Physicians group sues USDA and HHS over Dietary Guidelines for Americans

News & Analysis on Food & Beverage Development & Technology

21-Aug-2026 Last updated on 21-Aug-2026 at 20:32 GMT

The Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine (PCRM) is suing the USDA and HHS, accusing the two government agencies of handpicking a “secret panel” of industry insiders, who then illegally influenced the 2025-2030 Dietary Guidelines for Americans (DGA).

The lawsuit filed on Aug. 19 in the US District Court for the District of Columbia argues that USDA and HHS unlawfully disregarded requirements under the Federal Advisory Committee Act (FACA), which mandates a transparent process for establishing the Dietary Guidelines Advisory Committee (DGAC), a panel that issues an advisory report on the guidelines.

PCRM has argued that the report was illegally altered by industry insiders. One day after the Jan. 7 release, the organization, which represents about 17,000 doctor members, filed a petition with the Office of Inspector General of both the USDA and HHS to have the guidelines recalled.

Neither the HHS nor USDA responded to requests for comment on the lawsuit.

Similar to the petition, the lawsuit argues that HHS and USDA handpicked a secret panel with no notice to the public. The new panel then recommended alterations to the guidelines due to dissatisfaction with original DGAC’s recommendations, which had “purportedly ‘framed its analysis through a health equity lens.’”

“After a lengthy and transparent public process, including nearly two years of open hearings and thousands of public comments, the DGAC’s 20 independent nutrition experts issued the DGAC’s findings in the Scientific Report of the 2025 Dietary Guidelines Advisory Committee,” according to the lawsuit. “But instead of issuing Dietary Guidelines on an internal review of the DGAC Report as had been the longstanding practice, defendants, without any oversight or public input, hastily assembled a handpicked panel of meat, dairy and fad diet industry insiders (“secret panel”) for the purpose of attacking the FACA-compliant DGAC Report.”

The “secret panel’s” report placed an unexpected emphasis on fats, meat and dairy products, according to PCRM.