{"id":236763,"date":"2026-03-26T01:20:09","date_gmt":"2026-03-26T01:20:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/236763\/"},"modified":"2026-03-26T01:20:09","modified_gmt":"2026-03-26T01:20:09","slug":"lawmaker-proposes-california-certified-label-for-foods","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/236763\/","title":{"rendered":"Lawmaker proposes \u2018California Certified\u2019 label for foods"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Customer<\/p>\n

Customer Nina Culliver, 32, uses paper bags to load her grocery purchases at Raley\u2019s in Sacramento in Dec. 2025. A bill proposed recently by Assemblymember Jesse Gabriel, D-Encino, would allow food manufacturers to get a \u201cCalifornia Certified\u201d sticker on certain healthier foods.<\/p>\n

PAUL KITAGAKI JR.<\/p>\n

pkitagaki@sacbee.com<\/p>\n

Artificial flavors, preservatives and anti-caking agents hate to see him coming.<\/p>\n

Assemblymember Jesse Gabriel, D-Encino, has made headlines in the past few years for authoring bills that have cracked down on sweets with synthetic dyes like Skittles<\/a> and instituted a timeline for getting healthier food<\/a> in public schools.<\/p>\n

His latest aim is to create a new classification for healthy foods: \u201cCalifornia Certified.\u201d<\/p>\n

Gabriel\u2019s bill, AB 2244, would allow food manufacturers to apply to get the California Certified sticker on their product, much like they do with the USDA Organic label, which has been around since 2002. Products would be approved, beginning in 2028, if they don\u2019t meet the definition of \u2018ultra-processed,\u2019 defined by having a specified substance and being high in either fat, salt, sugar or having a non-nutritive sugar.<\/p>\n

\u201cIngredient lists are often long, they\u2019re technical, they\u2019re incomplete, and they leave ordinary folks like me without clear, accessible tools to distinguish between minimally processed and highly processed foods,\u201d Gabriel said during a news conference Wednesday.<\/p>\n

A release issued by his office pointed to research showing links between ultra-processed foods and cancer, cardiovascular disease, Type 2 diabetes, metabolic disorders, reproductive harm and other chronic conditions.<\/p>\n

\u201cI know a lot of people will say, \u2018Well, shop on the outside aisles,\u2019 but not everybody\u2019s there yet,\u201d said former television host Maria Menounos, who is lending her support to the effort. \u201cUntil they get to that place, there are going to be things in the middle they\u2019re going to want.\u201d<\/p>\n

Melanie Benesh from the Environmental Working Group, which has worked closely with Gabriel throughout the years on his legislation, said if the bill were to be passed, shoppers could see the seals on breads, yogurts, snacks and cereals.<\/p>\n

According to the bill, the State Department of Public Health would need to accredit certification agents that could determine which products qualify as \u201cCalifornia Certified.\u201d The bill has yet to be assigned a cost estimate and is expected to be heard in the next few months by the Assembly Health Committee.<\/p>\n

\"Assemblymember Assemblymember Jesse Gabriel, D-Encino, shared the image of a possible sticker manufacturers could apply to have added to their products. <\/p>\n


\n \"Profile
\n <\/a><\/p>\n

Kate Wolffe<\/a><\/p>\n

The Sacramento Bee<\/p>\n

Kate Wolffe covers the California Legislature for The Sacramento Bee. Previously, she reported on health care for Capital Public Radio in Sacramento and daily news for KQED-FM in San Francisco. She is a graduate of UC Berkeley.\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Customer Nina Culliver, 32, uses paper bags to load her grocery purchases at Raley\u2019s in Sacramento in Dec.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":236764,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[106888,7,106887,9,8,106889,4273,37132],"class_list":["post-236763","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-california","tag-ab-2244","tag-california","tag-california-certified-label","tag-california-headlines","tag-california-news","tag-food-labeling-reform","tag-jesse-gabriel","tag-ultra-processed-foods"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/236763","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=236763"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/236763\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/236764"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=236763"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=236763"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=236763"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}