State Food Ingredient Regulations
32 active regulations across 6 states plus FDA federal action, tracking bans, school restrictions, and warning requirements for food ingredients, from California's AB 418 onward.
- Actions tracked
- 32
- State cohort
- 6
- Largest state record
- 10
State and federal rows kept distinct
States with a catalogued action
Catalogued actions in California
The short answer
PlainFoodSafe tracks 32 state and federal food-additive actions across 6 states; Red 40 appears in the most jurisdiction records (5). The table preserves each measure's proposed, enacted, or effective status, and labels federal FDA actions separately rather than counting them as state laws.
- 32
- active state + federal actions tracked
- 6
- states with at least one restriction
- 10
- restrictions in California, the most active state
- 5
- jurisdictions restrict Red 40, the most-targeted additive
Regulation evidence desk
How tracked state actions compare
These charts use the same catalogued rows as the tables below. Status shows whether a measure is enacted, proposed, or requested; action type shows the restriction shape, not whether a product is lawful or safe.
Most-targeted additives across states
Red 40 appears in 5 jurisdiction records, the largest additive-specific count in this tracker.
California versus every reporting state
The marker locates California's 10 catalogued actions within the state-only cohort; federal FDA rows stay outside this comparison.
California relative to every reporting state
10 catalogued actions; federal FDA actions excluded from the cohort
10 100th percentile has at least as many catalogued actions as every other state we track
Each bar is a band; taller bars hold more states. The dashed line + filled bar mark this entry. Hover or tap any bar for its full count, share, and where it sits relative to this entry.
Distribution as text
- 1–4
- 4 states (67%)
- 4–7
- 1 states (17%)
- 7–10
- 0 states (0%)
- 10 and above
- 1 states (17%)
Source PlainFoodSafe state_regulations table, grouped by state · September 1, 2026
Tracker status mix
Enacted rows are law on the books; proposed and requested rows remain pending and must be read with their status column before treating them as current rules.
Restriction shape mix
Action type describes the measure recorded in the tracker, ban, school ban, warning requirement, or voluntary phase-out request, not an individual product outcome.
California
| Ingredient | Action | Status |
|---|---|---|
| Blue 1 | School Ban | Enacted |
| Blue 2 | School Ban | Enacted |
| Brominated Vegetable Oil | Ban | Enacted |
| Green 3 | School Ban | Enacted |
| Potassium Bromate | Ban | Enacted |
| Propylparaben | Ban | Enacted |
| Red 3 | Ban | Enacted |
| Red 40 | School Ban | Enacted |
| Yellow 5 | School Ban | Enacted |
| Yellow 6 | School Ban | Enacted |
Federal (FDA), not a state
These are federal FDA actions, not state legislation, shown here for context alongside the state-level tracker but not counted toward the 6-state total above.
| Ingredient | Action | Status |
|---|---|---|
| Blue 1 | Voluntary Phase-Out (requested) | Requested |
| Blue 2 | Voluntary Phase-Out (requested) | Requested |
| Brominated Vegetable Oil | Ban | Enacted |
| Green 3 | Voluntary Phase-Out (requested) | Requested |
| Red 3 | Ban | Enacted |
| Red 40 | Voluntary Phase-Out (requested) | Requested |
| Trans Fat | Ban | Enacted |
| Yellow 5 | Voluntary Phase-Out (requested) | Requested |
| Yellow 6 | Voluntary Phase-Out (requested) | Requested |
Illinois
| Ingredient | Action | Status |
|---|---|---|
| Brominated Vegetable Oil | Ban | Proposed |
| Potassium Bromate | Ban | Proposed |
| Red 3 | Ban | Proposed |
| Titanium Dioxide | Ban | Proposed |
New York
Washington
West Virginia
| Ingredient | Action | Status |
|---|---|---|
| Potassium Bromate | Ban | Proposed |
| Titanium Dioxide | Ban | Proposed |
Virginia
| Ingredient | Action | Status |
|---|---|---|
| Red 40 | School Ban | Proposed |
Use the tracker as a source map
Read a regulation's status and jurisdiction before treating it as a current rule, then follow the named ingredient to the underlying record.
- Start with the state and status columns to distinguish enacted measures from proposed or requested actions. Read how the tracker works
- Open a named ingredient when you need the source-linked food-label context behind a tracker row. Browse ingredient records
- Use the product lookup only to inspect stored label fields for a specific package, not to infer whether a state rule applies to it. Open product lookup
This tracker catalogues selected state and federal actions from source records. It is not legal advice, a complete legislation database, or a determination that a product is safe, unsafe, recalled, or lawful in a particular place.
Catalogue current as of September 1, 2026. Every row on this page is available as a file: download the full regulation record as CSV. It carries all catalogued actions, including proposed and requested ones, with a status column, so pending bills are never mistaken for law.
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