Mar. 21 – Warning: This bill could make you sick (Food Labels and Prop 65)

An editorial in the Los Angeles Times discusses how food manufacturers may no longer need to meet California Prop 65 requirements on their labels:

THE HOUSE of Representatives this month passed the National Uniformity for Foods Act, a measure that would kill or cancel significant parts of 200 food-safety laws in 50 states. This ill-advised bill, supported by millions of food-industry dollars, passed without a single hearing. Now it’s in the hands of the Senate. If it passes there, among its many victims would be California’s requirement that foods containing harmful chemicals display a warning for consumers.

Those warnings are mandated by Proposition 65, enacted, as one court described it, to be “a legislative battering ram” by an overwhelming majority of voters in 1986. In passing the measure, Californians wanted to encourage manufacturers to remove dangerous substances from their products before they reached supermarket shelves.

Proposition 65’s requirement that companies either warn consumers or remove harmful chemicals works, and it remains a vital protection.

We’ll be having frequent updates on this topic, as it impacts a great many of our readers and customers.

See the full article: L.A. Times.