California lawmaker launches bill to highlight healthier foods in grocery stores

A California bill would give non-ultraprocessed food a seal and 
premium placement on grocery store shelves. (Unsplash photo)

A California lawmaker is promoting a bill that would give non-ultraprocessed foods a “California Certified” seal of approval and premium grocery shelf space to help educate consumers about which foods are the healthiest, report Nicole Norman and Rachel Bluth of Politico. "The legislation is the latest in a broader war on unhealthy food."

On a federal level, the Food and Drug Administration and USDA continue to tease out a national definition for ultraprocessed food. But California lawmakers created their own ultraprocessed food definition in October 2025, which labels ultraprocessed food as "any food or beverage that contains flavor or color enhancers and that is high in saturated fats, sodium or specific added sugars or sweeteners," Norman and Bluth write.

Educating American consumers about the health risks of ultraprocessed foods and removing them from the national diet are "both popular and bipartisan," Politico reports. "It’s a cause popularized at the federal level by Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and his Make America Healthy Again movement."

Unsurprisingly, companies that make ultraprocessed foods are ramping up their opposition to new laws that decrease their market share of U.S. grocery budgets. Norman and Bluth write, "National manufacturers argue that regulatory burdens drive up the price for consumers and that state regulations on ingredients 'risk undermining the system.'"

California's approach, which labels healthy food, is a new twist on the labeling ultraprocessed food debate. Over the past decade, Latin countries have passed laws that require "warning" labels or color-coded nutritional labels on the front of boxes or wrappers. 

In 2024, the FDA began considering requiring food labels that "might flag certain health risks, such as high levels of salt, sugar or saturated fat," The Wall Street Journal reports. According to its website, the FDA is currently "proposing a rule that would require a front-of-package (FOP) nutrition label on most packaged foods to provide accessible, at-a-glance information to help consumers quickly and easily identify how foods can be part of a healthy diet."