NEW Legislation Will Require Warning Labels on Foods and Drinks in Texas

New Texas state legislation will require warning labels on thousands of food and beverage items, according to The Washington Post.

Minnie lollipops

Governor Greg Abbott (R) signed sweeping legislation on June 22nd that requires labels on foods containing 44 dyes or additives that are commonly found in foods in the United States.

The new, first-of-their-kind laws will force the food industry to either reformulate its products to avoid warning labels, add the warning labels, stop selling certain products in Texas, or file lawsuits against the legislation. The warnings will primarily apply to baked goods, candy, and drinks.

Giant lollipops

“When a state as big as Texas requires a warning, that will have an impact on the entire marketplace. No question,” said Scott Faber, a senior vice president at the Environmental Working Group, a nonprofit advocating stronger food safety policies.

Sour taffy

The United States does not currently have warning labels on food products, though several other countries do. The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) released a proposal previously that would require new labels on the front of packages when a food contains high, medium, or low levels of sodium, saturated fat, and added sugars, and earlier in 2025, banned red dye 3 from US foods and drinks.

Some nutrition experts and lawmakers have called for stronger warning labels from the FDA. Stop-sign-shaped labels are used in Chile, Peru, and Mexico, for example.

Rock candy

The Texas mandate is slightly different, however. The law requires labels on more than 40 artificial colors and additives, including bleached flour, red dye 40, and yellow 5. It also requires companies to add high-contrast labels in “a prominent and reasonably visible” area stating “WARNING: This product contains an ingredient that is not recommended for human consumption by the appropriate authority in Australia, Canada, the European Union, or the United Kingdom.”

Snack Wall

The food industry lobbied against these labels, saying that the labels would be misleading.

“The ingredients used in the U.S. food supply are safe and have been rigorously studied following an objective science- and risk-based evaluation process,” the Consumer Brands Association, a food industry trade group, wrote in a June letter to Abbott urging him to veto the bill. “The labeling requirements of SB 25 mandate inaccurate warning language, create legal risks for brands and drive consumer confusion and higher costs.”

Right there in the ingredients list

The federal government still has the chance to preempt the law in some cases, like if the FDA determines an ingredient or class of ingredients is safe for human consumption.

And, while this legislation only applies to foods and beverages sold in Texas, it could have far-reaching effects for other states looking to adopt similar measures.

Even in the sugar-free snacks

As of now, this news won’t impact your Disney World or Disneyland vacations, but we’ll be on the lookout for any potential updates. Stay tuned to DFB for the latest news.

Disney Snacks That Are BANNED

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