May 12, 2015
John T. Cahill
Chair and CEO
Kraft Foods Group, Inc.
Three Lakes Drive
Northfield, IL 60093-2753
Via e-mail: john.cahill@kraftfoods.com
Dear Mr. Cahill,
Thank you in advance for your time. On behalf of People for the Ethical
Treatment of Animals (PETA) and our more than 3 million members and
supporters worldwide, I'm writing to ask Kraft Foods Group to join other
industry leaders in implementing a policy that prohibits conducting,
funding, and commissioning experiments on animals.
PETA was troubled to discover articles reporting that Kraft conducted and/or
funded experiments on pregnant mice who were fed an experimental
sweetener (arruva) and then killed1; mice who were given high doses of
caffeine before their brains were removed2; and mice who were force-fed
human fecal samples before they were killed so their bowels could be
dissected.3
Given the size of your company, we can imagine that you were probably not
aware of these cruel and archaic experiments. PETA is concerned that such
experiments have continued despite the availability and superiority of nonanimal research methods and the absence of a legal mandate in the United
States requiring testing on animals to verify health claims. We are confident
that your customers—including many PETA supporters—would be surprised
and troubled to learn this as well. We have worked with other major
companies in your sector and others to end experiments on animals in favor of
humane, human-relevant, and cost-effective animal-free methods, including in
vitro, computational, clinical, and other modern technologies.
We hope that Kraft will begin discussions with PETA and join The CocaCola Company, Lipton, POM Wonderful LLC, Welch's, Ocean Spray, and
other progressive companies that have established policies against funding,
conducting, or commissioning experiments on animals.

1

Brathwaite, W.A. et al. 2013. A dietary embryo/fetal developmental toxicity study of arruva, an
R,R-monatin salt isomer, in Crl:CD(SD) rats. Food and Chemical Toxicology 62: 68-75.
2
Chu, Y-F., et al. 2012. Crude caffeine reduces memory impairment and amyloid β1–42 levels in
an Alzheimer’s mouse model. Food Chemistry 135: 2095-2102.
3
Ridaura, V. et al. 2013. Gut microbiota from twins discordant for obesity modulate metabolism
in mice. Science, 341:10.

 May I please hear from you on this important matter? I can be contacted at 646344-0205 or MichaelN@peta.org
Sincerely,
Michael Niebo
Research Associate
Laboratory Investigations Department
People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals
501 Front St.
Norfolk, VA 23510
cc:

Charles W. Davis, EVP Research, Development, Quality, and Innovation