PHOENIX — Local lawmakers, health advocates and Arizona’s school’s chief joined forces on Tuesday, urging for a ban on certain ingredients in school lunches.
Arizona lawmakers in the House Education Committee heard HB 2164, a bill proposed by Representative Leo Biasiucci to ban harmful ingredients in school lunches.
Mom Ginger Smith is in support of that. She told ABC15 she’s had life-long chronic health issues and had to take matters into her own hands in figuring out the best food for her and passing that down to her kids.
“I’m excited now the conversation is open and people are finally willing to hear what's in our food,” she said.
School district nutrition officials say food at schools are pretty healthy. Jennifer Gordon, the child Nutrition Director at the Laveen Elementary School District, said they’ve been working toward healthy school lunches for years and there have been changes at the federal level to make them healthier.
“A lot has been done to increase fruit and vegetable options, all meals are made with whole grains, lower sodium and we're working on lower sugar targets. School meals are healthy. This bill just helps move it forward just a notch to ensure all meals are healthy for students,” Gordon said.
The bill sponsored by Rep. Biasiucci would eliminate several ingredients including potassium bromate, titanium dioxide and several different dyes like Yellow Dye 5 and 6, Blue Dye 1 and 2, Green Dye 3 as well as Red Dye 3 and 40.
Red Dye 3 was just banned by the FDA saying it’s been found to induce cancer in humans and animals.
“I literally believe it's because of Bobby Kennedy being in the position he's in now, the conversation has become popular,” said Rep. Biasiucci of why a bill is coming about now.
California lawmakers passed a similar measure to get rid of certain ingredients in school foods in the fall of 2024 as well. Their ban didn’t take effect right away, as they wanted to give time for manufacturers and vendors to catch up. It’s currently unclear when Arizona’s ban would take effect if the bill gets passed.
“What’s great about that is a large state like California having already implemented this, industries are already making efforts to modify their products so they’re still allowable to be served in schools,” Gordon said.
Standing alongside parents, Turning Point USA representatives, lawmakers and Arizona State Superintendent Tom Horne, celebrities such as Danica Patrick and actor Rob Schneider spoke out. Schneider even tossing out some of the junk food that were on display such as Hot Cheetos, Doritos, Pop Tarts and cereal.
“This is a bipartisan issue. If we don't get healthy, then we're not going to be able to afford roads and we're not going to be able to afford schools because everything will collapse,” Schneider said.
Horne said in talking with school districts, those ingredients that are under the proposed ban list are in 5% of foods at schools.
“We checked it. The dietitians are doing a good job but that extra 5% we need to spill,” Horne said.
Mesa Public Schools told ABC15 it created a committee to take a look at what’s being proposed in this bill and look at what they offer. However, a spokesperson told us they don’t have many of those proposed banned ingredients in their meals now.
“For our district, we’re already implementing this. A lot of districts across the state are already ahead of the game when it comes to this bill,” Gordon added, saying it would take a collaborative effort to get rid of the junk foods in vending machines or at school functions brought by the community.
