At least a dozen states are rushing to ban common food dyes.

West Virginia is one of the latest states advancing legislation aimed at prohibiting the sale of any food product that has certain yellow, blue, green or red dyes.

Other states that have passed or proposed food dye legislation include California, Illinois, Maryland, Missouri, New York, Ohio, Oklahoma, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, South Dakota, Virginia and Washington. Many have cited the need to protect public health by outlawing the dyes and other chemical additives in certain foods.

Jamie Alan, a pharmacology expert at Michigan State University said she believes the move to ban these dyes is in the best interest of public health.

“They do very specifically affect a very vulnerable population,” Alan said. “When you look at the individual dyes, there’s evidence for almost all of them of instigating or being correlated with behavioral difficulties in children.”

She says a big reason for this push to ban certain food dyes, is because of Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s “Make America Healthy Again” movement.

“Part of his confirmation was talking about how he was going to address the safety of the chemicals in our food,” Alan said.

A proponent of making sure all food is safe to consume, Jamie Pope, a nutritionist at Vanderbilt University’s School of Nursing said she believes that while this renewed interest is great, decisions regarding these dyes need to be evidence-based.

“I think this is another one of those arenas where more research is needed. It doesn’t mean that we shouldn’t take a closer look at what’s in our food,” Pope said.

But she says while that research is being done, don’t panic if you have foods with these dyes.

“Check your labels in your pantry. Read your ingredients list when you shop if you would feel safer,” Pope said.

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