GoKawiilUC study links tobacco industry's Nabisco, Kraft buyouts to rise of ultra-processed foods
UCSF professor Laura Schmidt traced how R.J. Reynolds and Philip Morris entered the food business starting with R.J. Reynolds' 1963 purchase of Hawaiian Punch, later acquiring Del Monte, Nabisco, General Foods, Kraft and 7UP. She argues these tobacco companies applied cigarette-style marketing and engineering to create hyperpalatable, chemically formulated foods now called ultra-processed foods.