A bill has been presented to the State Senate in Arizona that aims to prohibit the use of specific chemicals and food dyes in school lunches.
Our current understanding: The Arizona Healthy Schools Act, also known as HB2164, seeks to eliminate the presence of “ultraprocessed food” in schools participating in federally funded or assisted meal programs. Under this bill, schools will be prohibited from serving, selling, or allowing third-party vendors to sell food on their campuses that fall under the category of ultraprocessed food. This includes items such as:
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- Potassium Bromate
- Propylparaben
- Titanium dioxide
- Brominated vegetable oil
- Yellow Dye #5
- Yellow Dye #6
- Blue Dye #1
- Blue Dye #2
- Green Dye #3
- Red Dye #3
- Red Dye #40
The bill, if approved, is set to come into effect in the 2026-2027 school year.
The bill explicitly mentions that it does not prohibit a student’s parent or guardian from offering ultraprocessed food to the student on a regular school day.
“We know through studies, through large studies, that these things can affect children,” said Intracare family physician Dr. Andrew J. Caroll.
According to Dr. Carroll, certain additives can have a negative impact on children.
Dr. Carroll’s Statement: “We know that children’s activities, whether they are overly active or whether they are overly sluggish, is really directly related to what they are bringing into their bodies, so we should be making that as clean as possible,” said Dr. Carroll.
Let’s delve further into this topic: The introduction of the HB2164 bill followed the successful passage of similar legislation in California. According to the Associated Press, Governor Gavin Newsom signed a bill prohibiting the use of Red Dye #3, Brominated vegetable oil, Potassium bromate, and Propylparaben. In a signing statement, Gov. Newsom highlighted that these additives are already banned in several other countries. It is worth noting that all four chemicals are already prohibited in food products within the European Union.
HB2164 was introduced in response to the FDA’s ban on Red Dye #3. Food manufacturers are required to remove the dye from their products by January 2027, while makers of ingested drugs have until January 2028 to comply with the ban.
Arizona lawmaker said he was inspired by trip abroad
The sponsor of HB2164 attributed the inception of the bill to a trip to Italy.
“You’re eating pizza, pasta. You’re eating all the things that are bad here if you ate those every day, and I still felt great,” said State Rep. Leo Bissiucci (R-District 30) “When I was looking at the labels, I noticed in Europe they didn’t have all these additives, all these extra things that we have in our food.”
Superintendent of Public Instruction Tom Horne has expressed support for the bill.
“I think physical health is a precondition to everything else,” said Supt. Horne. “In our country, there are 10,000 elements that are allowed in our food. In Europe, it is only 400. So it’s easy if we say this is not allowed in the food for the manufacturers to substitute, because they are already doing it in Europe.”
What comes next: Lawmakers at the State Senate must pass the bill before it can reach Governor Katie Hobbs’ desk.