California Apparently Bans Skittles

[FloridaCody]

From USA Today:

California became the first state in the nation to ban the use of four food additives commonly found in thousands of products across the United States, including cereals, sodas, and candies.

Gov. Gavin Newsom on Saturday signed the law misleadingly known as the "Skittles ban," which will prohibit the manufacture, sale, or distribution of brominated vegetable oil, potassium bromate, propylparaben, and Red Dye 3. The four chemicals are used in as many as 12,000 food products across the country despite never having been approved for consumption by the Food and Drug Administration, according to the Environmental Working Group.

Advocates have long expressed concerns about the potential health problems that can be caused by eating products containing the additives, which other countries have already banned.

In a signing message, Newsom said the law is a "positive step forward" until the FDA reviews and establishes national regulations on the use of the four additives. The law takes effect in 2027 to give companies time to revise their recipes to exclude the "harmful chemicals," Newsom said.

Read the full article on USA Today

 

[Reverie]

I'm all for healthier things... but this is interesting to me. So sounds like people will go out of the state or way to get these. Interesting that they are giving this a few years to go into effect to try and give them a chance to fix their recipes. I wonder if the makers of Skittles would consider that.

 

[Empire]

I thought they were baning the Mustard Skittles...

In all seriousness, the EU has done away with such additives to their foods for years and there is simply no reason the US should be using those bad ingredients either, when you can use other less harmful ones.

 

[Dismal_Bliss]

Sometimes California leaves you scratching your head. Sometimes California does the right thing. I'm all for promoting health and banning harmful substances. There's a lot of crap that goes in our food here in the USA that other countries have banned because over here it's profits before people.

 

[Cory]

The bad thing is, that most people have no idea what's in their food or bother to know what's in their food. Banning food seems really weird when you just hear that headline, but if it's for the health of individuals then it's probably a good thing.

 

[Ken]

Good, because I never eaten them in awhile anyway.