In this week's C&EN, this news (article by Britt Erickson):
California is poised to become the first state in the US to ban four chemicals added to processed food. The state legislature passed a bill (AB 418) Sept. 12 that prohibits brominated vegetable oil, potassium bromate, propylparaben, and Red No. 3 dye in food products sold in California, effective Jan. 1, 2027. The legislation now heads to Governor Gavin Newsom, who can sign the bill into law or veto it.
The four ingredients are banned in the European Union and many countries because of concerns about their impact on human health, including cancer, reproductive issues, and behavioral and developmental effects in children.
“This bill will not ban any foods or products—it simply will require food companies to make minor modifications to their recipes and switch to the safer alternative ingredients that they already use in Europe and so many other places around the globe,” the author of the bill, Assembly member Jesse Gabriel, says in a statement.
It's not that I object to banning red no 3 in foods, but it is a bad sign that individual states are going to enact separate food and drug standards. If the FDA and CA standards disagree, then what does that mean? Most states seem to struggle with budgeting for law enforcement, public safety, schools, infrastructure, and social services. Are we really to believe that they have the resources to devote to scientific review, testing, and inspections above what the federal government has? The European union like the US counterparts is subject to pressure from industry lobbyists. It would be a mistake to assume EU standards are purer of heart and to automatically adopt their regulations. Nearly everything has the "this product contains a chemical know to the state of california to cause cancer etc" from dried nuts to clothing, and everything in between. It appears some stores automatically include the warning as a CYA while other sales catalogs while have "not for sale to CA residents" on items. An overused warning becomes ignored and ineffective. Restricting sales seems like some violation of interstate commerce. Meanwhile, CA dumps tons of chemicals into the environment to extinguish its wildfires that they allow.
ReplyDeleteFDA banned Red #3 in cosmetics decades ago. Shocked they never banned it for food products.
DeleteYes, that is odd. One would assume that anything considered toxic for external skin application would by default be considered toxic for internal ingestion.
DeleteGoogling foods with red 3, was surprised to see Dole fruit packs on the list. I was expecting mostly smaller manufacturers. Jelly Belly also was listed but every red jelly bean on their web site lists RED 40 as the color, so not sure about that.
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