Requires warning labels on food products which contain sodium benzoate

3 Co-sponsors

• Earlene Hooper
• Inez Barron
• Adriano Espaillat

19 Multi-sponsors

• William Boyland
• Nelson Castro
• Vivian Cook
• Marcos Crespo
• Vanessa Gibson
• Aileen Gunther
• Rhoda Jacobs
• David Koon
• Alan Maisel
• Margaret Markey
• David McDonough
• Joan Millman
• N. Nick Perry
• Naomi Rivera
• Annette Robinson
• Frank Skartados
• Matthew Titone
• Louis Tobacco
• Darryl Towns

BILL NUMBER:A8706

Title of bill

An act to amend the agriculture and markets law, in relation to requiring warning labels on food products which contain sodium benzoate

Purpose or general idea of bill

Relates to requiring warning labels on food products which contain potassium benzoate.

Summary of specific provisions

Section one amends the agriculture and markets law by adding a new section 214-o to require warning labels on food products containing sodium benzoate.

The warning label shall appear in a black box and shall contain the following statement: "WARNING: The artificial food colorings and/or preservatives used to process this food product could pose a serious health hazard to children. Please use caution."

The set penalty is $1,000 per day of violation.

Section 2 makes the enactment date 120 days after it shall have become a law, provided that all rules and regulations are set in place.

Justification

The Assembly Standing Committee on Mental Health held a public hearing on the dangers to children's health caused by artificial food colorings and the preservative sodium benzoate and reviewed data from the hearing and other research.

The public hearing and the proposed ban have been prompted by a recent study that conclusively linked hyperactivity and attention span disor- ders in children to their consumption of foods containing both artifi- cial food colorings and the preservative sodium benzoate. The research sponsored by the British equivalent of the FDA and published recently found that attention deficit and hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) in chil- dren could be reduced by as much as 60% by eliminating those ingredients from their diets.

All of the data points to the need for warning labels on all food products containing such ingredients. This legislation will mandate a black box warning and places large civil penalties on food manufacturers that refuse to warn consumers on the dangers of products with these additives.

Since 1996 there has been a 35% increase in the use of prescription drugs to treat ADHD and the FDA has reported that in some elementary and middle Schools as many as 6% of all students are on such drugs. It has been more than 25 years since the FDA and the National Institute on Mental Health looked comprehensively at the impact of food additives on children's health. Today, we have 3,794 different additives used in food, 3,640 of those are used purely for cosmetic purposes, 63 are used as preservatives.

This proposed legislation would require a black box warning on all such foods and places a $10,000 civil penalty on food manufacturers which fail to place the warning label on food products sold that contain any artificial food coloring and the preservative sodium benzoate.

Food colorings are used for purely cosmetic reasons and most parents don't know they are made from coal tar and petroleum, substances no intended for human consumption.

Prior legislative history

New legislation

Fiscal implications for state and local governments

None for the state or local governments

Effective date

This act takes effect 120 days after enactment as long as all rules and regulations are set in place.