SACRAMENTO – On Wednesday, Gov. Gavin Newsom signed a first-in-the-nation law to legally define ultra-processed food, or UPF, and phase out the most harmful UPF from public school meals.
Assembly Bill 1264, introduced by Assemblymember Jesse Gabriel (D-Encino), received overwhelming bipartisan support from legislators in the Assembly and Senate. The bill was sponsored by the Environmental Working Group.
Ultra-processed food and drinks are designed to be hyperpalatable, engineered to be addictive and marketed to be profitable for their makers – all at the cost of nutritional value and health.
Scientific research links UPF to cancer, cardiovascular disease, Type 2 diabetes, metabolic disorders such as Crohn’s disease and fatty liver disease, reproductive and neurobehavioral harms and mental health issues.
The following is a statement from EWG Senior Vice President for Government Affairs Scott Faber, given during the signing ceremony. His comments have been lightly edited for length.
Foods that are high in fat, sugar and salt, foods that have ingredients that are more likely to be found in a lab than in our pantries, foods that are engineered to hijack our brain’s reward center, have no place in our schools.
This is really very simple.
Food should make our kids healthy. Food should not make our kids sick.
Processed foods are part of a healthy diet. But ultraprocessed foods, or UPF, are different from processed foods, because they combine cosmetic ingredients and additives in ways that make our food literally irresistible, not just delicious.
Two years ago, California made history when you enacted the California Food Safety Act, banning four food chemicals from all the foods sold in the state. Last year, California made history by banning synthetic colors from school foods.
Today California will make history once again by enacting a first-ever statutory definition of ultra-processed foods, and by phasing out the worst of the worst UPFs from California’s schools.
In the years since California enacted the California Food Safety Act and the California School Food Safety Act, more than 30 other states have introduced similar legislation, and six – Arizona, Louisiana, Texas, Virginia, West Virginia and Utah – have enacted similar laws.
This is what real leadership looks like. Thanks to you, kids all over the nation, not just kids in California, are being served healthier food. It’s California that’s making America healthier.
I’ve been lucky to play a small part in crafting dozens of state and federal food and farm laws, and I’ve rarely felt comfortable using the word “historic.” What is happening here today is truly historic.
Thank you, Gov. Newsom. Thank you, Assemblymember Gabriel. Thank you for making all of our kids your top priority.
