Law firm Douglas & London on Jan. 16 filed separate lawsuits in Florida and Louisiana alleging ultraprocessed foods from 11 of the country’s largest food & beverage companies harmed their clients.

The firm filed in U.S. District Court in the Middle District of Florida, in Ft. Myers, on behalf of 20-year-old Davina Muthusami, who alleges she developed health conditions, including Type 2 diabetes, as a result of consuming their ultraprocessed foods. She is seeking $1 billion in damages from the processors.

In U.S. Court for the Eastern District of Louisiana, an apparently identical suit was filed Jan. 16 on behalf of Shastin Jenkins, who claims she developed Type 2 diabetes as a result of eating the defendants' products.

Details of the Louisiana suit were difficult to come by. At least in the Florida case, the defendants are Coca-Cola Co., Conagra Brands, General Mills, Kellanova, Kraft Heinz Co., Mars Inc., Mondelez International, Nestle USA, PepsiCo, Post Holdings and WK Kellogg Co. – the same companies named in an unsuccessful 2024 lawsuit in Pennsylvania and in a December 2025 complaint by San Francisco’s city attorney.

The Florida complaint copies two of the key arguments in the two previous lawsuits: that UPFs are “former foods that have been fractioned into substances, chemically modified, combined with additives, and then reassembled using industrial techniques such as molding, extrusion and pressurization” and that an “ultraprocessed food industry” grew in the 1980s after tobacco companies purchased major American food companies and filled the market with products that use addictive substances in a manner similar to the addictive effects of cigarettes.