Table 1. Instrumental and discursive strategies from the PDM [88].

Discursive strategies
Expand or create potential costs
Unanticipated costs to economy and society	Exaggerating potential negative consequences of the proposed policy on the economy and (parts of) society.
Unintended costs to public health	Warning that the policy may have unintended negative consequences on public health.
Unintended benefits to undeserving groups	Arguing that the policy may result in unintended benefits to undeserving individuals or groups.
Contain or deny potential benefits
Intended public health benefits	Claiming that the proposed policy is unlikely to have the intended public health benefits.
Expected costs to industry	Downplaying potential costs to own industry (while emphasising cost to other, more deserving groups such as small businesses).
Instrumental strategies 1
Coalition management	Building or managing alliances with other companies or societal actors to establish alternative platforms for arguments. Industry participation in such coalitions primarily involves monetary contributions and may vary in transparency.
Information management	Producing and disseminating industry-favourable information while suppressing and undermining information in support of the policy. Information includes, but is not limited to, scientific evidence.
Direct involvement and influence	Access to, and representation or involvement in the policy process, including direct lobbying of policymakers.
Legal strategies 2	Legal action or the threat thereof.

¹The PDM includes a subsidiary instrumental strategy—illicit trade—which was not included in our analysis as illicit trade has not been a prevalent topic in food policy debates.

²This strategy is called “litigation” in the original PDM. We use the term “legal strategies” to more clearly include not only legal action but also threats thereof.

PDM, Policy Dystopia Model.