California Lawmaker Advances Multiple Bills Restricting Additives in Food
A California assembly member has sponsored legislation limiting certain food additives and dyes and defining ultra-processed foods. The measures also bar those foods from school meals. Federal regulators later acted on several of the same additives.
nationalpost.comA California assembly member has sponsored three state laws targeting ingredients in ultra-processed foods over the past three years. The first measure, enacted in 2023, prohibits four additives linked by researchers to cancer and reproductive problems. The Food and Drug Administration later restricted the same four substances nationwide.
Additional measures A second law bans six artificial food dyes from products sold in the state. A third measure creates the first statutory definition of ultra-processed food in the United States and removes those items from school meal programs. The assembly member said the issue was not initially on his legislative agenda.
Staff later gave him a novelty pillow shaped like a bag of Skittles as an inside joke after opponents labeled one bill the "Skittles ban," though the candy remains available. The assembly member was first elected in 2018 and began focusing on food policy more recently.
" The laws affect food manufacturers selling products in California and set a precedent that other states have begun to examine.
