Oklahoma Proposes Longest List of Food Additive Bans in the Country
Oklahoma is following the lead of at least 10 other states in proposing a ban on certain food additives. This bill has the longest list of banned food ingredients in the country.
Senate Bill 4, which would ban 21 synthetic food dyes and additives, passed through a senate committee on March 25 and now is eligible for a full senate vote. If passed there, it would have to be approved by the state house.
The original bill specified 11 ingredients for a statewide ban beginning in 2027. Most of them are found in enacted or proposed bans in states across the country: Blue dye 1 & 2, Red 3 (already to be banned at the federal level) and Red 40, Green 3, Yellow 5 & 6, plus brominated vegetable oil (already to be banned at the federal level), potassium bromate, propylparaben, and titanium dioxide.
But the committee added 10 more, many of which are not in other state bans: aspartame, azodicarbonamide (ADA), butylated hydroxyanisole (BHA), butylated hydroxytoluene (BHT), ethylene dichloride, methylene chloride, propyl gallate, sodium benzoate, sodium nitrate and trichloroethylene.
If passed and enacted by this Nov. 1, it would require food products to be reformulated without the additives by January 2027, and drug products to remove them by January 2028. It also would immediately require products made, sold or distributed in Oklahoma to display a warning label if they contain at least one of the 21 additives.
At least 10 other states have similar bills moving through their legislatures to ban some of these ingredients. California already has passed two laws: a ban on Red 3, brominated vegetable oil, potassium bromate and propylparaben from all food sales in the state on Jan. 1, 2027, and another barring six synthetic food dyes (Blue 1 & 2, Green 3, Red 40, Yellow 5 & 6) from being used in foods in the state’s public schools in 2028.
