Lifestyle Sports: Latest from Food Politics: Lawsuit #3: banning food dyes in Texas

By Marion Nestle

March 19 2026

Lawsuit #3: banning food dyes in Texas

Here’s the chronology:

In June, Texas passed the “Make Texas Healthy Again” bill which required food companies to put warning labels on products containing any of 44 ingredients such as artificial additives, dyes, and chemicals. As I wrote at the time, the label would have to say:

WARNING: This product contains an ingredient that is not recommended for human consumption by the appropriate authority in Australia, Canada, the European Union, or the United Kingdom.

In December, the American Beverage Association, joined by other food industry groups, sued Texas over this.

In February, a federal district court issued an injunction on First Amendment grounds.

Also in February, Texas issued a final rule on the labeling law. But this says that “ingredients considered generally recognized as safe or determined to be safe by the FDA or USDA are not subject to the rule requirements.”

Oops. I’m pretty sure that most of those 44 ingredients are considered GRAS by the FDA.

It will be interesting to watch what the courts decide on this one too.

Interesting times we live in.

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