Lawmaker Wants To Ban Skittles and Gum, Is Washington State Next?

Could A New Law Soon Be In Place To Prevent You From Buying Candy?

Here's an odd news story of the day for you. A lawmaker wants to forbid the sale of Skittles, Hot Tamales, and Dubble Twist gum. I at first thought this was a crazy idea but then I read further on the reason why.

One Lawmaker Would Like To Get Processed Chemicals Out Of Food And Candy

Washington State residents often say that so goes California, and so goes Oregon and Washington.

I'm not sure that I buy that thought but Washington does have a track record of following law changes in California and you never know what our own lawmakers might propose once they get a look at this bill.

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According to Assembly Bill AB 418 as proposed by Jesse Gabriel, a first in the Nation to ban the sale of processed foods containing dangerous chemicals. It appears some of your favorite candies might be effected by this new bill if passed into law.

Popular candies like Skittles, Hot Tamales, and Dubble Twist gum, contain Red Dye No. 3, Titanium Dioxide, Potassium Bromate, Brominated Vegetable Oil, or Propyl Paraben which Gabriel would like to prevent from being included in the mixtures of processed foods.

The press release reads:

Currently, there are thousands of chemicals added to food to make it last longer, taste better, and appear more enticing. Shockingly, most of these chemicals have never been independently evaluated by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) or were last reviewed decades ago.

Instead, these chemicals have entered the nation’s food supply through a loophole in federal law—known as GRAS, or "generally recognized as safe”—that was intended to apply to common household ingredients like vinegar. As a result of this loophole, chemical companies have added new substances to the food supply with almost no meaningful federal oversight.

In the article from Yahoo News and KTLA, these substances can be found in candy, cupcakes, gum, and many other foods that the average consumer might not be aware of.

Assembly Bill AB 418, if it passed, would be the first in the nation of its kind and might lead to other states like Washington adopting its outcome and ruling.

What do you think of a bill like this? good or bad for Washington State? Let us know in the comments below