San Francisco UPF Lawsuit #6: Knowledge
In the legal world, “knowledge” is the ultimate weapon. To win a massive public nuisance lawsuit – like the one San Francisco City Attorney David Chiu is pursuing against the Ultra-processed Food (UPF) industry – it isn’t enough to prove a product is harmful. You have to prove the industry knew it was harmful and chose to deceive the public anyway.
The Tobacco Blueprint: Fraud vs. Fact
The tobacco industry was brought to its knees by the “smoking gun”, internal memos proving they knew nicotine was addictive as early as 1963, even while their CEOs lied to Congress in 1994.
While we already have significant public evidence against UPFs – such as the Kevin Hall (NIH) studies showing they trigger a 500-calorie-a-day surplus and the well-documented “Bliss Point” engineering – a legal “smoking gun” requires more. Litigators are now looking for “Discovery”: internal documents that prove a conspiracy to lie about the addictive nature of processing, rather than just “innovating” for taste.
The Barrier: The “Causation” Problem
Proving UPF harm in court is harder than tobacco because of Specific Causation. Unlike the direct link between nicotine and lung cancer, the food industry uses a “personal responsibility” defense, citing the complexity of obesity.
| Feature | Tobacco (The Smoking Gun) | UPF (The Current Evidence) |
| Signature Disease | Primary cause of specific lung cancers. | Linked to “multifactorial” obesity (genetics, sleep, diet). |
| The “Hook” | Nicotine is a singular, addictive chemical. | “Food addiction” is still scientifically debated. |
| Industry Defense | “We didn’t know it was dangerous.” (Proven false). | “We provide labels; consumers choose what to eat.” |
Shattering the Defense: From Labels to Transparency
The food industry’s strongest shield has always been the Nutrition Facts Panel (NFP). They argue that by providing these labels, they are being transparent. But the standard NFP provides less than 1% of the information to make truly informed decisions; it is a wall of confusing data that even scientists struggle to navigate.
This Is Where WISEcode Changes the Game
The food industry can no longer hide behind “confusing information.” While a standard label provides only 15 food attributes, WISEcode’s NFP+ provides over 15,000 attributes for every product, including a clearly defined level of processing.
- No More Hiding: We lay bare the reality of over 730,000 foods.
- Point-of-Sale Power: Consumers now have immediate, universal knowledge of processing levels the moment they buy.
In the San Francisco UPF lawsuit, “knowledge” is the battlefield. With WISEcode, that knowledge is no longer a secret buried in a corporate vault, it is in the hands of the consumer. The industry can run, but it can no longer hide from true food transparency.