HARRISBURG, Pa. (WHTM) — How hard is it to keep your kids from eating ingredients you don’t want them to eat?

Very hard, says Rep. Natalie Mihalek (R-Allegheny/Washington), who began paying close attention to food labels a few years ago.

“I’ve been in a war with my daughter for the last two years over a particular snack food that I won’t let her have in her lunch,” Mihalek said. “And I found out recently my older daughter was smuggling them from the school cafeteria and actually selling them to her little sister.”

(For the record, the suspect, Petra, is 12; Naila, eating the contraband, is 11.)

So a bill Mihalek is sponsoring would ban several kinds of red, yellow and blue food dyes in Pennsylvania; a companion bill sponsored by Rep. Melissa Shusterman (D-Chester) would ban three other ingredients, including brominated vegetable oil.

“This is a bipartisan effort to clean up our diets,” Mihalek said, citing evidence the ingredients pose health risks and have “no nutritional value.”

Pennsylvania lawmaker calls to send Pennsylvania Army National Guard to Texas

But a trade group representing chocolate, candy, gum and mint manufacturers cited Mihalek’s bill as one of many it opposes in states across America. It says state legislation isn’t the place for regulations like these.

“The question here is, who has the regulatory expertise to make decisions about ingredients? And the answer to that is the FDA” — the U.S. Food and Drug Administration said Carly Schildhaus, a spokesperson for the National Confectioners Association, who said food makers support strong regulations, but not at the state level.

The problem with doing it at the state level, according to Schildhaus?

Close

Thanks for signing up!

Watch for us in your inbox.

Subscribe Now

WHTM Morning Weather

“As we think about a potential state-by-state patchwork of different food regulations, this will lead to increased food costs,” Schildhaus said. “It will lead to consumer confusion and ultimately is a problem for the entire U.S. food safety system.”

Mihalek said she would have no problem with the FDA taking the lead — if the agency would indeed take the lead, which she says hasn’t always happened.

“Red Dye 3 is the perfect example,” she said. “Since 1990, it’s been banned from use in cosmetics and skin care products, and the FDA at the time said it will issue a separate regulation as to food. And they just haven’t. Well, it’s been 34 years.”

Legislation in other states would also ban that ingredient. Mihalek said food makers have adapted to restrictions in other countries and could do so in the U.S. too.

For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to ABC27.