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California creates non-ultraprocessed food label and menu sugar warnings

A new health package establishes a voluntary certification for qualifying foods and adds nutrition requirements for chain restaurants and products sold to minors.

Image credit: U.S. Department of Agriculture photo by Stephen Ausmus / Wikimedia Commons, public domain in the United States; archival April 2010 Maryland nutrition-label photograph, not California’s new certification label or a bill signing

Gov. Gavin Newsom signed a package of health and nutrition bills on September 28 that creates California’s first-in-the-nation certification label for non-ultraprocessed foods and adds new disclosure and nutrition requirements for chain restaurants. The measures will affect grocery shoppers, restaurants and families across Southern California and the rest of the state.

What it means locally

Assembly Bill 2244, authored by Encino Assemblymember Jesse Gabriel, creates a voluntary Non-Ultraprocessed Certified standard intended for front-of-package labels and in-store placement. Senate Bill 869, by San Diego Sen. Akilah Weber Pierson, requires menus to identify drinks containing more than the recommended daily intake of added sugar; her Senate Bill 977 requires chain restaurants to offer at least one children’s meal meeting a minimum nutrition standard. Other bills in the package prohibit sales of over-the-counter diet pills and weight-loss or muscle-building supplements to minors, require diaper-ingredient disclosure and restrict disposable battery-embedded vapes. The accompanying photograph shows consumers reviewing nutrition labels in Maryland in 2010 and is not an image of California’s new certification label or a bill signing.

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