CALIFORNIA — Takis, Doritos and Flamin’ Hot Cheetos. Mountain Dew and Jolly Ranchers, too! It’s the menu of any junk food-loving kid’s dreams, but pretty soon those foods — and more — could be banned for sale at California schools under a bill currently making its way through the Legislature.
Assembly Bill 2316 would ban elementary, middle and high schools from selling or providing foods that that contain synthetic food dyes that give many products their signature colors — blue 1, blue 2, green 3, red 40, yellow 5 and yellow 6 — along with the additive titanium dioxide.
While the ingredients are all approved by the FDA for use in everything from medicines and mouthwash to drinks and cereal, a 2021 study by the California Environmental Protection Agency found a link between the consumption of synthetic food dyes and hyperactivity and other neurobehavioral problems kids.
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RELATED: CA Bans Popular Candy, Soda And Cereal Additives (The Skittles Ban)
In the European Union and UK, foods containing three dyes targeted by the California bill — yellow dyes 5 and 6 and red 40 — are required to be labeled with a warning that the color “may have an adverse effect on activity and attention in children.”
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Titanium dioxide was banned in the EU in 2022 due to concern that the additive could damage DNA and lead to genetic mutations that lead to cancer, according to the FDA.
The ingredient, which is naturally occurring mineral, is used to make foods look brighter and whiter.
The bill was introduced by Assemblymember Jesse Gabriel, D-Encino, who said California has a duty to avoid serving kids foods that may have detrimental health effects.
“As a lawmaker, a parent and someone who struggled with ADHD, I find it unacceptable that we allow schools to serve foods with additives that are linked to cancer, hyperactivity and neurobehavioral harms,” he said in a statement.
Gabriel said the bill isn’t meant to target certain foods. “The goal here is to encourage companies to make minor modifications to products sold in California if they want their products to be sold in California public schools,” he said at a news conference Wednesday.
The dyes and additives help create the signature appearances of foods like Froot Loops, Pop Tarts and Sour Patch Kids. Gabriel said food manufactures can — and already do — tweak their ingredients to create versions that would be allowed at schools under the bill.
For example, the classic reddish-orange hue of Nacho Cheese Doritos comes from a combination of three would-be-banned dyes (yellow 5, yellow 6 and red 40). But a similar Frito Lay product, Simply Doritos Organic White Cheddar chips, contain no artificial dyes — leading to their more subdued yellow appearance.
It turns out that the state’s largest school district, Los Angeles Unified, is already in compliance with the bill. An LAUSD spokesperson told the Los Angeles Times that the district’s current policies do not allow for products with artificial colors, flavors and preservatives.
In fact, there aren’t many schools that sell the snacks targeted in the proposal, a spokesperson for the Association of California School Administrators told the Times.
Rather than changes in the cafeteria, the biggest impacts would likely be to student stores that sell items during the school day as fundraisers, the spokesperson said.
The bill has an exemption for foods sold as fundraisers at least 30 minutes after the end of the school day.
The new proposal comes after California became the first state to outlaw four other food additives linked to diseases that have been banned in other countries: brominated vegetable oil, potassium bromate, propylparaben and red 3.
Gov. Gavin Newsom signed into law the ban in October; it goes into effect in 2027.
The proposed ban on additives at schools is currently making its way through the assembly committee process and would go into effect in 2025 if it’s signed into law this year.
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