue is all about the investigation Lighthouse Reports published two days ago.
I’ll also be speaking about the investigation at this webinar next Tuesday. Do join us.
I hope to cover the UN’s flagship annual hunger report, which came out this week, in the next issue.
On Wednesday, together with an extraordinary team of media partners across four continents and my colleagues at Lighthouse Reports, we revealed how Big Food uses legal challenges to delay, dilute, and derail laws that could improve public health.
The Team
First off, I have to thank the phenomenal journalists who made this investigation possible. I feel incredibly privileged to have worked with them.
This is a very challenging time to be a journalist, but far more so if you are holding the powerful to account. So let me say it for the umpteenth time: please support good, independent journalism.
These are the newsrooms we worked with, in alphabetical order: Agência Pública (Brazil), Cuestión Pública (Colombia), L’Espresso (Italy), Il Fatto Alimentare (Italy), Follow the Money (the Netherlands), The Guardian (the UK), Lighthouse Reports, O Joio e O Trigo (Brazil), Quinto Elemento Lab (Mexico), Santa Cruz Local (the US) and The Wire (India).
The Findings
I’m sharing these amazing data visualisations (thank you, Revisual Labs!!!) because they provide, in just five simple charts, the key global findings from the investigation.
I’d also urge you to read the individual country stories because they are all very different, eye-popping, and provide much-needed local context the global findings alone can’t capture. I’ve listed them all below under Thin’s Pickings. Just make sure there’s a translation extension in your browser.
We reached out to the companies and organisations named in the investigation with detailed questions. We heard back from very few of them, but when we did, we incorporated their responses in the stories, even though most were short and didn’t address many of our queries.
The Things We Can Do
Well, we know what we’re up against - powerful transnational companies with pockets deeper than many governments. But there are things we can do.
Read and share the investigation, and the individual country pieces. They tell very different stories about how the same playbook plays out across different legal and political systems.
Tell your government you expect it to legislate in your interest, not the food industry’s. And that you will be watching what it does when it faces legal pressure to back down.
Back the policymakers who are trying to do the right thing. Public health officials and legislators who push forward on labelling, taxes, and advertising restrictions often do so at political cost; they need to know there is public support behind them
Call out the companies. When a brand you recognise appears in a lawsuit against a public health law, say so publicly; consumer pressure and reputational risk are among the few levers that move large corporations.
Support civil society organisations doing this work. They include groups like El Poder del Consumidor (Mexico), CAJAR (Colombia), ACT (Brazil), and others who have spent years tracking these cases long before we arrived.
Support independent journalism. Investigations like this one take months and depend on newsrooms that are not beholden to the advertisers they cover.
We’ve also made publicly available our full dataset of 239 cases here, and Big Food’s pre-action letters to the UK government here.
Thin’s Pickings - Big Food vs. The People Edition
Global: The main investigation page brings together all the stories and the global figures, and The Guardian copy provides a hard-hitting overview with quotes from public health experts.
Big Food vs. The People - Lighthouse Reports
If all else fails, sue’: how ultra-processed food firms are using the courts to obstruct health rules - The Guardian
Mexico: the country with the largest number of lawsuits (193 out of 239), many of which are against the labelling regulation. The companies argued that the laws were a violation of their constitutional rights, “demonised” their products, or violated consumer rights.
Mexico, the battleground of the ultra-processed food industry - Quinto Elemento (In Spanish)
Colombia: Lawsuits mostly targeting health taxes and front-of-package labelling, almost all constitutional challenges brought by individual citizens, many of whom have links with food companies. We published this on May 27, 2026. There’s also a Spanish version of the global findings.
What’s in your kids’ lunchboxes? Too much sugar and a lucrative business for political parties - Cuestión Pública (In Spanish)
Big Food vs. the people - Cuestión Pública (In Spanish)
Brazil: In all but one of the 17 lawsuits, the plaintiffs were industry associations, whose members include some of the world’s largest food companies (Cargill, Coca-Cola, Ferrero, Kellogg’s, Mondelēz, Nestlé, PepsiCo). Some cases have dragged on for over 16 years, leaving the Brazilian Health Regulatory Agency, ANVISA, hamstrung.
The People vs. Big Food: How the food industry blocked advertising regulation in the country - Agência Pública (In Portuguese)
How the food industry blocked advertising regulation in Brazil - O Joio e O Trigo (In Portuguese)
United States: A two-parter focusing on the American Beverage Association’s aggressive legal efforts to overturn a soda tax in Santa Cruz, which it has so far failed to do, and the group’s earlier success squashing a soda tax effort in Watsonville, a neighbouring city.
A decade ago, a soda tax effort fizzled in Watsonville. Advocates blame Big Beverage. - Santa Cruz Local
How Big Soda nearly killed Measure Z in Santa Cruz - Santa Cruz Local
Europe: Across the European Union, countries have struggled to even pass taxes on sugar-sweetened beverages, because governments frequently face legal threats before legislation is adopted.
A refined strategy: how Europe’s industry lobby managed to block sugar taxes - Follow The Money
A refined strategy: how Europe’s industry lobby managed to block sugar taxes - Follow The Money (In Dutch)
Italy: Two articles looking at the Italian confectionery giant Ferrero and its lawsuits and threats in Mexico and the UK, and how the company’s influence both domestically and internationally is connected to Italy’s agroindustry.
Big Food vs. Public Health: 239 Lawsuits to Stop Labels, Taxes, and New Rules - Il Fatto Alimentare
Big Food’s Secret War: how junk food giants hold our health hostage - L’Espresso
India: The article traces the decade-long process of implementing a front-of-pack labelling law by the Indian food regulator, the FSSAI, and how, in the absence of a mandatory policy, social media influencers raising their concerns have faced lawsuits.
India Is Delaying Front-of-Pack Food Labels – and Consumers Are Paying the Price - The Wire
There are also:
A combined Latin America piece by the four media partners in Mexico, Colombia, and Brazil (here and here).
This 90-second video about the investigation from Dr. Chris van Tulleken, professor, doctor, and bestselling author of Ultra-Processed People.
Marion Nestle’s Food Politics blog also covered our project.
As always, please feel free to share this post and send tips and thoughts on bluesky @thinink.bsky.social, mastodon @ThinInk@journa.host, my LinkedIn page, twitter @thinink, or via e-mail thin@thin-ink.net.