US State-Level Food Additive Restrictions on Record
PlainFoodSafe catalogues enacted US state legislation restricting specific food additives, California AB 418, the California School Food Safety Act, and adjacent state actions. Rendered live from the state_regulations table.
Research period:
Research question
Which US states have enacted legislation restricting specific food additives, and which additives have been targeted most often across state-level action?
Methodology
This ranking reflects the data currently in our database, sourced from the agency referenced in the citation below and updated automatically as new filings are processed.
Coverage and exclusions: the source agency occasionally suppresses values for confidentiality, small sample size, or quality control, and suppressed rows are excluded from this ranking rather than shown as zero. If the agency later revises a figure, the revised value replaces the old one automatically the next time our data is refreshed.
Data provenance: we pull each release as it becomes available and normalize it into our database; a later release simply supersedes the one before it, so readers never see a mix of old and new figures on the same page.
Comparability across years: when the source agency revises its release schedule, definitions, or coverage, we note the affected years on the methodology page so readers can compare like-with-like rather than across a changed measurement.
Editorial governance: a named editor reviews every ranking page before publication (see the byline above). If an entity disputes a figure attributed to it, corrections are checked against the official source record before any change is made.
Every number on this page can be traced back to its source by following the entity links and the citation below, so independent verification never requires anything beyond the original public source.
See the methodology page for the complete ETL pipeline, source vintage, and column lineage.
US State-Level Food Additive Restrictions on Record
Live data: reflects the current dataset
The ranked top
Every row below reflects the current 10-record dataset. Reload the page after new data is processed to see the latest values.
| # | Additive | States with restriction | States | Earliest effective |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Blue 1 | 1 | California | 2027-12-31 |
| 2 | Blue 2 | 1 | California | 2027-12-31 |
| 3 | Brominated Vegetable Oil | 1 | California | 2027-01-01 |
| 4 | Green 3 | 1 | California | 2027-12-31 |
| 5 | Potassium Bromate | 1 | California | 2027-01-01 |
| 6 | Propylparaben | 1 | California | 2027-01-01 |
| 7 | Red 3 | 1 | California | 2027-01-01 |
| 8 | Red 40 | 1 | California | 2027-12-31 |
| 9 | Yellow 5 | 1 | California | 2027-12-31 |
| 10 | Yellow 6 | 1 | California | 2027-12-31 |
Source: State Legislatures (catalogued from each state's official legislative record) - Enacted US state-level food additive restriction legislation. Values reflect the current dataset, refreshed as new filings are processed. State Legislatures (catalogued from each state's official legislative record) - Enacted US state-level food additive restriction legislation. Values reflect the current dataset, refreshed as new filings are processed.
Findings
Top entity in the ranking
The top-ranked record in this dataset is Blue 1, with a value of 1 on the States with restriction column. The full top-10 set is rendered in the table above. Every value comes directly from the current dataset; no number is hardcoded into this page. When the source agency publishes a revision, the ranking and the prose around it update automatically.
Distribution shape
The gap between the top-ranked record (1) and the 10th-ranked record (1) characterizes how concentrated the top of the distribution is. Where the top value is many multiples of the median value of the visible set, the population is highly concentrated, a small number of entities accumulate the bulk of the measured quantity. Where the top and bottom of the visible set are close together, the distribution is relatively flat across the top end. The full distribution beyond this top-10 cut is summarized in the aggregate context section below and explored in the linked entity profiles.
Aggregate context
Across the full population behind this ranking, here are the summary statistics: how many records exist in total, the sum of the ranking metric across all qualifying records, and the mean per-record value. The methodology page documents the exact filter applied (records with null or zero values on the ranking metric are excluded). This aggregate row is computed from the same dataset that powers the ranking above.
Source provenance
The records in this ranking originate from State Legislatures (catalogued from each state's official legislative record), specifically the Enacted US state-level food additive restriction legislation. PlainFoodSafe ingests the source vintage published by the agency and keeps this page current, there is no static export carrying stale numbers, and a newly published dataset is reflected here within hours. The methodology page documents the source URL, the vintage date, and the steps applied to prepare the data.
Why this ranking matters
Rankings like this one let a reader scan a population quickly and identify outliers, concentrations, and patterns that warrant deeper investigation. The detail pages linked from each entity in the table above give the full per-entity context: time-series history where available, related metrics from adjacent tables, and links onward to the underlying source records. The methodology page explains how an entity earns inclusion in the dataset and how the ranking column is computed at the source.
What this analysis cannot tell us
This catalogue covers state-level legislative actions where a specific additive is restricted, banned, or subject to a school-distribution prohibition under enacted law. Pending or vetoed legislation is excluded. Each state's regulatory regime sits alongside federal FDA authority, most enacted state bans on food additives do not preempt federal allowance of the additive in interstate commerce but apply to products sold within state borders or distributed in state-controlled venues like schools. Effective dates indicate when the law takes effect, not when manufacturers reformulate; reformulation timelines vary by company. Readers seeking the current authoritative text of any state law should consult that state's official legislative information service.
Secondary cut from the same source
Top 10 states by count of enacted food additive restrictions
Sources
- California Office of Legislative Counsel, AB 418 (2023) text - https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/
- California Department of Public Health, School Food Safety implementation guidance - https://www.cdph.ca.gov/
- U.S. Food and Drug Administration, Food Additive Status List - https://www.fda.gov/food/food-additives-petitions/food-additive-status-list