MAHA-friendly bill in Texas would put warning labels on foods with any of 44 additives
Europe’s comparatively cautious approach to food additives is the envy of health secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and the Make America Healthy Again movement. A Texas bill now before Gov.…
Europe’s comparatively cautious approach to food additives is the envy of health secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and the Make America Healthy Again movement. A Texas bill now before Gov. Greg Abbott aims to help close the gap by slapping warning labels on foods that contain any of 44 additives and dyes.
Abbott has not said whether he intends to sign Senate Bill 25 into law. But if he does, it will be the first of its kind in the U.S., an experiment in using warning labels about additives, rather than nutrients like salt or fat, to shift how people eat. It will also be a new test of the food industry, which will surely seek out ways to resist it. “If they can’t block or weaken, they delay,” said Eric Crosbie, a political scientist at the University of Nevada, Reno’s School of Public Health.
Nutrition experts who spoke with STAT said that the jury is still out on how much food processing itself may drive chronic disease. Nor were they aware of research published on whether warning labels about additives specifically improved public health outcomes. But they generally applauded the intent of the bill and its status as a sign of red states’ growing interest in policies aimed at improving the quality of the foods Americans eat.
