{"id":613880,"date":"2025-12-05T13:26:17","date_gmt":"2025-12-05T13:26:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/613880\/"},"modified":"2025-12-05T13:26:17","modified_gmt":"2025-12-05T13:26:17","slug":"a-hidden-ingredient-in-popular-snacks-is-getting-new-scrutiny","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/613880\/","title":{"rendered":"A Hidden Ingredient in Popular Snacks Is Getting New Scrutiny"},"content":{"rendered":"

A new California law is forcing major brands to rethink artificial flavors and additives.<\/p>\n

California just became the first state in the country to ban ultraprocessed ingredients<\/a> from school meals, shining a new spotlight on the harmful additives in everyday food, drinks, and snacks that are linked to a myriad of concerning health issues and illnesses.<\/p>\n

Sugar-packed drinks and ultraprocessed<\/a> meats are some of the worst offenders, according to Tasha Stoiber, senior scientist at the Environmental Work Group, which sponsored the legislation, according to Cal Matters. \u201cUltraprocessed foods are also marketed heavily to kids with bright colors, artificial flavors, hyperpalatability,\u201d Stoiber said. \u201cThe hallmarks of ultraprocessed foods are a way to sell and market more product.\u201d<\/p>\n

As a result, these foods will be phased out of all K-12 school meals over the next 10 years, changing the way the state provides nearly 1 billion meals to students every year. Many of the big brands are already removing artificial colors from their products, and now the spotlight is on lab-made artificial flavorings, created to encourage overconsumption.<\/p>\n

\"DoritosPepsiCo<\/p>\n

PepsiCo just announced that its Cheetos and Doritos brands will be offering products free of artificial flavors and colorings, calling the line Simply NKD.<\/p>\n

\u201cNo color, no artificial flavors, same intensity \u2014 that\u2019s Simply NKD. Doritos and Cheetos are pioneering a snacking revolution, or a renaissance, if you will,\u201d PepsiCo chief marketing officer Hern\u00e1n Tantardini said in a statement. \u201cWe are reinventing our iconic \u2014 and most famous \u2014 brands to deliver options with the bold flavors fans know and love, now reimagined without any colors or artificial flavors.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"DoritosPepsiCo<\/p>\n

U.S. Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and other federal regulators are very focused on the food dye issue, and brands are hastening efforts to remove those ingredients before the end of 2026.6254a4d1642c605c54bf1cab17d50f1e<\/p>\n

\u201cOverall, thousands of flavor chemicals are being added to foods without FDA oversight or review of the available safety information or the concentration used. The food additive review system is broken,\u201d says David Andrews<\/a>, Senior Scientist at the EWG. \u201cWe at EWG believe food companies should make full disclosure of their ingredients and should not use vague terms like \u2018flavors\u2019 or \u2018fragrances.\u2019 People have a right to know what is in their food. We believe processed food makers should not manipulate flavors to whet people\u2019s appetites for unhealthy foods nor encourage people to overeat.\u201d<\/p>\n

The American Academy of Pediatrics has warned about the impact of additives on child health as far back as 2018, so it\u2019s high time those warnings were actually acted upon. \u201cOur first priority is to protect kids in California schools, but we also came to realize that there is huge market power here,\u201d said Assemblymember Jesse Gabriel, an Encino Democrat. \u201cThis bill could have impacts far beyond the classroom and far beyond the borders of our state.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A new California law is forcing major brands to rethink artificial flavors and additives. California just became the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":613881,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4318],"tags":[105,4434,42817,23349,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-613880","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-nutrition","8":"tag-health","9":"tag-nutrition","10":"tag-processed-foods","11":"tag-snacks","12":"tag-uk","13":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/115667193607366907","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/613880","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=613880"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/613880\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/613881"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=613880"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=613880"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=613880"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}