On 19th August 2026, the Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine (PCRM) filed a lawsuit against the US Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) and the US Department of Agriculture (USDA) in the United States District Court for the District of Columbia. The organisation alleges that a “Secret Panel” of food-industry insiders, handpicked by the two agencies, illegally shaped the recommendations in the 2025-2030 Dietary Guidelines for Americans.
The Guidelines, released on 7th January 2026, favour fats, meat, and dairy products, a shift PCRM says stunned many health experts. Their “scientific foundation” was, according to the lawsuit, hastily assembled by consultants with financial ties to the meat, dairy, and low-carbohydrate diet industries.
Under the Federal Advisory Committee Act (FACA), HHS and USDA are required to establish a Dietary Guidelines Advisory Committee (DGAC) ahead of each five-yearly edition. In December 2024, following a two-year public process, the DGAC’s 20 independent nutrition experts recommended that Americans eat more plant-based meals, prioritise beans and other plant proteins over animal protein, and choose water over milk as their main drink. Instead of adopting these findings, HHS and USDA replaced them with the conclusions of a hastily convened panel of industry insiders, without any public oversight, according to the lawsuit. Eight of the panel’s nine members reportedly had conflicts of interest, including links to the National Cattlemen’s Beef Association, the National Dairy Council, the American Egg Board, the National Pork Board, and the low-carbohydrate diet industry. The panel is said to have produced its 508-page report in just three months, and its membership was only disclosed on the day the Guidelines were published.
Neal D. Barnard, MD, President of the Physicians Committee, said, “The government allowed the meat and dairy industries to ghostwrite the Dietary Guidelines. They put money in industry’s pocket and cholesterol in Americans’ arteries…Industry-influenced Dietary Guidelines destroy any semblance of healthfulness in federal food programs like the National School Lunch Program, WIC, and SNAP.”
The lawsuit asks the court to order HHS and USDA to withdraw the Guidelines and to bar their use in future agency decisions until new ones are produced in compliance with FACA. PCRM previously sued over the 2000 edition, when a federal court found that the government had breached FACA and the Freedom of Information Act, and has also challenged the 2010, 2015, and 2020 Guidelines.
