The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) regulates food and color additives and food contact materials, but non-governmental organizations (NGOs) are pressuring state legislatures to ban some of these substances previously approved by the FDA for specific conditions of use without the level of science needed to support such action. 

Last year, California became the first state to ban the food additives and colors brominated vegetable oil (BVO), potassium bromate, propylparaben, and Red Dye No. 3, respectively. Now, legislators in Illinois, New York and Washington are considering bans on the same and several additional additives, including titanium dioxide. Most of these substances are under review by FDA, and notably the agency issued a proposed rule to ban BVO and is reviewing Red Dye No. 3 under the Delaney clause, a law requiring FDA to ban additives found to cause or induce cancer in humans or animals as indicated by testing. New York is also considering reporting requirements for substances Generally Reported as Safe (GRAS), and NGOs are signaling that this is only the beginning of a massive push to use state legislatures as the arbiters of the safety of food and color additives and GRAS substances.