Sarah Gallo, Consumer Brands vice president of product policy, was a guest on the most recent episode of Food Processing’s Food for Thought podcast, on which she discussed the uptick in state legislation targeting food and color additives.

Some highlights from the podcast include:

“In the past, we’ve been used to dealing with a handful of bills across the country — and when I say handful I mean three, four, five bills — in this legislative session alone, we’ve seen 23 bills in 12 states that are either looking to outright ban or restrict the use of food additives or color additives, many of which have been evaluated by the FDA and determined to be safe.”

“For industry, and for consumers, the hallmark of the food safety system is rooted in science. We have to follow the science around what is safe in the food supply so that when consumers walk into the store, they have confidence that what they’re giving themselves and their family is safe to eat.”

“But what we’ve seen in the passage and introduction of some of these state bills is far from that. Again, these are not bills that are being introduced because a new body of science is telling us something different about an additive — it is largely politically-driven, and regardless of the motivation of any one individual author, these are not places where science is leading the conversation. These are very advantageous political situations, particularly in California, where if you can count enough heads to have your vote passed, then that’s what’s happening here.”

“… and I think that we have to be very mindful when we’re telling consumers about that because we don’t want consumers to associate [an] advantageous political environment with the safety of our food supply.”

Listen to the full podcast here.