Texas senators heard testimony in committee on two measures that aim to fulfill President Donald Trump’s “Make America Healthy Again” agenda.
Health and food industry professionals testified on Wednesday in the Senate Health and Human Services Committee about Senate Bill 25 by State Sen. Lois Kolkhorst (R-Brenham) and SB 314 by State Sen. Bryan Hughes (R-Mineola).
SB 25, which Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick listed as a top priority this session, would support increased physical activity for students, establish improvements to nutritional education, and require warning labels on certain foods.
It would also establish a seven-member Texas Nutrition Advisory Committee comprised of health professionals, state agency representatives, and regional representatives. The committee will develop nutritional guidelines after examining the impact of nutrition on health and reviewing studies on ultra-processed foods.
Other key measures of SB 25 include mandating government schools provide pre-K through 8th-grade students with at least 30 minutes of physical education each day and requiring medical schools and other health-related majors to implement a nutrition curriculum.
“Senate Bill 25 is a step forward in, I believe, protecting the health and life of every Texan,” said Kolkhorst.
“The market will adjust. I’m a business owner. The market adjusts to trends and what consumers want. We just have to educate our consumers,” she added.
A day before the hearing, Kokhorst held a press conference alongside several House and Senate lawmakers where she summarized SB 25’s four main pillars: getting kids moving, bolstering nutrition curriculum, establishing the Texas Nutrition Advisory Committee, and strengthening transparency in food labels.
“One of the things about SB 25 is … there’s nothing that says we’re going to prohibit, like, seed oils. We’re all learning about seed oils, right? And there’s nothing in this bill that says you can’t produce food [with] seed oils,” said Kokhorst. “What it just says is you’re gonna label that, or if it’s prohibited in other countries, we’re gonna know that.”
Hughes’ SB 314 would prevent certain food additives from being used in school districts’ free or reduced-price meals.
The original measure specifically prohibited brominated vegetable oil, potassium bromate, propylparaben, azodicarbonamide, butylated hydroxyanisole, red dye 3, and titanium dioxide.
However, a committee substitute would extend the effective date and expand the list of prohibited substances to include multiple synthetic food dyes and other additives.
“Under Senate Bill 314, if an ingredient is linked to severe harm to human health, it’s unnecessary, and there are alternatives available, state laws can prohibit that from being served on that child’s plate at Texas public schools,” said Hughes.
“You know, 61 percent of students don’t bring their own snacks or meals to school. And this is not a partisan issue. … A couple of blue states have acted on this,” he added.
State Sen. Charles Perry (R-Lubbock) warned that “we don’t want to disrupt the food supply in an effort to make the food supply healthier.”
“A lot of the food supply additives are for preservation purposes to extend the life of it. … So, if you pull those out and you have a shorter shelf life, you don’t want to create a situation where the vendors can’t keep up because foods don’t sit as long as they used to” said Perry.
Hughes told Perry that he has been in conversations with food products suppliers, including Sysco, and that those talks were part of the impetus for extending SB 314’s effective date.
State Sen. Borris Miles (D-Houston) had concerns about school districts being unable to comply with SB 314 and thus no longer qualifying for the state’s free and reduced-price school lunch program.
Perry pointed out that districts “typically aren’t buying their own product.”
“And so, if the product mix is changing for vendors to participate in school nutrition programs, we can safely assume that the majority of school districts that have vendor contracts are going to be in compliance with this particular legislation,” said Perry.
During invited testimony, HumanCo Founder and CEO Jason H. Karp said that the American food system prioritizes “processed foods that are addictive and synthetic rather than prioritize foods that are wholesome and nutritious.”
“Ten percent of our children now have fatty liver disease—a condition that, when I grew up, was only seen in alcoholics. And it’s now appearing in our kids. Fifty percent of American young adults are overweight or obese, and one-third have pre-diabetes,” stated Karp.
Calley Means, co-founder of Truemed, told lawmakers that he believes school lunches are the right place to start, but school districts should also have their nutrition standards streamlined.
“There are understandable guidelines for how schools should procure food. This is simply adding to those guidelines that they shouldn’t be poisoning kids … so this is working within the existing system,” said Means.
Erin Raden, senior director of state affairs for the Consumer Brands Association, said the organization has concerns over the labeling provisions of Kolkhorst’s measure.
The new labeling standards would “increase consumer costs and confusion. For example, it takes an average of three years to make a major labeling change across a portfolio of products, and anything short of that will result in millions of dollars of lost packaging,” said Raden.
SB 25 and 314 were left pending in committee and will likely be taken up again at a later time.
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