California’s New Food Label Could Help Black Families Shop Healthier 

When it comes to ultra-processed food, research shows that Black Americans pay a steeper health price. Now California is betting a simple label can help. Gov. Gavin Newsom signed Assembly Bill 2244 on Sept. 28, creating a first-in-the-nation label that marks foods as not ultra-processed, the governor’s office announced.

The seal is voluntary for manufacturers, but according to Food Dive, large grocery stores must prominently display items with the state label when they carry at least 25 products. Don’t look for it yet, though. The state health department will not even roll out phase one until June 2029. The bill’s author, Assemblymember Jesse Gabriel (D-Encino), modeled it on the USDA Organic label.

“Parents shouldn’t need a Ph.D. in chemistry to understand what they’re feeding their kids,” Gabriel said in a statement released by the governor’s office.

Under California law, a food is generally considered ultraprocessed if it contains additives such as artificial flavors, colors, or emulsifiers and is high in saturated fat, sodium, or added sugar, or contains an artificial sweetener. Think soda, chips, sugary cereals and snack cakes.

In a large heart study published this year, ultraprocessed food made up 32% of daily food servings among Black participants, compared with 30% for white participants, TCTMD reports. For every 10% rise in ultraprocessed food intake, Black participants saw a 12.3% higher risk of cardiovascular disease, versus 7.9% for non-Black participants.

The heart study’s researchers pointed to two factors: food companies target more junk-food ads at Black communities, and many Black neighborhoods have fewer places to buy fresh, less-processed food. The ad part is well documented. A 2022 report from the Rudd Center at UConn found candy, sugary drinks, snacks, and cereals made up three-quarters of Black-targeted TV ad spending in 2021, up from about half in 2017.

Not everyone welcomed the seal. Food and manufacturing industry groups, including the Consumer Brands Association, which represents major packaged-food companies, opposed the bill. The new label borrows a definition California wrote in 2025 to phase ultra-processed food out of school meals, which industry groups say doesn’t work in the real world of grocery store shelves.

Will the rest of the country follow? California has led before. The state launched the nation’s first organic food labeling program decades ago, KTVU reports. The national USDA Organic seal came later, created partly because the food industry wanted one standard instead of a patchwork of state rules, according to FoodNavigator-USA. Federal regulators are now working on a national definition of ultra-processed food, The Shelby Report notes.

Still, the U.S. is playing catch-up with much of the world. Starting with Mexico in 2010, Latin American countries like Ecuador, Chile, Peru, Uruguay, Argentina and Colombia have put nutrition warning labels on the front of food packages, The Guardian reports. 

In Chile, black stop-sign labels led shoppers to buy significantly less sugar and salt and pushed food companies to reformulate their products. 

California’s seal works the other way: instead of warning shoppers away from unhealthy food, it points them toward healthier options.

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