Arizona Schools Ban Processed Foods with Specific Additives

Arizona students head back to class at the beginning of August, and when they do, things will look a little different. Schools will no longer be allowed to serve or sell highly processed foods containing a list of banned ingredients — including at student birthday parties and holiday celebrations.

Passed last year, the Arizona Healthy Schools Act bars schools from giving students food containing potassium bromate, propylparaben, titanium dioxide, brominated vegetable oil, yellow dye 5 or 6, blue dye 1 or 2, green dye 3, or red dye 3 or 40. This is the first year when districts must comply with the law.

“It's a huge adjustment period from what we've seen,” Tyler Ross, director of child nutrition at the Phoenix Elementary School District, told ABC 15. “Even the conversations we've had among the principals, like what do we do? We have student stores; we have classroom celebrations. We have special events. How do we comply with this?”

The law, which covers food served by schools and food brought to class to share with all by parents, has prompted some districts to reformulate recipes with suppliers or eliminate offerings entirely.

Others, such as the Lake Havasu United School District, already had anti-processed food policies in place before the state law was signed last April.

Arizona Representative Leo Biasiucci has said he was inspired to sponsor the bill after a family trip to Europe, where he noticed eating rich foods such as pasta and pizza did not leave him feeling unhealthy as they might have in the U.S., which traditionally has less strict requirements about additives in foods.

He said that even the same products, such as a box of Froot Loops, had different ingredients in the U.S. than the ones he saw in Italy.

The Trump administration has pushed states and corporations alike to remove artificial additives from the food supply, with a focus on colored food dyes.

“For too long, some food producers have been feeding Americans petroleum-based chemicals without their knowledge or consent,” Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., said last year, as he was touting the campaign. “These poisonous compounds offer no nutritional benefit and pose real, measurable dangers to our children’s health and development. That era is coming to an end.”

Artificial dyes have been linked to elevated cancer risks, as well as hyperactivity and neurobehavioral issues in children.

States including Alaska, California, Delaware, Louisiana, Texas and West Virginia have passed laws regulating dyes in school food.

Corporations have responded to the White House’s call, which has largely taken the form of pushing for voluntary changes rather than outright bans of ingredients.

The makers of Doritos chips, plus M&Ms and Skittles candies, have rolled out naturally colored options.

Last June, Kraft Heinz, the maker of pantry staples including Jell-O, Kool-Aid, and its name-brand macaroni and cheese, announced it would remove chemical dyes by the end of 2027.

Observers say some companies have been slow to follow their lead, even though natural alternatives are available.

“The infrastructure is already in place, so it’s just a matter of flipping the switch on the domestic side, but many of them haven’t,” Brian Ronholm, director of food policy for Consumer Reports, told the outlet in April.

In February, the Trump administration angered critics by relaxing Food and Drug Administration rules around claiming products had no artificial dyes.

Under the new regime, companies can advertise products contain “no artificial colors” as long as they don’t use petroleum-based dyes.