Fact Check: Foods like Oreos and Lucky Charms are NOT facing a nationwide ban in the US

Are foods like Lucky Charms, Flamin’ Hot Cheetos, Oreos and Gatorade facing a nationwide ban in the United States? No, that’s not true: Several states, including California, have passed or are considering legislation to ban certain food additives, but no specific food would be banned. Manufacturers can remove the additives – brominated vegetable oil, potassium bromate, propyl paraben or red dye 3 – from their products. There is no national ban on these ingredients.

The claim appeared on April 21, 2024 in a post (archived here) on Facebook by Zakyra Armònie, under the caption “DAILY SNACKS ARE BANNED.” The caption of the post read:

UNITED STATES YOUR FAVORITES COME TO AN END!!

This is what the message looked like on Facebook at the time of writing:

(Source: Facebook screenshot taken on Tuesday April 23 16:26:05 2024 UTC)

The social media post shows a partial Fox News logo in the bottom left corner. Lead Stories found reporting from Fox Business with a story titled “Certain snacks and drinks could be banned in some states due to cancer-causing ingredients” (archived here) – as of April 2024.

The California Food Safety Act

Several states – Illinois, Missouri, New Jersey, New York and Pennsylvania – are considering following California’s lead in banning certain food additives. The legislation does not mention specific food brands or products.

On October 7, 2023, Governor Gavin Newsom signed the California Food Safety Act (CFSA) into law. The law bans the manufacture, sale or distribution of foods containing four “potentially toxic chemical additives” in California. These chemicals include brominated vegetable oil, potassium bromate, propyl paraben, and red dye 3. The CFSA goes into effect on January 1, 2027.

There is no national ban for the four additives.

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Other Lead Stories fact checks of food additive claims can be found here.