The California State Legislature has passed a bill banning the use of red dye No. 40 and five other chemicals used in foods, CNN reported.
Lawmakers emphasized that the new law is intended to protect schoolchildren from the effects of red dye No. 40, yellow dyes Nos. 5 and 6, blue dyes Nos. 1 and 2, and green dye No. 3. The bill, which is being called the California School Food Safety Act, specifically prohibits schools from offering foods or beverages containing the chemicals.
"The point of this bill is to encourage manufacturers to make minor modifications to their recipes, so that they can serve the same foods that we all love, that our kids love, but without these dangerous chemicals that harm people," Democratic assemblymember Jesse Gabriel, who introduced the bill, said, per CNN. "We have incredible confidence that they're able to do that … because they make the same products in so many countries around the world, just without the harmful chemicals."
Although all of the now-banned chemicals have previously been labeled as safe by the FDA, newer research has found potential links between them and shortened attention spans in children.
According to one such study published in the journal Environmental Health, "Together, the human clinical trials and animal toxicology literature support an association between synthetic food dyes and behavioral impacts in children."
The study added, "The current Food and Drug Administration (FDA) acceptable daily intakes are based on older studies that were not designed to assess the types of behavioral effects observed in children."
One potentially positive effect of the bill is that it could spur food companies to phase out some of their artificial ingredients, replacing them with natural alternatives to create a healthier product (for both consumers and the planet).
California previously passed the California Food Safety Act, which prohibited the sale of foods containing brominated vegetable oil, potassium bromate, propylparaben, or red dye No. 3 in the state.
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