The Senate of West Virginia voted 31-2 for the approval of a law on the sale of food with a list of artificial dyes on Wednesday, March 5, 2025, in Charleston, W.VA. (Will Price | West Virginia legislative photography)
The Senate overwhelmed a legislative template that prohibited synthetic dyes in food after the Republican legislature emphasized that it would make food healthier for West Virginians, which have some of the worst health results.
The measure, House bill 2354The house would ban the sale of a food product with certain types of yellow, blue, green and red dyes, including red No. 40 that lend sweets with cherry red fern.
West Virginia is the country’s first state in the country that consists of a comprehensive ban on food colors. 11 other states consider similar laws.
Bill supporters, including Senator Laura Wakim Chapman, R-OHIO, say that the dyes are poisonous and unnecessary, while the opponents of the measure, including food companies, argue that the food and drug authority should regulate food-not the state legislators.
“This is probably the most important legislative template that we will vote here in our entire career,” said Chapman before coordination on the measure in the Senate. “This will be the beginning of making our state and our children healthier.”
Chapman quoted the high obesity rate in West Virginia and a lack of grocery stores as a reason to support the invoice and explained that food would be made available to families and children. The sponsor of Bill, del. Adam Burkhammer, R-Lewis, has associated the artificial dyes with hyperactivity and behavioral problems in children.
“No more toxic colors, no longer position us or our children. Our health is not for sale, ”said Chapman.
The Senate was right 31-2 To approve the bill after it was changed in 2028. The version of the house contained a date of the entry into force of 2027, and the members of the house must accept the change of the Senate to the legislation before it can go to the governor’s signatures.
Senator Jack Woodrum, R-Summer, and Senator Eric Tarr, R-Putnam, voted against the bill.
Tarr said that there is not enough evidence, including a lack of FDA studies that show that the dyes were unsure. In addition, he believed that the measure determined a destitute precedent for the state, which asked the food manufacturers to work differently than in other countries.
“I think that gives a terrible tone when you get into a stable regulatory business environment in West Virginia,” he said. “The fact that we would come in here and say food manufacturers here that they now have to have less competitiveness in order to produce food here compared to another state is a bad practice.”
The National Confectioners Association said that food safety was a top priority that would make the requirements of the legislative template food. “Significantly more expensive and much less accessible and less accessible to people in West Virginia in the current environment.“”
“There is a role for legislators and civil servants of public health to play about food additives on an ongoing conversation, but – as we have been saying for years – the FDA is the lawful national supervisory authority Decision -makers and heads in food safety, ”said the group in a statement.
Eleven other states have proposed laws to ban various food dyes, and California has already banned Synthetic dyes in school food. The federal government Recently prohibited Red dye No. 3 in food and drinks that will be effective in 2027.
Senator Jason Barrett, R-Berkeley, who sponsored a law Prohibit artificial food dyes in school foodsaid that the FDA has not re -evaluated the chemicals used in food dyes for decades.
“Opponents said that there will be no food on the shelves on our shelves. This is bullying and fear tactics. That’s wrong, ”he said. “Aldi, for example, does not use synthetic dyes in any of their food.”
Barrett continued: “There are bright red states like West Virginia who are fed up with the fact that the federal government does not blame companies for the toxic chemicals that they allow in our food supply.”
