A bill for an act prohibiting school districts, charter schools, and innovation zone schools from serving meals to students that contain certain ingredients.

2025-2026 Regular Session

HF 212 bans red dye 40, yellow dye 7, and margarine in all school district, charter, and innovation zone breakfast and lunch programs.

Committee report approving bill, renumbered as HF 212.

#charterschools #food #innovationzoneschools #nutrition #schooldistricts #schools #students

Summary: HF 212 (formerly HSB 5) – Prohibition of Certain Ingredients in School Meals

Overview
HF 212, introduced January 14, 2025 (originally HSB 5), would prohibit school meal programs operated by school districts, charter schools, and innovation zones from serving meals that contain specific ingredients. The bill was approved by a committee and renumbered as HF 212 as of February 6, 2025. It aligns charter schools and innovation zones with the same nutritional restrictions that apply to traditional school districts for breakfast and lunch programs.

Purpose and intent
- To ensure meals served to students in all eligible school meal programs do not include certain ingredients identified as prohibited.
- To extend existing prohibitions to charter schools and innovation zone schools that operate breakfast or lunch programs, applying the same standards used for school districts.

Key provisions
1) Amendment to 256E.7 (section 1)
- Extends compliance with the prohibited-ingredients requirements of section 283A.6 to charter schools offering breakfast or lunch programs.
- Applies “in the same manner as a school district” for those programs.

2) Amendment to 256F.4 (section 2)
- Adds a new paragraph requiring charter schools and innovation zone schools with meal programs to comply with section 283A.6’s prohibitions, mirroring the district standard.

3) New Section 283A.6 (section 3)
- Establishes prohibited ingredients for school district breakfast and lunch programs:
- Red dye 40
- Yellow dye 7
- Margarine
- Schools may not serve meals containing any of these ingredients to students.

Enforcement and scope
- The bill relies on the existing framework of section 283A.6 for enforcement of prohibited ingredients.
- Applies to school districts, charter schools, and innovation zone schools that operate breakfast or lunch programs.

Affected entities
- Public school districts (existing scope)
- Charter schools that offer breakfast or lunch programs
- Innovation zone schools with meal programs
- All students participating in these meal programs

Procedural timeline and status
- 2025-01-14: Introduced and referred to Education
- 2025-01-17 to 2025-01-22: Subcommittee hearings and recommendations
- 2025-01-29: Subcommittee recommendation and legislative committee vote (Yeas 20, Nays 3)
- 2025-01-29: Committee report recommending amendment and passage
- 2025-02-06: Committee report approving bill; renumbered as HF 212

Impact considerations
- Schools would need to adjust menus and ingredient sourcing to avoid red dye 40, yellow dye 7, and margarine.
- Vendors and food service operations may incur costs to replace restricted ingredients.
- Alignment of charter and innovation zone meal programs with district nutrition standards, potentially simplifying compliance across all public school meal providers.