A bill banning additives used in popular candies and processed foods was signed into law in California by Governor Gavin Newsom on Saturday.
The ban would affect certain candies such as Peeps, Hot Tamales and Dubble Bubble Twist gum, as well as thousands of other food products.
AB 418, authored by Assemblyman Jesse Gabriel (D-Encino), prohibits the manufacture, sale and distribution of foods containing Red Dye No. 3, potassium bromate, brominated vegetable oil or propyl paraben. Officials hailed the bill as the “first of its kind” in the US.
Gabriel’s office said the bill would not force any products off the shelves, but would simply require manufacturers to adjust their formulas.
“The use of the banned chemicals has already been banned in the 27 countries of the European Union (EU) and many other countries because of scientific research linking them to significant health harms, including cancer, reproductive problems and behavioural and developmental problems in children,” Gabriel said.
Many major brands and manufacturers – including Coke, Pepsi, Gatorade and Panera – have voluntarily stopped using the additives banned under AB 418, known as the California Food Safety Act, because of concerns about their impact on human health, Gabriel’s office said.
In 1990, the FDA banned red dye No. 3 from cosmetics after it was linked to cancer in animals. Gabriel saw this as clear evidence that the agency had been too slow to act.
“The FDA looked at red dye no. 3, looked at the research and the science and said, ‘This is a carcinogen. But 33 years later, it’s still in our food supply, and it just blows your mind.”
The National Confectioners Association, which represents dozens of confectioners and chocolatiers, condemned the new law, saying, “It replaces a single national food safety system with a patchwork of inconsistent state requirements created by legislative fiat that will increase food costs. This is a slippery slope that the FDA could prevent by engaging on this important issue”.
The law, the NCA insists, treads on territory that should be managed by the federal government, not the states.
“They are making decisions based on sound bites rather than science. Governor Newsom’s approval of this bill will undermine consumer confidence and create confusion about food safety,” the trade group said.
The ban won’t be implemented until 2027 to give food companies time to negotiate new contracts and make the necessary recipe changes.
Gabriel said there was enough support to advance the bill as originally drafted, but a fifth chemical, titanium dioxide, was dropped in an effort to gain broader bipartisan support.
Titanium dioxide is a colour additive that makes products more “visually appealing” and helps prevent pigment from losing its luster over time. However, the exclusion of the ingredient from the bill means that Skittles and other candies that use the chemical won’t have to make any changes or recipe adjustments to comply with the California law.
“Things like this aren’t partisan. They’re common sense,” said former governor and sports and fitness icon Arnold Schwarzenegger, who endorsed AB 418 in his daily Pump Club newsletter. “I’m a small government guy. But I’ve also seen that in a world where every big industry has an army of lobbyists and our kids have no one to fight for them, sometimes government has to step in.”
“The Governor’s signature today is a huge step forward in our efforts to protect California’s children and families from dangerous and toxic chemicals in our food supply,” said Assemblymember Jesse Gabriel. “It is unacceptable that the U.S. lags so far behind the rest of the world when it comes to food safety.”
