As California Gov. Gavin Newsom on Wednesday signed landmark legislation to define and phase out ultra-processed foods from public school meals in the state, he and other local legislators taunted the Trump administration and federal legislators for failing to lead on food safety and nutrition.
“California has never waited for Washington or anyone else to lead on kids’ health – we’ve been out front for years, removing harmful additives and improving school nutrition,” Newsom said after signing into law the state’s bipartisan Assembly Bill 1264.
The law requires the California Department of Public Health to work with the University of California to identify “the most harmful UPFs” by June 1, 2028, after which schools would have one year to begin phasing out the “UPFs of concern.” Beginning in July 2032, vendors will no longer be allowed to offer restricted UPFs of concern to schools. Schools have an additional three years before they are formally prohibited from offering these foods.
The bill is the latest in a series of laws Newsom has signed in recent years to ban ingredients local legislators consider “dangerous.” These include the California Food Safety Act, signed in October 2023, that prohibited the sale, production or distribution in California of products including brominated vegetable oil, potassium bromate, propylparaben and Red Dye 3. A year later, Newsom signed legislation banning common dyes from food served in the state’s public schools.
Those laws became templates for other states to pursue similar restrictions – and could signal a similar path for the current law at the state level or within HHS Secretary Robert F Kennedy’s broader Make America Healthy Again movement.
“California has long been a bellwether state for public health protections,” notes the Environmental Working Group. “Now similar food actions are sweeping the country, with food chemical bills introduced, debated and in some cases enacted in states from Arizona to Vermont, including Utah, Virgina and West Virginia.”
Copycat legislation and rhetoric by Kennedy and MAHA proponents could create headaches for food manufacturers trying to navigate a patchwork of state legislation or uncertainty around the Trump administration’s preferred approach of strongarming industry into voluntary action versus a formal rulemaking with comment period.
Against this backdrop, CPG companies can protect their business by auditing ingredient lists, exploring clean reformulation paths and engaging with school buyers, experts previously advised.
UPFs latest flashpoint in increasing partisan political debate about food safety
Newsom’s signing of AB 1264 comes at a time when ultra-processed food and nutrition have become flashpoints for the Trump administration, federal legislators and regulators who are mired in political gridlock.
FDA and USDA recently requested information to formally define UPFs – setting an original deadline for comments of Sept. 23. Late last month they extended the deadline to Oct. 23, but the next steps could be further delayed depending on how long the current government shutdown extends.
These delays became fodder for political jostling by California legislators.
“While Washington, DC, is paralyzed by inaction, California is once again leading the nation with a bipartisan, commonsense, science-based approached,” said Assemblymember Jesse Gabriel, D-Encino, who introduced AB 1264.
On the social media platform X, Newsom taunted, “DC politicians can talk all day about ‘Making America Healthy Again,’ but we’ve been walking the walk on boosting nutrition and removing toxic additives and dyes for decades.”
Public trust in food safety and science is eroding
The increased politicization of food safety and nutrition science has alarmed some industry leaders and public health advocates who say they worry public trust in leadership is eroding.
A 2024 survey by the International Food Information Council found only two in five American strongly trust food, nutrition and diet science.
This mirrors results from Gallup’s longstanding annual Consumption Habits poll that found last Fall only 57% of US adults say that have a “great deal” or “fair amount” of confidence in the government to keep the food supply safe – a dramatic drop of 11 percentage points from the poll’s initial assessment in 2019.
