PHOENIX — If you’re hoping your child can celebrate their birthday with some cupcakes or homemade goodies with students at their school, that’s no longer allowed. A new law took effect this school year, banning 11 different ingredients from being served and sold in school foods and snacks. School districts have been making changes and informing staff and families of the new law.
In 2025, Arizona lawmakers passed a bill called the Arizona Healthy Schools Act. The law prohibits schools from serving, selling, or allowing a third party to sell ultra-processed food on campus during the regular school day. According to the Arizona Department of Education, a school day means “midnight before to 30 minutes after the end of the instructional day."
The ingredients that are banned under the new law:
- potassium bromate
- propylparaben
- titanium dioxide
- brominated vegetable oil
- yellow dye 5 or 6
- blue dye 1 or 2
- green dye 3
- red dye 3 or 40
Since the law passed, schools across Arizona have been examining all the foods they have on their campuses and evaluating every item on their menus. As districts are preparing for the 2026-2027 school year, they’ve been meeting with their educators about this new law.
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“It's a huge adjustment period from what we've seen,” said Tyler Ross, the director of child nutrition with the Phoenix Elementary School District. “Even the conversations we've had among the principals, like what do we do? We have student stores; we have classroom celebrations. We have special events. How do we comply with this?”
Yezica Hostetler, the director of child nutrition for Queen Creek Unified, said they’ve been working with manufacturers, too.
"To make sure that they have reformulated the items before we can put them in our cafeterias this year. Most of them have been reformulated. Now, we did have to change a few of the items and just buy a new item from a different company,” she said.
With this new law, that means educators won’t be able to reward students with snacks or treats that include any of those banned ingredients.
What this means for parents
According to the AZ Department of Education and the two child nutrition directors, parents can still provide their own student with whatever they want to bring to school. However, if a student has a birthday party at school, both Ross and Hostetler say parents cannot bring any items with those banned ingredients to share with the entire class.
“Ultimately, things that are homemade should remain at home,” Ross said.
Some school districts are putting together an approved list of foods and snacks. In some districts, they will even sell some snacks or treats to parents that comply with the law and can be shared among all students.
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