HUNTINGTON, W.Va. — Cabell County Schools Food Service Director Travis Austin says that since the inception of House Bill 2354, or otherwise known as the food dye bill, they have been taking a proactive approach to eliminate those foods that contain the synthetic dyes that are banned within the bill.
“We were already limiting and eliminating items that fell under that category, we wanted to be proactive,” he said.
Under the bill, which was signed into law by Governor Patrick Morrisey last month, it bans red dye #3 and #40, yellow dyes #5 and #6, blue dye #1 and #2 and green dye #3 from school foods and later for everywhere in West Virginia.
According to the state’s Department of Education Child’s Nutrition Division, a lot of foods that contain synthetic dyes are already not allowed, however if foods remain that contain those dyes it will be up to the individual counties to find replacements for them.
However they were able to give some examples of food that would require a compliant replacement for; that list includes certain cereals, cereal bars, Jello cups, sprinkles, flavored applesauce, candies, cakes, frozen desserts, icings, and canned cherries.
For Cabell County, Austin said that Froot Loops, Lucky Charms, and Apple Jacks are among the top foods that they will have to find a replacement for.
He said that he has been keeping U.S. Foods, which is where they purchase there food, up-to-date on the bill.
“I’ve been sending every update of this bill and then when it passed, when the Governor signed it, I’ve been sending all of this to U.S. Foods, so they can better prepare,” Austin said.
The bill goes into effect for schools on August first, which is right before the next school year starts.
Austin said that will be the biggest challenge because of food manufacturers.
“If we were on a timeline, with other states or a federal push the food manufacturers would be more inclined to change there formulations to change there recipes to fall under these guidelines,” he said. “I don’t know how willing there going to be to change just for one state.”
The state’s department said that they are working on getting material together to help educate service directors and cooks on the bill.
Austin said that they actually had a directors meeting with the Office of Child Nutrition a week after the bill passed.
“This definitely was something we talked about in detail and there great resources there and their helping us along the way,” he said.
The Child Nutrition Division with the state department hopes with time the list of foods that contain the synthetic dyes go down as the dyes get banned statewide in January 2028.