According to an article on the BBC News the lawyers who took on the big US tobacco companies, and won, have now set their sights on the food industry.
Don Barrett, the lawyer intent on bring the food industry to task, says: “I’m 68 years old, frankly I don’t need the cash, the law’s been good to me,” he explains. “This is my job, but here we have an opportunity to really help people. We’re not saying the food industry is the same as the tobacco industry that kills 500,000 Americans a year, but we are saying there is an epidemic of obesity that is affecting the overall health of the American people.”
There are other major lawyers targeting the big players in the food industry. For nearly a decade lawyers have been sniping at the food industry in an effort to get them to accept some responsibility for obesity. This time Barrett’s identified mis-labelling as an angle to take and thinks he will succeed.