Over the past few weeks, several bills have been put forward to ban and/or restrict the use of certain food additives, mostly at the state level. Most of these additives have been restricted or banned in Europe for years.

Which additives are under a regulation process and where? Where does the FDA stand? What impact will this have on the industry? What impact will it have for consumers across the US? Let's deep dive and look at this.

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How many products in American supermarkets contain these additives?

According to GoCoCo's database of 550,000+ commercial products:

• Over 70,000 products include at least one of the additives under scrutiny, that's almost 13% of the products reviewed !
• Over 11,240 products already targeted by the California ban passed in 2023 are currently available on the market.

Who regulates food additives in the US?

The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) - the U.S. government agency responsible for monitoring the safety of food additives - is the governing body responsible for the regulation of food intended for human consumption.

Companies looking to incorporate new food additives into their products are required to conduct appropriate testing and obtain authorization from the FDA's expert committee before their use is approved. Certain food ingredients, including those categorized as 'generally recognized as safe' (GRAS) by scientific experts, do not require pre-market FDA approval since they have supposedly been reviewed in the past. 

One of the additives under scrutiny is Red Dye 3, commonly found in candies, snacks, and some baked goods. To see which products contain it: 👉 Check out our full Red Dye 3 food list.

Where are we on regulation ?

California banned 4 food additives last year:
🚫 Potassium Bromate (more than 618 products),
🚫 Brominated Vegetable Oil "BVO" (more than 669 products),
🚫 Propyl Paraben (more than 310 products),
🚫 Red Dye No. 3 (more than 9,749 products),
That is due to take effect in 2027, while they have been banned in the EU for years. Titanium Dioxide (14,000+ products), while initially considered, dropped out of the final list.

Illinois, Pennsylvania, New York, Missouri, Washington and South Dakota have also proposed bills to ban certain food additives. If passed, those laws are due to take effect in 2027 as well, except New York which will fast forward to 2025. Several of those proposals also include Titanium Dioxide, so it may not get off that easily after all. And California has also targeted it again in a new bill for an additional list of additives to ban in schools.

What is the current state of affairs (04/2024)?

We have tried to illustrate as simply as possible the current status quo of additives in the US, and compared to the EU. See below: 

Banned (regulation enforced) 

This mainly concerns 5 additives which have been banned in Europe already.

Must carry a warning (regulation enforced)

Some additives are not banned as such, but require a warning label. Many of these are dyes, which are known to potentially affect children's behavior and attention, hence why a number of these are targeted by California's school ban.

Coming soon: banning regulation voted but does not take effect yet

This concerns the bill passed in 2023 in California, posing a ban on 4 of the 5 most discussed additives.

Regulation in process

A number of more recent bills, currently in the legal process pipeline. Again, most of these focus on the same 5 additives, however Pennsylvania is stepping ahead looking at a much broader list. It is worth noting that over the past few weeks more and more states have been moving in this direction, we will update our list in June. Relevant links on those identified to date: California , Illinois , Pennsylvania, New York , Missouri, South Dakota, Washington.

Products under re-assessment by FDA

The FDA has been criticized for lagging behind on this topic. Admittedly, all additives cannot be constantly re-assessed, and it should be acknowledged that the FDA has widened the list of compounds to re-assess, within the available budgetary resources, which includes a number of the additives currently at play, as well as another few (PFAS, BPA, Phtalates, several metals to name a few). Very insightful overview of the regulation status and list of compounds for FDA re-assessment here.

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