Package of Bills in Harrisburg Targets Ultra Processed Food, “GRAS” and Many Other Dangerous Food Industry Practices.
A bipartisan group of state House members have begun introducing a package of food safety bills.
Six of the eight bills in the legislative package, spearheaded by Rep. Natalie Mihalek, R-Pittsburgh, were introduced Monday and includes greater chemical disclosures on food labels, bans on the sale of foods with certain chemicals in schools, creating a statutory definition of ultra processed foods and a ban on certain pesticides. Yet to be introduced are bills that would encourage the planting of cover crops in Pennsylvania and a resolution that would deem August as Wellness Month in Pennsylvania.
Republicans David Rowe, Stephenie Scialabba, Abby Major, Joe Hogan, Ryan Warner, Joshua Kail, Shelby Labs, Robert Leadbeter, Barbara Gleim and Carl Metzgar as well as Democrats Jennifer O’Mara, Justin Fleming, Melissa Shusterman, Jessica Benham and Lisa Borowski have all signed on as co-sponsors of the package of bills as well as for individual pieces of the package.
“Dozens of other countries have taken steps to protect its citizens from harmful foods either by banning certain ingredients, altering their industrialized farming processes, requiring labels for harmful additives, or even educating its citizenry on healthy habits while the U.S. watches its waistline expand and wait for chronic disease to take hold,” Mihalek wrote in her co-sponsorship memorandum for the legislative package. “We cannot afford to sit around and wait for something to change. Our food is literally killing us. In order to protect Pennsylvania consumers, we are introducing a package of bills aimed at cleaning up our food supply as our society demands that we begin to unravel from the tight grip of industrial ingredients.”