US tobacco companies selectively disseminated hyper-palatable foods into the US food system: Empirical evidence and current implications
- PMID: 37682074
- DOI: 10.1111/add.16332
US tobacco companies selectively disseminated hyper-palatable foods into the US food system: Empirical evidence and current implications
Abstract
Background and aims: US tobacco companies owned leading US food companies from 1980 to 2001. We measured whether hyper-palatable foods (HPF) were disproportionately developed in tobacco-owned food companies, resulting in substantial tobacco-related influence on the US food system.
Design: The study involved a review of primary industry documents to identify food brands that were tobacco company-owned. Data sets from the US Department of Agriculture were integrated to facilitate longitudinal analyses estimating the degree to which foods were formulated to be hyper-palatable, based on tobacco ownership.
Setting and cases: United States Department of Agriculture data sets were used to identify HPF foods that were (n = 105) and were not (n = 587) owned by US tobacco companies from 1988 to 2001.
Measurements: A standardized definition from Fazzino et al. (2019) was used to identify HPF. HPF items were identified overall and by HPF group: fat and sodium HPF, fat and sugar HPF and carbohydrates and sodium HPF.
Findings: Tobacco-owned foods were 29% more likely to be classified as fat and sodium HPF and 80% more likely to be classified as carbohydrate and sodium HPF than foods that were not tobacco-owned between 1988 and 2001 (P-values = 0.005-0.009). The availability of fat and sodium HPF (> 57%) and carbohydrate and sodium HPF (> 17%) was high in 2018 regardless of prior tobacco-ownership status, suggesting widespread saturation into the food system.
Conclusions: Tobacco companies appear to have selectively disseminated hyper-palatable foods into the US food system between 1988 and 2001.
Keywords: Addictive food; fat; food environment; formulation; policy regulation; sodium.
© 2023 Society for the Study of Addiction.
Comment in
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Commentary on Fazzino et al.: Proof for why we need cross-industry approaches to research on the commercial determinants of health.Addiction. 2024 Jan;119(1):72-73. doi: 10.1111/add.16378. Epub 2023 Oct 31. Addiction. 2024. PMID: 37908182 No abstract available.
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