Some Iowa representatives want to ban margarine and certain food dyes from schools with a bill modeled closely after a law passed last year in California.

House Study Bill 5 was discussed in an education subcommittee Wednesday Representatives decided to amend the bill, which as introduced included margarine, Red Dye 40 and Yellow Dye 7, to be “more closely conforming” to the California School Food Safety Act.

Rep. Jeff Shipley, R-Fairfield, who chaired the subcommittee, proposed a similar bill in 2023 to ban margarine and hydrogenated vegetable oils from schools. The 2023 proposal passed its subcommittee, but did not advance.

Rep. Heather Matson, D-Ankeny, opposed the margarine element of the bill, and argued research supports margarine is “just as healthy as butter.”

“If you’re arguing that corn oil and soybean oil is fundamentally unhealthy for our kids, that’s also an important part of the conversation to have, because that is kind of what we’re saying in here,” Matson said.

Matson said after further research into California’s law and the years of research from the state into associated health effects, she is “open to a conversation” about restricting the color additives.

Matson also questioned why the Iowa bill specified just Red Dye 40 and Yellow Dye 7, the latter of which, according to comment submitted by the International Association of Color Manufacturers, is not used in food or beverages.

The California law outlaws the dyes Blue 1, Blue 2, Green 3, Red 40, Yellow 5 and Yellow 6. The law also regulated the percentage of fats, sugars and saturated fats that could comprise a school meal, though these elements were not part of the Iowa representatives’ discussion.

Matson pointed out the California law passed years after the state funded an extensive study in which the California Office of Environmental Health Hazard Assessment found synthetic food dyes can be linked to hyperactivity and neurobehavioral problems in children.

Matson said she was unwilling to sign off on the bill as is, but would be “willing to have a conversation on a bill that would be more thoughtfully put together.”

Rep. Brooke Boden, R-Indianola, said she was “extremely glad” the issue of food dye additives was before her and that she’d be the first to vote in favor of removing the synthetic dyes.

“I have a child who sees a neurologist, who asked us to remove food dye, and it significantly changed my child’s life,” Boden said.

Boden noted there has been movement on this effort at a federal level as well with the U.S. Food and Drug Administration’s recent ban of Red Dye No. 3.

Representatives for Rural School Advocates of Iowa, Urban Education Network of Iowa, and Iowa State Education Association, who registered as undecided on the bill, said they felt positively about the direction of the bill, but wanted to know more information about how it would be implemented in Iowa schools and if there would be additional costs.

Shipley moved to amend the bill to more closely resemble the California law, and to keep margarine in the bill “for now,” noting it might be reasonable to split the issues into separate bills later.

“I think these are conversations that people of Iowa are wanting to have, and so I think it is incumbent on us to reflect that and make sure we are having as wide ranging a dialog as possible,” Shipley said.