A bill sitting on the desk of Texas Gov. Greg Abbott could force the food industry to digest the Make America Healthy Again movement.
Texas Senate Bill 25 would require foods containing certain ingredients to have warning labels on their packaging.
Some chips, candies and sodas would be required to bear the following label: “WARNING: This product contains an ingredient that is not recommended for human consumption.”
There are 44 ingredients listed, such as synthetic food dyes and bleached flour.
M&M’s would need the labeling in question, as they contain red 40, yellow 6 and blue dyes 1 and 2.
Trix cereal contains blue 1 and red 40, while Doritos chips have red 40 and yellow 6 and 5.
If signed into law, the legislation would require the label to be “placed in a prominent and reasonably visible location,” the bill states.
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The bill states that the ingredients that should be disclosed are “any artificial color, food additive or other chemical ingredient banned by Canada, the European Union or the United Kingdom.”
Analysis behind the legislation found that 73% of the U.S. food supply is considered ultra-processed, with Americans’ diet consisting of a 57% consumption of ultra-processed foods – “shown to be linked to depression, obesity, Type 2 diabetes, cancer and cardiovascular disease.”
In January, the FDA banned red dye 3, listed in the bill, from foods after being linked to cancer, as Fox News Digital previously reported.
The Consumer Brands Association (CBA), which represents major food manufacturers such as General Mills and PepsiCo, are “urging” Abbott to veto the bill.
“The labeling requirements of SB 25 mandate inaccurate warning language, create legal risks for brands and drive consumer confusion and higher costs,” John Hewitt, senior vice president of state affairs, told Fox News Digital this week.
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“The industry is committed to transparency and has long invested in product transparency tools that help consumers to make informed choices for themselves and their families,” Hewitt said.
He added, “No industry is more committed to safety than the makers of America’s trusted household brands. 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.”
In April, Fox News Digital asked U.S. Health and Human Resources Secretary Robert F. Kennedy about how Americans will be able to identify products that comply with the phase-out of petroleum-based dyes.
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“We’re looking at labeling. We have to go to Congress for that — but one of the things that we’re going to do is post all the information we have about every additive on an open-source website,” he said.
“And we’re going to encourage companies … to develop apps in the private marketplace where mothers can go in and scan a barcode of every product in their grocery store and know what’s in them and what’s not.”
If signed by Abbott, food manufacturers would be required to add a label starting on Jan. 1, 2027.
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