Texas Gov. Greg Abbott on June 22 signed one of the most sweeping new laws battling food ingredients, not banning 44 of them outright but requiring warning labels on all food and beverage packages containing any “artificial color, food additive or other chemical ingredient banned by Canada, the European Union or the United Kingdom.”
Effective Jan. 1, 2027, the labels must be prominent and state “WARNING: This product contains artificial color or a food additive …,” or “WARNING: This product may expose you to [Name of Chemical], which is banned by [Name of Country].”
In all, 44 dyes or additives from A (acetic acid ester) to Y (yellow 5 & 6) are named in the new law. Commonly used ingredients included are azodicarbonamide (ADA), butylated hydroxyanisole (BHA), butylated hydroxytoluene (BHT), diacetyl and DATEM, potassium bromate, titanium dioxide and of course the six colors the Health & Human Services Dept. has asked food processors to remove. Even bleached flour gets called out.
The new law apparently will require food & beverage marketers to either reformulate products to avoid the warning labels or stop selling certain products in Texas. Lawsuits and federal pre-emptions also are possible.
Several other state legislatures have passed similar, though less sweeping, laws, some of them outright bans, all with effective dates in the future.
One report said Consumer Brands Assn., the food industry’s trade group, wrote Gov. Abbott suggesting a veto. “The ingredients used in the U.S. food supply are safe and have been rigorously studied following an objective science- and risk-based evaluation process. “The labeling requirements of SB 25 mandate inaccurate warning language, create legal risks for brands and drive consumer confusion and higher costs.”
The broadly bipartisan Texas Senate Bill 25 also requires a nutrition curriculum in schools and orders school districts to require students in full-day prekindergarten up to grade six to participate in moderate or vigorous daily physical activity for at least 30 minutes. All of this closely follows the May 22 Make Our Children Healthy Again report, which put the blame for chronic childhood diseases on ultraprocessed foods, chemical additives and also less exercise among kids.
Kraft Heinz and General Mills last week committed to removing synthetic colors.
The Texas law applies to food products labeled on or after Jan. 1, 2027.
