KIND CEO Sets Up $25 Million Food Transparency Firm

Snack company KIND CEO Daniel Lubetzky recently pledged $25 million to Feed the Truth— a new food industry watchdog group. According to Lubetzky, the group will “improve public health by making truth, transparency, and integrity the foremost values in today’s food system.” Feed the Truth’s purpose will be to uncover “undue influence in shaping nutrition policy and ability to disseminate biased science.” While Lubetzky is motivated by the recent attempts by Coca-Cola to influence researchers to spin sugar consumption in a more positive light in order to help the soda company’s bottom line, this watchdog group has broader implications. Last year, vegan medical group Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine (PCRM) filed a lawsuit against the Dietary Guidelines Committee (DGC)—a presumably unbiased group that compiles guidelines that inform Americans of nutritious dietary choices every five years. PCRM called the DGC out for being unduly influenced by egg-industry backed studies when it decided to reduce cholesterol limits in its most recent dietary guidelines. While the federal court dismissed the PCRM suit in October, Feed the Truth will serve as a future tool to fight against such illegal influence.