California bill to protect school children from artificial food colors, neurobehavioral side-effects
Dyes could keep peas verdant after canning and sausages pink after cooking; they could turn too-green oranges more orange and light up corner-shop candy displays. By the Second World War, synthetic dyes had become, as one grocer put it, “one of the greatest forces in the world” in the sale of foods. And the more foods the chemicals were introduced to, the more the chemicals came to define how those foods should look: the yellow of butter, the crimson of strawberry Jell-O.
Katherine J. Wu in The Atlantic
California bill would ban artificial food colors
California is attempting to remove some of the food colorings that the grocer quoted above called “'one of the greatest forces in the world' in the sale of foods" from the state's school lunch programs.
Earlier this month, as reported by Jessica Fu for The Guardian, State Assembly member Jesse Gabriel introduced AB -2316, a bill to prohibit state schools from serving meals containing chemical food colors blue 1, blue 2, green 3, red 40, yellow 5, yellow 6, and titanium dioxide.
Colors linked to serious health problems
These colors, which the FDA asserts are safe, have been studied by California's Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and found to have potential adverse effects on behavior:
Overall, our review of human studies suggests that synthetic food dyes are associated with adverse neurobehavioral effects, such as inattentiveness, hyperactivity and restlessness in sensitive children, both with and without pre-existing behavioral disorders.
Dr. Kpakpo tweeted a “The Truth About Cancer” flyer showing that the dyes have also been found to cause brain, adrenal, immune system, and other cancers in laboratory mice and rats.
Europe and the United Kingdom already have warning labels on foods containing synthetic dyes that state they “may have an adverse effect on activity and attention in children."
FDA not protecting families
Organizations such as The Environmental Working Group, which co-sponsored the bill, said the law was needed precisely because the FDA has not chosen to remove these additives from foods. Fu quoted the Working Group's vice president for government affairs, Melanie Benesh on this point:
Consumers can’t feel assured that the FDA is making sure that the chemicals that they eat every day, that they feed their family, are safe. That’s why states have had to step in.
Manufacturers disagree
Food color manufacturers have pushed back, claiming a lack of scientific evidence showing a causal relationship between additives and behavioral issues according to a statement, from which Fu quoted, put out by the International Association for Color Manufacturers:
Colors are safely used in a wide variety of consumer products, are among the most widely studied food ingredients, and are subject to strict global regulatory requirements. Parents of children who may be sensitive to food ingredients, including colors, can avoid such foods in consultation with their doctor based on existing ingredient declarations and labeling requirements.
Don't discard, replace
Gabriel, who pointed out that the dyes are “non-essential ingredients,” said that rather than expecting manufacturers to pull products from shelves, they may replace synthetic dyes with natural ones as Pepperidge Farms did for its Goldfish crackers. The company now uses “extracts from paprika, turmeric, beet, watermelon and the huito berry to color its products.”
Kraft Mac and Cheese also replaced artificial colors and dyes with natural ones. They publicized the results in this video:
Bill gives students chance to succeed
For Gabriel this is a personal mission, Fu explained, since both he and one of his children have ADHD. He stated that it makes no sense to provide children with academic support only to ruin their progress at mealtime:
“We put so much love and so much energy and a lot of the time, so much public investment into supporting [kids who have challenges],” he said, citing therapy and classroom support for students with ADHD and other behavioral challenges.
“To think that we would be doing all of this in the morning, and then feeding them food at lunch that would undo all of that good work and exacerbate their challenges just absolutely makes no sense.
“The idea here that we would protect them from those chemicals at school so that they can learn and perform at their highest level just made a lot of sense to me.”
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