A joint investigation by public health researchers and investigative journalists has revealed that several major food manufacturers systematically funded studies designed to downplay the health risks of ultra-processed foods while lobbying against proposed labeling requirements in at least eight countries.
The Funding Network
The investigation, based on internal corporate documents obtained through freedom of information requests and whistleblower disclosures, identifies a coordinated effort spanning at least a decade. Between 2014 and 2024, six multinational food corporations funneled an estimated $340 million into academic research programs, industry-funded research institutes, and scientific conferences — with the explicit goal of shaping the scientific narrative around ultra-processed foods.
Internal communications show that corporate strategists specifically targeted studies linking ultra-processed food consumption to obesity, cardiovascular disease, type 2 diabetes, and cancer. In multiple instances, company-funded researchers were directed to emphasize methodological limitations of epidemiological studies while promoting industry-favorable frameworks that attributed health outcomes to individual lifestyle choices rather than food formulation.
Lobbying Against Labels
Simultaneously, the same companies deployed extensive lobbying campaigns against front-of-pack warning labels in Latin America, Europe, and Southeast Asia. Documents reveal that industry lobbyists provided draft regulatory language to government officials, organized astroturf consumer groups to oppose labeling mandates, and commissioned economic impact studies projecting catastrophic job losses — projections that independent analyses found to be vastly overstated.
Echoes of the Tobacco Playbook
“The parallels to the tobacco industry’s strategy are unmistakable,” said a professor of nutrition and public health policy. “Fund doubt, delay regulation, and shift responsibility to the consumer. It is the same playbook, applied to a different product category.”
The food industry has pushed back against the investigation’s framing, arguing that its funding of research is transparent and that the science on ultra-processed foods remains genuinely uncertain. Industry representatives point out that not all ultra-processed foods are nutritionally equivalent and that broad categorizations can be misleading.
Public Health Consequences
The stakes are enormous. Ultra-processed foods now account for more than 60 percent of total caloric intake in the United States, over 50 percent in the United Kingdom, and a rapidly growing share in middle-income countries. Meta-analyses of independent studies have associated high consumption of ultra-processed foods with a 29 percent increased risk of cardiovascular disease, a 20 percent increased risk of type 2 diabetes, and elevated risks of certain cancers.
Several countries have announced investigations in response to the revelations. Brazil, which pioneered the first dietary guidelines to explicitly warn against ultra-processed food consumption, has called for a formal inquiry into industry influence on food safety regulation. The European Parliament has scheduled hearings for later this year.
