Food and drink industry sought to influence scientists and academics, emails show

Documents obtained from US public records provide fresh evidence of how food and drink companies have sought to promote their interests through a powerful group funded by the industry, researchers say.

US Right to Know, which campaigns for transparency in the food industry, sought emails and documents through the US Freedom of Information Act covering communications between academic researchers and the International Life Sciences Institute (ILSI), whose funders include Coca-Cola and other global corporations.

A paper summarising the contents of the documents, published in the journal Public Health Nutrition,1 shows what …