NCA president and CEO John Downs calls for FDA response to California product dye ban
happy family mother father and children in costumes and makeup on a celebration of Halloween in dark home
The president and CEO of the National Confectioners Association, John Downs, has called on the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to take action in the wake of a Californian ruling banning food product dyes used in Halloween treats, writes Neill Barston.
According to the senior industry figure, the move by Democratic Governor Newsom set a concerning precedent that could lead to what he described as a unworkable ‘patchwork of requirements’ across differing States of the US.
As reported in the New York Times, the latest ingredient ban on Red Dye No3 and several other connected chemicals over concerns of a link to cancer, impacts a range of products including a number of Halloween candy.
Responding, the NCA’s president has called for a robust response to ensure that the industry maintains a consistent policy in declaring products as safe to consume.
In a strongly-worded letter to the Robert Califf, Commissioner of the FDA, seen by Confectionery Production, Downs notes the urgency on responding to the ban, which also reportedly impacts a number of ingredients used within private label manufacturing.
He called for the major food body to ‘get off the sidelines’ and deliver a decisive intervention to correct what the organisation believed was case of significant misinformation. Moreover, he stressed that ensuring food safety was the number one priority of the confectionery sector.
Significantly, he noted that studies have observed that it could take over a decade for alternatives to some of the affected chemicals to be fully replaced, and comes at a time when consumers were already feeling hard-pressed by the global cost of living crisis that had pushed-up household bills significantly.
Downs said: “As you know and might agree, Governor Newsom and the California legislature, in enacting AB 418, have completely overstepped their area of expertise, telling the American people that the Biden Administration’s FDA is incapable of keeping the food supply safe by implementing a ban on certain food ingredients through legislative fiat.
“Undoubtedly, the action in California has led and will lead to similar legislative proposals in other states which could result in bans of additional food ingredients that completely decentralizes FDA’s authority and create a massive patchwork of requirements for U.S. food manufacturers.
“In this situation, we are faced with a lack of federal expertise and authority which is needed to dispel myths and consumer confusion permeating from California and correct misinformation related to the food ingredients and additives that were banned in that state,” asserted the NCA’s president, who went on to cite food toxicologist James Coughlin’s assessment of the ban as ‘unnecessary and unscientific,’ which the confectionery body agreed with.
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