Ultra-processed foods and cigarettes share parent companies and sales tactics
11:00 AM CDT on June 8, 2026
Any kid who grew up in the 1990s can tell you that Lunchables were a runaway hit. The slices of processed meats and cheeses were fun to cobble together into little sandwiches, and the convenient packaging made it easy for parents to toss into a lunchbox.
What you may not know is that they were developed in part by Philip Morris—yes, that Philip Morris. According to new research published in the American Journal of Public Health, the conglomerate heavily relied on their tobacco expertise in creating and marketing the popular kids’ meals. University of California, San Francisco, researcher Laura Schmidt arrived at that conclusion after studying scores of the firm’s internal documents that were made public through lawsuits pursued against the tobacco company.
So how did Big Tobacco get involved with kids’ meals?
