A bipartisan group of California lawmakers who want to make California the first state to remove ultra-processed foods from school meals introduced legislation March 19 to phase out the “particularly harmful” fare within seven years.
“Our public school should not be serving students ultra-processed food products filled with chemical additives that can harm their physical and mental health and interfere with their ability to learn,” Gabriel said in a press release Wednesday. “This new legislation will ensure that schools are serving our students the healthy, nutritious meals they need and deserve.”
The bill is coauthored by a diverse group of legislators, including Assembly Republican Leader James Gallagher (R-East Nicolaus) and Progressive Caucus Chair Alex Lee (D-San Jose).
The Environmental Working Group, a nonprofit focused on public health, has cosponsored the legislation and applauded Gabriel for “making the health of California’s kids his top priority.”
According to the National Institutes of Health (NIH), research has suggested that ultra-processed foods—such as frozen pizza, potato chips, breakfast cereals, ready-to-eat meals, and sugary drinks—may be directly linked to weight gain in children and adults.
The foods contain ingredients rarely found in home cooking, such as high-fructose corn syrup, flavoring, and emulsifiers, according to the NIH.
Processed food can be part of a healthy diet, but Americans are eating too many ultra-processed foods, leading to higher rates of cancer, cardiovascular disease, and diabetes, according to Scott Faber, the group’s senior vice president for government affairs.
“By identifying and phasing out the most harmful [ultra-processed foods] from California’s school food, AB 1264 will send the right signal to the companies selling food to our schools,” Faber said in a statement to The Epoch Times.
The state’s public health department was asked to provide Newsom with recommendations by April 1.
“The food we eat shouldn’t make us sick with disease or lead to lifelong consequences,” Newsom said in January.
Wednesday’s proposed bill would establish a definition for ultra-processed foods.
The bill would also direct the state’s Office of Environmental Health Hazard Assessment to cooperate with experts from the University of California to identify a subcategory of “particularly harmful” ultra-processed foods that should be phased out of school meals by 2032.
State scientists would be charged with determining whether a product qualifies as “particularly harmful based on if it includes additives that are banned, restricted, or subject to warnings in other jurisdictions.”
Researchers would also look at whether the product or ingredients are linked to cancer, heart disease, metabolic disease, developmental harms, reproductive harms, obesity, type 2 diabetes, or other health issues.
They would also consider whether the product contributes to food addiction, or is high in fat, sugar, or salt, according to Gabriel.
Ultra-processed foods are engineered to be addictive, making them difficult to stop eating, according to Dr. Ashley Gearhardt, a professor of psychology at the University of Michigan.
“Ultra-processed foods aren’t just unhealthy—they’re engineered for overconsumption,” Gearhardt said in a statement Wednesday. “Like addictive substances, they hijack the brain’s reward system, making it difficult for people to cut back, even when facing serious health consequences.”
People in the United States get about 58 percent of their daily calories from ultra-processed foods, researchers found.
The schools serve about 1 billion meals each school year, according to Assemblyman Gabriel.
