SALT LAKE CITY — A law that was passed in the Utah State Legislative session this year will ban certain additives from school lunches.
House Bill 402, which takes effect on May 7, bans the following items from food at public schools:
- Potassium bromate
- Propylparaben
- FD&C Blue No. 1
- FD&C Blue No. 2
- FD&C Green No. 3
- FD&C Red No. 3
- FD&C Red No. 40
- FD&C Yellow No. 5
- FD&C Yellow No. 6.
According to HB 402, schools will not be allowed to sell or serve foods that contain these additives on school grounds during the school day.
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Candace Parr, the president of the School Nutrition Association of Utah, said they’re continuously working to make school meals healthier, but House Bill 402 still leaves them with some questions.
She said each individual state defines what ultra-processed food is because it is not defined at the national level.
This, Parr said, can be hard for their vendors to get them meals under the new regulations.
“It’s going to be difficult to follow. Again, we’re not opposed to be able to make meals healthy for students. That’s what our presence is,” Parr said. “The difficulty is going to be able to find items that don’t have these.”
The bill does have exceptions.
It lets parents give students food items that include the listed additives at school and allows teachers to provide students with those foods with a parent’s permission.
It would also allow those foods in vending machines, and as a concession item at school events.
Parr said she hasn’t seen an explanation for these exceptions, and she added that there are no specific ways to monitor it.
“We do hear from parents at the district levels and charter school levels,” Parr said. “There are some parents who are very excited about the healthy meals and some who just want their student to eat. So, if it doesn’t taste good, their kid's not going to eat.”
She said they have a budget that they need to follow, and they will need to work with vendors to figure out a change.
One local Ogden parent, Vaugh Aust, said he’s happy to see the change in policy.
He said when he moved back from London to Utah, he noticed a difference in the food.
“This is just one of those things where so many additives,” Aust said. “All you have to do is look at a label of one country versus ours and all the things we put in our foods and ask why.”
