(This story has been updated to add new information.)
It’s in nearly every candy and fruit-flavored snack sold in traditional American grocery stores. They’re on the ingredient list of hundreds of thousands of branded foods, from Froot Loops and Trix cereal to Gatorade and Skittles. And it will soon be banned in California public schools.
Artificial food colors are the subject of a state bill cracking down on chemicals in response to a scientific study that found a possible link between them and hyperactivity in children.
California Governor Gavin Newsom on Saturday signed a “first in the nation” bill banning schools from serving food containing chemicals. Starting on December 31, 2027, when this law goes into effect, AB 2316 (California School Food Safety Act) will make six types of artificial colors (Blue 1, Blue 2, and Blue 2) in grocery store aisles prohibited from schools. is prohibited from providing. Green 3, Red 40, Yellow 5, Yellow 6.
“Today, we refuse to accept the status quo and want everyone, including schoolchildren, to enjoy nutritious, delicious food free of harmful and often addictive additives,” Newsom said in a news release Saturday. We are providing access to.”
And similar laws are being enacted in at least 10 other states. A bill introduced in the Pennsylvania state legislature in March would require the same six additives to be classified as “poisonous and deleterious substances.”
“I’m always flipping labels over. It takes me four hours to grocery shop. I don’t have to do that,” Pennsylvania state representative Natalie Michalek, who introduced the bill, told USA TODAY.
Details: Doritos dye used in ‘magic’ experiment to create transparent mice
Can food coloring cause ADHD?
California’s bill was proposed in the wake of a 2021 report from the state’s Department of Environmental Protection linking dye ingestion to “hyperactivity and other neurobehavioral problems.”
“There is strong suggestion that there is a link between the intake of these substances and changes in behavior…particularly in susceptible children, children who already have ADHD or related behaviors,” said the American University of American Studies. said Professor and Chair Asa Bradman. The Department of Public Health in Merced, California, worked on the California study. “Exposure to the dye seems to make the symptoms worse.”
American children are consuming more artificial dyes than ever before. Per capita dye use has increased more than fivefold since 1955, with more than 17 million pounds of dye certified in 2015, according to a report by the Center for Science in the Public Interest, a nonprofit research and advocacy organization. It is said that it was done. Opponents of food dyes point to a parallel increase in ADHD diagnoses, with one study finding that ADHD diagnoses had increased from 6.1% in 1997 to 10.2% 10 years later.
Bradman said some foods that contain dyes, such as ice cream and candy, can’t be eaten very often. But this chemical has also found its way into other products that children eat and drink every day, such as juices and sodas.
“The reality is that these have no nutritional or other benefits; they are purely aesthetic,” Bradman said.
In a written statement to USA TODAY, the Food and Drug Administration said it has “reviewed research on the effects of color additives on child behavior, including the literature review cited in the bill. It has been shown that there are no harmful effects on children.” Although the effects of consuming food containing color additives are unlikely, there is also evidence to suggest that certain children may be sensitive to colorants. โ
Scientists cannot say for sure that there is a proven link. Some children are more likely to be affected than others, according to Bradman and his report.
More research is needed to give a definitive answer, but “the current state of the science really does indicate that there’s probably some association or impact,” said Sara Karalunas, an associate professor in Purdue’s School of Psychological Sciences. Ta.
“The better the research, the bigger the effect,” she says, but even in well-controlled studies, the effect appears to be “very small.”
Kararunas pointed out that foods containing this dye also contain many other additives, making it difficult to determine which adverse health effects are solely due to them.
Bradman agrees that products with high amounts of food coloring are often “seen as junk food” and contain high levels of refined carbohydrates, fats and other additives. stated.
MORE: Need after-school snack ideas? The healthiest option to add to your child’s daily routine.
State legislature pursues ban on food dyes in cosmetics
Some of the bills specifically focus on Red 3, and among color additives, red dyes, including Red 40, have shown “particularly” strong associations with hyperactivity in scientific research; said Karalunas.
Red 3 has also been linked to cancer in some animal studies. In response to these concerns, the FDA banned the chemical from use in cosmetics in 1990, but residues remain in food.
Since then, advocates have launched numerous campaigns to regulate the chemical. Last year, the research nonprofit Consumer Reports sent a letter to the maker of Peeps candy asking it to stop using the dye, and when the company failed to respond, it launched a petition.
California was also the first to ban the chemical. Last year, the state enacted a law called the Skittles Ban that allows manufacturers to remove Red 3 from their recipes until 2027.
Michalek said the bill targets Red 3, among other chemicals, and called regulation of the chemical “a low-hanging fruit.”
“We’re talking about making something a nice red color, with a whole list of cancer risks and associated health risks,” she said. “That doesn’t make sense.”
More state lawmakers have introduced similar bills. In April, the Illinois Senate passed a bill banning Red 3 and three other chemical additives, which will be considered next in the state House of Representatives.
“The FDA doesn’t allow you to put this on your face for makeup, and yet kids are eating it in candy,” Illinois Sen. Steve McClure told the Senate, according to local reports. spoke.
Illinois Sen. Willie Preston, who introduced the bill, said “time is short” for lawmakers to pass the bill through a veto and a lame duck session before the end of the year.
If passed, the bill would be passed by Thanksgiving. If not, he said, “I intend to reintroduce that bill and continue to develop that product through that process to ensure we protect our food supply here in Illinois.”
Legislative efforts to limit chemicals have drawn the ire of food manufacturers and industry groups who say they are not based on science.
“The Illinois Legislature must stop acting as if it has the scientific expertise to make these critically important regulatory decisions,” the National Confectionery Association said in a news release in response to the Illinois bill. The time has come. To usurp FDA’s authority is to create a patchwork of inconsistent requirements.” It increases food costs, creates confusion over food safety, and undermines consumer confidence. โ The association did not respond to USA TODAYโs request for comment.
Lawmakers promise to reintroduce bill next year
According to the report, over the past 10 years, six food coloring-targeting bills, including Red 3 and the recent California bill, have been introduced in states such as Maryland, Missouri, New Jersey, New York, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, It has been filed in South Dakota, Washington state and West Virginia. Environmental Working Group, non-profit organization.
Some lawmakers say they will continue their efforts even if time runs out to pass the bill by the end of the year.
With only a few months left in Pennsylvania’s legislative session, Michalek doesn’t think his bill will become law before the end of the year. If he is re-elected in November, he plans to reintroduce the system next year.
โFirst and foremost, this bill raises awareness,โ she said.
Under the current regulatory framework, “consumers must stop purchasing products that contain ingredients with decades of evidence of cancer or behavioral problems,” she said.
At least one bill calling for a nationwide ban is already being considered in Congress. In June, U.S. Representative Anna Paulina Luna, who represents Florida’s 13th Congressional District, announced the Do or Dye law, which would deem all foods “unsafe.” Includes Red 40, Yellow 5, Yellow 6, and “substantially similar” additives.
“I knew it was already banned in other countries because of known health risks,” Luna told USA TODAY. She hopes that if the bill passes, producers will “just use alternatives or make it healthier and not add it at all.”
The bill is important to Luna, who wants to incorporate it into the amendments she introduces to the Farm Bill, which must pass Congress by the end of the month.
“Superficial ways to make food appealing”
Thomas Galligan, a senior researcher on food additives and supplements at the Center for Science in the Public Interest, said many advocates believe federal action is needed, but California’s move on this issue is similar to that of other states. He said he expects that this will encourage action.
The center petitioned the FDA in 2008 to ban eight approved food dyes, force manufacturers to put warning labels on products containing the chemicals, and require new testing. The agency convened a conference in 2011 to review the issue, but determined a link had not been established and recommended further investigation.
Federal regulators may force recalls of products that do not disclose dyes. Earlier this summer, two beverage products were recalled for containing undeclared amounts of Yellow 5 and Red 40.
Galligan now hopes that California’s bill will force manufacturers to replace color additives with natural substances in products sold across the country. “It’s more difficult to produce a California-specific product than it is to change an entire production line,” he says.
European regulations had a similar effect several years ago. After two British government-funded studies in 2004 and 2007 came to similar conclusions to the California study, the European Union took measures such as requiring producers to label food with some dyes. Established stricter restrictions on substances. In response, some food producers have switched to using natural colors. Nestlรฉ, for example, used annatto, made from the seeds of the achiote tree, to color the gooey center of its Butterfinger candy bars sold in Europe, according to the Dutch government.
“The food industry clearly recognizes that they are an effective marketing tool, and they are,” Galligan said. “It’s really just a superficial way to make food appealing so that we spend money on it.”
The FDA completed its last exposure assessment for six chemicals banned under California’s recent bill in 2016, the agency told USA TODAY. The FDA will hold a public meeting to “take a fresh look at the process” for evaluating chemicals in food once they are on the market.
Galligan believes new state-level legislation, including California’s bill, may have spurred the next session.
“In some ways, the state action appears to be incentivizing both industry and the FDA to act in areas where they have not acted before,” he said. โWe have situations where, even after approval, evidence of harm emerges, no action is taken for decades.โ
Cybele Mayes-Osterman is a breaking news reporter for USA Today. Email cmayesosterman@usatoday.com. X Follow her at @CybeleMO.