State senators team up to tackle chemicals in food
Bipartisan bill targets dyes, other ingredients
By: Katie Sobko
NorthJersey.com
USA Today Network - New Jersey
..... Two state senators from opposite sides of the aisle took to soc la media this week [12/11/2025] to highlight their bipartisan bill aimed at protecting New Jersey residents form harmful chemicals.
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State Senators Andrew Zwicker, A Democrat and Mike Testa, A Republican, posted a video explaining why they came together to sponsor legislation that would add four items to the list of substances considered adulterated foods.
..... The video, which runs for about a minute and can be found on the senator's individual social media accounts, is a rapid-fire-back-and-forth highlighting what the bill would do and why it;s important.
..... Zwicker says in the video that "working together as a bipartisan team, we're on a mission to keep New Jerseyans healthy and safe,"" before Testa chimes in that everyone is familiar with the "dangers of carcinogenic food dyes" and that "now is the time to take strong legislative action to end the use of these unnecessary food dyes."
..... Zicker calls them "additives that are known to cause severe helaht issues, like kidney damage, memory loss and cancer."
..... Testa explains that they intend to add amendments to phase out certain food dyes in school lunches as well. the dyes are Red 40, Yellow 5, Yellow 6, blue1, Blue 2 and Green 3.
...... "These dyes are known to cause ADHD hyperactivity and a sundry of other issues. It's time to protect our kids," he says.
..... They say the restrictions are popular, with support form 84% of Democrats and 90% of Republicans, making this a model of how the two parties can work together.
..... Zwicker said he's been working on this for some time because he was "acutely aware" of the way these substances were being banned in other parts of the world, and that although Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. "may be anti-science, his concern over the topic is correct, and it has changed what had been a partisan push to get rid of these harmful food dyes into a bipartisan push."
How did the partnership form?
..... The Democratic senator said Testa approached him about becoming a sponsor on the bill, and that he always welcomes bipartisan support, so he accented it.
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They got a script for the video ready and then filmed it last week [12/04/2025] when they were both speaking at a Morris County Chamber of Commerce event.
..... "We edited it. We preprepared everything, but we decided to hold it till it come out of committee so that we dropped it minutes after that," Zwicker said. "If it's string people up and they're paying attention because it's the topic that people should be paying attention to, mission accomplished."
..... He said that given the extreme partisanship, especially out of Washington, this seemed like an "appropriate time to come together, have a little fun and say, look, there are topics we can agree on, and this is one of them."
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The bill adds brominated vegetable oil, potassium bromate, propylparben and Red Dye 3 to the conditions that make food adulterated. The chemicals are banned for sale in food in European Union, based on scientific studies demonstrating their risk for significant public health harm, particularly to children. There is a general ban to adulterated commercial food in New Jersey and it is illegal to distribute, sell, manufacture for sale or distribution, or possess with intent to sell or distribute any adulterted food.
..... Those who do are in violation of the State Sanitary Code and subject to fines enforced by the Department of Health ranging between $50 and $1,000.
..... The bill has cleared committee in both chambers and now must pass votes in both the state Senate and the Assembly before landing on the governor's desk.
..... Kati Sobko covers the New Jersey Statehouse. Email: sobko@northjersey.com