California passes school food bill banning 6 chemicals linked to behavioral issues in kids

The California Legislature has passed a bill with bipartisan support banning the use of red dye No. 40 and five other chemicals in foods served at public schools.

On Thursday, the Golden State became the first in the country to pass a bill that, if signed into law, would forbid the use of the ingredients found in some popular cereals, ice creams, drinks, candy, ice pops, cheese-flavored chips, jellies and more, according to the Environmental Working Group, a nonprofit environmental health organization that cosponsored the law with Consumer Reports.

Known as the California School Food Safety Act and introduced by Democratic Assemblymember Jesse Gabriel in February, Assembly Bill 2316 prohibits a school district, county superintendent of schools or charter school with grades kindergarten through 12th from offering foods or beverages containing red dye No. 40, yellow dyes Nos. 5 and 6, blue dyes Nos. 1 and 2, and green dye No. 3.

California Governor Gavin Newsom, a Democrat, has until September 30 to sign into the law the bill that, if legalized, would be enacted on December 31, 2027.

California is home to the largest public school system in the nation, with more than 6.3 million students and 10,000 schools, Tony Thurmond, state superintendent of public instruction and bill cosponsor, said in a news briefing hosted by the EWG on August 6.

The bill stems from concerns these dyes would harm children’s ability to learn, as they have been linked to behavioral difficulties and decreased attention among children, according to a 2021 study by the California Office of Environmental Health Hazard Assessment.

The law is “important to me as a parent, it’s important to me as somebody who’s struggled with ADHD as a child, and it’s important to me as a parent of a child who is struggling with ADHD,” Gabriel said in the briefing. “We know that the synthetic food dyes that are targeted by this bill can cause harm for all kids, but we know that there is a specially pronounced impact on a lot of our young people with ADHD and other challenges.”

Gabriel and the EWG said that though “new science is available,” the US Food and Drug Administration’s current regulations of the dyes in food is based on research that’s 35 to 70 years old.

“Reassessing the safety of chemicals in food as new, relevant data become available is a priority for the FDA,” the agency said in a statement. “The FDA has reviewed the research on the effects of color additives on children’s behavior including the literature review cited by the Bill. The totality of scientific evidence shows that most children have no adverse effects when consuming foods containing color additives, but some evidence suggests that certain children may be sensitive to them.”

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