Texas has passed a legislation that will require food producers to place warning labels on items containing certain artificial colours and additives.
The use of more than 40 substances, including synthetic food dyes and bleached flour, on products sold in the US state will require new labels.
Signed into law by Governor Greg Abbott yesterday (22 June), the legislation gives manufacturers until 1 January 2027 to remove the ingredients or, from that date, use the warning labels.
The label must include: “WARNING: This product contains an ingredient that is not recommended for human consumption by the appropriate authority in Australia, Canada, the European Union or the United Kingdom.”
Failure to adhere to the labelling requirements could result in daily fines reaching as high as $50,000.
Key substances affected include commonly used additives such as titanium dioxide, BHT and BHA, as well as emulsifiers such as DATEM.
According to the law, the label must be “placed in a prominent and reasonably visible location” and have “sufficiently high contrast” to ensure the “warning is likely to be seen and understood by the ordinary individual”.
Just Drinks approached industry body the Consumer Brands Association for comment.
"It’s unfortunate that a bill that will drive consumer confusion and higher costs was signed into law. Mandating inaccurate warning language on safe, FDA-approved ingredients misleads consumers and studies have shown interpretive labels are ineffective," John Hewitt, SVP of state affairs at The Consumer Brands Association, said.
The new regulation comes amid growing attention on the recipes of food and drinks sold in the US since President Trump took office earlier this year.
During a Senate confirmation hearing in January for his nomination as US Secretary of Health and Human Services, Robert F. Kennedy Jr. accused the country’s food and beverage sector of “poisoning” the American population.
Kennedy, also known as RFK Jr., pledged that, if appointed, he would “scrutinise the chemical additives in our food supply.”
Addressing the Senate Committee on Finance, he claimed the food industry is the “primary culprit” behind the nation’s escalating public health crisis.
In March, West Virginia banned products with seven common additives and colours. California took similar action in 2023, banning four substances, including potassium bromate and Red Dye No. 3.
In April, the FDA announced plans to eliminate the use of petroleum-derived food dyes by the end of the following year.
As part of these efforts, the agency said it would begin the process of withdrawing approval for two synthetic colour additives – Citrus Red No. 2 and Orange B – “within the coming months.”
In January, in the last week of the Biden administration, the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) revoked its approval of Red Dye No. 3 for use in foods, dietary supplements, and ingestible medications, following research linking the additive to cancer in lab animals.
