California Governor Gavin Newsom signed legislation creating a first-in-the-nation label for non-ultraprocessed foods, along with a package of health bills covering menu sugar warnings, diet pill sales to minors and tobacco and vape restrictions.
The bills, announced Monday, advance what the Governor's Office described as California's nation-leading holistic healthcare strategy, taking on ultra-processed foods, high-sugar content and Big Tobacco while making healthier foods and products easier to identify and access.
"We should be about healthcare, not sick-care, recognizing that preventing illnesses is far preferable to finding — and affording — treatments," Newsom said. "It's why California is focused on making whole, healthy foods as accessible as possible, why we're making healthier choices easier."
The non-ultraprocessed certification program, created by AB 2244 from Assemblymember Jesse Gabriel (D-Encino), gives manufacturers a voluntary standard and provides front-of-package information to consumers, with improved in-store placement of healthier options. The Governor's Office compared the approach to the USDA Organic label.
"Like the USDA Organic label, this new seal will provide consumers with clear, trustworthy information and make it easier for them to locate healthier foods that are free from harmful additives," Gabriel said. "Parents shouldn't need a Ph.D. in chemistry to understand what they're feeding their kids."
Other measures require chain restaurants to offer one children's meal meeting a minimum nutrition standard, require menus to flag drinks containing more than the recommended daily intake of sugar, and require diaper manufacturers to disclose the full list of ingredients used to make their products.
The package also bans the sale of over-the-counter diet pills and dietary supplements for weight loss or muscle building to anyone under 18. The Governor's Office said nearly 1 in 10 adolescents have used such products, and that young users are six times more likely to be diagnosed with an eating disorder within three years than nonusers.
On tobacco, the legislation requires retailers to display lung cancer screening awareness signage and bans single-use vapes and advertising of vape products designed to look like items marketed to minors, such as food or school supplies. It builds on California's flavored tobacco ban signed in 2022 and reaffirmed by voters' passage of Proposition 31.
First Partner Jennifer Siebel Newsom said California is committed to giving children the best start in life, citing two free school meals every day and the state's Farm to School program. A new program will seek locally based vendors to supply healthy foods to California public schools.
The Farm to School program has connected more than half of California's public school students with local, nutritious school meals, working alongside a universal school meals program that has served almost 3.5 billion free meals since 2021, according to the Governor's Office.