The California Food Safety Act, AB 418, prohibits companies from adding to food four chemicals that are linked to cancer, reproductive harm, and other serious adverse health effects.
AB 899 mandates that baby food manufacturers who sell or distribute their products in California routinely test their products for lead, arsenic, cadmium, and mercury—toxic elements that cause permanent brain damage, cancer, and other serious harm—and make the results of those tests available to the state and the public.
This guide is a resource for school food leaders and manufacturers alike who are committed to improving the overall quality, nutritional value, and safety of food provided to all students in every school. It highlights unwanted ingredients to eliminate, and those to watch out for as new food products are developed and others are modified.
This document is a science-based tool created primarily by school nutrition professionals, for school nutrition professionals, in partnership with CSPI.
Titanium dioxide (TiO2) is a color additive currently approved for use in the U.S. in human food, drugs, cosmetics (e.g., sunscreens), and medical devices (e.g., contact lenses). Based on evidence that TiO2 nanoparticles present in food-grade titanium dioxide can accumulate in the body and cause DNA damage, CSPI rates titanium dioxide as “Avoid”.
