INDIANAPOLIS — Indiana lawmakers are considering a ban on a list of ingredients tied to ultra-processed foods in school meals, saying a large portion of the calories children consume comes from those lunches.
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The bill would prohibit the following ingredients from school breakfasts and lunches:
- Potassium bromate
- Propylparaben
- Titanium dioxide
- Yellow dye 5
- Yellow dye 6
- Blue dye 1
- Blue dye 2
- Green dye 3
- Red dye 3
- Red dye 40
- Butylated hydroxytoluene
- Tert-buylhydroquinone
- Azodicarbonamide
One parent who spoke with WRTV said she is careful about what her children eat.
"I watch what I feed my kids. I don't feed them pork, I don't feed them a lot of shellfish,” Roshauna Cushinberry, a mother of three, said. “There are a lot of things I won't feed my children because it's unhealthy. McDonald's, the fast-food, I don't like that at all.”
Cushinberry said she supports the legislation.
"As they are growing up, everything that they intake is going through their body. Their body is filtering it out, but it takes the good, and it takes the bad,” Cushinberry said.
Republican state Rep. Julie McGuire, the bill’s author, said other states have passed similar measures and that it should make the transition easier for schools and not be an added cost to the budget.
"This is just the school lunch program, whether it's breakfast or lunch in the school,” McGuire said. “It doesn't affect after-school concession stands at the basketball game. It doesn't affect fundraisers that maybe the schools are doing after hours. This is really just focused on the lunches and the nutrition it's providing."
McGuire said 50% of calories consumed by students come from school, and 65% of that is ultra-processed foods.
Not everyone supports the proposal.
"Well, I grew up on ultra-processed food, and it didn't do me wrong, so I think the state needs to stay out of it,” Reginald Radford, a grandparent who regularly watches his grandkids, said.
The bill would also require all schools to post their breakfast and lunch menus online. A committee vote is expected next week; if it passes, the measure would head to the full House.
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