The following is January 14 testimony from Scott Faber, the Environmental Working Group’s senior vice president for government affairs, to the Virginia Legislature’s K-12 Education Subcommittee on H.B. 1910, a bill to ban synthetic dyes from food served in schools:
Thank you. My name is Scott Faber, and I’m with the Environmental Working Group. I also teach food law at Georgetown University Law Center. Before joining EWG, I worked for the Grocery Manufacturers Association, the food industry’s trade association.
I’d like to make five points.
One, the overwhelming evidence shows that these dyes are making it harder for some of our kids to learn by making microscopic changes to their brains and by changing how their brains transmit signals.
Two, the [Food and Drug Administration (FDA)] has not thoroughly reviewed these dyes since the 1960s, 1970s, and 1980s, long before studies could detect their effects on behavior and our kids’ brains.
Three, we conducted an analysis for California legislators, and found that banning these colors will have no impact on our school food professionals. Only 3 percent of the foods sold “on the tray,” and only 2 percent of foods sold a la carte have these colors.
Finally, the FDA has no plans to reconsider the safety of these chemicals and is not required to do so. In fact, 99 percent of new food chemicals are reviewed by the chemical companies for safety, not the FDA.
Five, industry can quickly change the few products which use these dyes to comply with H.B. 1910. How do we know? They have already done so in other nations.
Industry will tell you these dyes have been reviewed by the FDA and that banning foods from schools with these dyes will increase costs. As someone who once represented these companies, I know that these claims are false.
Please, let’s do what our scientists, not the food and chemical companies, say is best for our kids and end the use of these toxic chemicals in food offered at school.
