No, California Isn’t Banning Skittles—Here’s What New Food Additive Restrictions Really Mean

On October 7, Governor Gavin Newsom signed AB 418, known as the California Food Safety Act, into law.

via: Forbes

Despite some viral social media posts claiming a new California law will ban Skittles candy in 2027, there’s nothing in the law—which will ban certain food additives deemed dangerous by some studies—that will keep the popular candy off shelves.

Gov. Gavin Newsom (D-Calif.) signed a bill into law Saturday banning four chemicals—red dye No. 3, potassium bromate, brominated vegetable oil and propylparaben—which are commonly used in snacks like Peeps, Brach’s candy corn and Little Debbie Cosmic Brownies.

The bill has sometimes misleadingly been called a “Skittles ban” because a previous version of the bill would have banned titanium dioxide, a chemical found in Skittles candy.

Though the law no longer mentions titanium dioxide, the “Skittles ban” moniker stuck, and some viral social media posts are falsely claiming California will ban Skittles candy by 2027.

Skittles will remain unaffected by the ban, and even if titanium dioxide were still named in the law, companies have until 2027 to reformulate products to exclude the banned chemicals.

The European Commission banned the use of titanium dioxide last year—but Skittles can still be found on shelves in Europe because the candies sold in these countries reportedly exclude the banned chemical.

Newsom reportedly criticized the “Skittles ban” nickname, pointing out that other countries that have banned titanium dioxide still sell Skittles.

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