Former California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger is supportive of a bill that would prohibit the sales of Skittles and other candy in their current state.
California’s last Republican governor shared his thoughts on the legislation on a blog post Tuesday.
The backstory: Asm Jesse Gabriel (D–Woodland Hills) introduced a bill earlier this year which would ban the manufacture, sale and distribution of any food that contains a list of chemicals that are considered harmful and toxic.
- The chemicals that would be outlawed are brominated vegetable oil, potassium bromate, propylparaben, red dye 3 and titanium dioxide, which are found in candy such as Skittles, Nerds and Starburst.
- Assembly Bill 418 passed through the Assembly in May and is now being considered by the Senate Health Committee.
Schwarzenegger’s take: In his blog post, Schwarzenegger said that the five chemicals don’t exactly sound like food to him, and he noted that they are banned in Europe, and also that red dye 3 is already banned in makeup in the United States.
- “I’ve been through these fights when I was Governor,” Schwarzenneger wrote. “I am a small government guy. But I’ve also seen that sometimes, in a world where every big industry has an army of lobbyists, and our kids have no one fighting for them, government has to step in. You wouldn’t believe the crap lobbyists said to me when I limited junk food in schools or banned trans fats as Governor. They can never believe when someone stands up to them.”
- He said he is proud to support the bill because this is not a partisan issue, rather one of common sense.
- “The more we learn about nutrition, the more we see that ultra-processed foods are a problem,” Schwarzenegger wrote. “But, it’s not easy for all people to avoid these foods because they are oftentimes more affordable and convenient. So anything we can do to make these options less ultra-processed and a little healthier is a step in the right direction.”
