Senate Moves Bill To Ban Certain Food Dyes In Schools

Updated on Thursday, Feb. 27, 2025 at 6:15 p.m.

West Virginia schools may soon be barred from serving food containing certain food dyes if lawmakers approve a new bill.

On Thursday afternoon, the Senate Health and Human Resources Committee heard testimony on legislation to ban several different food additives from school nutritional programs.

In what lawmakers are calling the West Virginia Feed to Achieve Act, Senate Bill 545 would deem seven food dyes unsafe and ban them as an ingredient in school nutritional programs. Those include different forms of red, yellow, blue and green dyes.

Parents and subject matter experts told lawmakers that they believe synthetic dyes have had negative impacts on their children’s behavior, health and well-being.

Whitney Cawood, an advocate from Georgia, shared her family’s experience with the Senate Committee over a video call.

“Between the ages of one and three, he suddenly began to struggle with aggression and impulse control. Desperate for answers, we tried everything. But, in the end, it was removing synthetic dyes that made the difference — something doctors and therapy visits couldn’t do,” Cawood said. “The child that once struggled with biting, tackling outbursts became a calm, focused and emotionally regulated child within 48 hours after moving synthetic dyes. We were shocked, because something so small as synthetic dyes in his daily allergy medicine, or the occasional treat, was causing such a dramatic impact on his well being.”

After discovering her son’s sensitivity, Cawood said she started a Facebook group to connect with others who may have had similar experiences.

“In just two years, 827,000 members joined, sharing thousands of eerily similar or even more severe experiences with synthetic diets,” Cawood said.

Witnesses also expressed their distrust of the Food and Drug Administration’s (FDA) evaluation of these additives.

Lisa Lefferts is a self-described science consultant, who said she was testifying on her own behalf. Previously, Lefferts was a senior scientist at the Independent Center for Science in the Public Interest and served on the FDA’s Food Advisory Committee in 2011.

“Dyes can cause or worsen hyperactivity, inattention, sleeplessness and restlessness,” Lefferts said. “The last thing children in schools need.”

Proponents of banning food dyes argued that other countries have recognized the possible side effects of these additives — taking steps to remove them from grocery stores and use natural ingredients to color their food — while the United States has continued to offer consumers versions containing food dyes with the FDA’s approval.

“These are serious effects that can have long-term consequences, and they are completely unnecessary,” Leffert said. “We know that dyes are unnecessary because many companies have reformulated their products and are instead using naturally derived colors like grape skin extract.”

Andrew Pence has been the director of child nutrition at Fayette County Schools for five years. Before that, he worked in the Office of Child Nutrition at the state’s Department of Education for more than eight years.

“My experience with food dyes and school food has centered around receiving special dietary needs forms from doctors that list dyes that impact children, usually with ADD, ADHD or autism spectrum disorder of dye exacerbating their symptoms,” Pence said.

There were no witnesses or lawmakers who expressed disapproval of the legislation.

Members of the committee sent the bill to the Senate floor via voice vote with no “nays” appearing to be heard.

**Editor’s Note: This story was updated to clarify the language of the committee’s vote.