After working for over a year to protest chemical additives and food dyes in school lunches, Real Food for Kids- Montgomery (RFKM) has reached their goal. Marla Caplon, the Director of Food and Nutrition Services in MCPS, has stated that a wide range of chemical additives will be banned from school lunches in Montgomery County’s school cafeterias.  Many of these additives have been labeled as carcinogens and are suspected to be linked to ADHD, including trans fat, artificial food dyes and sweeteners, and lean finely texturized beef, often referred to as “pink slime”.  RFKM now has over 3,500 members, as people are upset over the apparent dangers of these additives and wish to bring healthier meals to MCPS schools.

Despite the harms that have been linked to various food dyes, the rate at which the FDA approves them increased five times over from the 1950s to 2012. That being said, there are far more unnatural dyes present in foods such as Trix cereal and Skittles than the public previously thought.

This decision, which was fueled by pressure from the RKFM, will remove many popular foods from school lunch menus in MCPS, including Welch’s fruit snacks, Cheez-its, various types of Rich’s ice cream bars, Baked! Cheetos, and Cool Ranch and Spicy Sweet Doritos.

The full list of chemical additives being banned from the lunch menu is: Red dye #40, Monosodium Glutamate (MSG), lean finely textured beef/”pink slime”, Yellow 5, Yellow 6, Green 3, Blue 2, Tert-Butylhydroquinone (TBHQ), Propyl Gallate, Saccharin, Butylated Hydroxyanisol, Aspartame/Acesulfame-Potassium, Potassium Bromate and Sodium Tripoly Phosphate (STPP).

Several additives were not removed from foods, such as Red #40, Red #2, Blue #1, Potassium Bromate and more, since they are in almost all options available in MCPS cafeterias, and their removal would require a complete change of the menu.