AUSTIN – An effort that would force some of Texas’ most iconic foods and drinks — including Dr Pepper, Blue Bell Ice Cream and Buc-ee’s Famous Beaver Nuggets — to change recipes or label their products as “not recommended for human consumption” was decisively rejected by the Texas House on Sunday.
Led by a group of House Republicans whose districts include those companies, 79 lawmakers voted to weaken the labeling requirement tucked inside a sweeping nutrition and fitness bill championed by Washington, D.C., Republicans.
They also chose to remove the inclusion of high-fructose corn syrup from a section that lists about 50 ingredients — including several artificial colors, flavors and sweeteners — that trigger the warning label if they’re not removed.
“I want to make Texas healthy again, but I do not want to hurt Texas business,” said Rep. Pat Curry, R-Waco, whose district includes Dr Pepper.
The labels are found in Senate Bill 25, a 20-page bill focused on public nutrition and making students more physically active. It is known as “Make Texas Healthy Again,” inspired by U.S. Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s “Make America Healthy Again.”
Sen. Lois Kolkhorst — a Republican whose district includes Blue Bell Creameries in Brenham — authored the bill.
Rep. Lacey Hull, R-Houston, fought hard against Sunday’s efforts to remove or weaken the label requirement.
“This is about the MAHA parents and the crunchy granola parents coming together to say we are sick and tired of being sick and tired,” Hull said. “This is Republicans and Democrats coming together for Texas kids.”
Hull said she had “personally spoken with the White House” about the proposal and was told that “they are looking to us, looking to Texas, to get this done and to stand for our children and our future.”
Kennedy called her on the House floor during the debate, she told lawmakers right before the vote.
On Monday, the Texas House gave final approval to the weaker bill on a 116-24 vote. The legislation now goes back to the Senate to either accept or negotiate differences in the two chambers’ versions of the bill.
During the House debate, opponents objected to mandates on students and schools to include nutrition classes with the state providing no funding — or even estimates — for the costs.
They also said the bill doesn’t do anything to get to the root of obesity, hunger and poor nutrition among Texas families.
“It’s a sugar pill. It’s designed to make you think you’re doing something when you’re not,” said House Democratic Caucus Chair Gene Wu, D-Houston, who added that he initially looked forward to the legislation and s parts of it. “It’s designed to take your attention away from the core problems that we have in our society. If you want to make kids healthier, if you want to make families healthier, then we should focus on the family. We should be asking why parents don’t have enough time to prepare nutritious meals. We should be asking why your schools aren’t serving good food as an example to our kids.”
The bill can still move Texas toward better nutrition but part of that was “gutted” when lawmakers opted to thin the list and subject it to federal laws, Hull said as she accused them of capitulating to the food lobby.
Earlier in the evening, Hull conceded to the removal of high-fructose corn syrup and aspartame from the list after pressure by Blue Bell and some others, she told lawmakers.
The labeling requirement was one provision in a wide-ranging bill that focuses on nutrition awareness in school and the medical communities as well as promoting physical education.
The bill requires daily PE for students in kindergarten through eighth grade. Currently many schools only have PE twice a week. The bill prohibits educators from disciplining students by taking away recess, PE and sports practice.
A new nutrition advisory council would be tucked into the Texas Department of State Health Services under the bill. Doctors, medical residents, nurses and nursing assistants would have to have nutrition training.
A provision requiring nutrition education for college students was thrown out.
The Senate ed a different version of the bill unanimously in March after Republican Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick made the legislation a priority.
A backlash to labels
While most of the bill had broad , the labeling requirement — and in particular the last-minute inclusion by Hull of high-fructose corn syrup and the aspartame found in diet sodas onto the list of targeted ingredients — triggered strong backlash from companies such as Hormel Foods as well as of the state’s business and agriculture community.
The House weakened the labeling requirement Sunday by ing an amendment that allows the federal government to pre-empt the state law with any new laws governing ingredients approved for U.S. consumption.
It wasn’t the blanket carve-out that the food companies wanted, but it took some teeth out of the bill — which Hull said was the intention of the enormous lobbying effort she saw against that part of the legislation.
“You’ve probably met them (industry lobbyists) all right outside those doors,” she said, pointing to the chamber entrance. “We should probably rename this bill The Lobby Employment Act of 2025. Entire associations have formed against this bill because big food doesn’t want to inform consumers.”
Rep. Jessica Gonzalez, D-Dallas, whose parents own “Mexsnax,” a small Mexican snack company based in the Oak Cliff area of Dallas, disputed that notion Monday.
“My family owned this business since 1986 and started it when my dad recognized the lack of Mexican snack foods being sold, not only in Dallas, but in Texas as a whole,” she said. “What started small has grown into a regional brand. The bills proposed bans on key ingredients, on the products produced and sold by our family business, could significantly, could significantly impact on how we run day-to-day operations. But my family is just one example.”
A coalition of 50 brands and Texas associations distributed a letter to lawmakers last week blasting the labeling requirement.
“This proposed state-specific labeling mandate could destabilize local and regional economies at a time when businesses are already fighting to keep prices down, maintain inventory, and avoid layoffs,” the letter reads.
Under the labeling requirement, if a company does not remove the ingredients, it must note on the product:
“WARNING: This product contains an ingredient that is not recommended for human consumption by the appropriate authority in Australia, Canada, the European Union, or the United Kingdom.”
The Texas Attorney General could seek an injunction against companies that violate the statute, as well as impose daily fines up to $50,000 per day for each food item that contains the ingredient without the label, under the proposal.
Food companies argued that labeling or removing the ingredients in Texas would create massive disruption and effectively force them to do it nationally.
Texas — home to almost 10% of the nation’s population — is such a big market that it would be impossible for companies to carve it out with separate formulas or packaging, the letter read, amounting to a national policy.
The agricultural groups objected to the inclusion of some pesticides that are never included in foods anyway — only introduced during the growing process. Some of those were also struck from the list as well.
“Our coalition have a duty to our millions of customers in Texas, to ensure that they have access to the products they choose at the best possible prices – especially during a time of economic uncertainty and upward price pressures on food products,” the letter read.
Companies and brands that attached their logos to the letter include: General Mills, Keurig Dr Pepper, Frito Lay, Cacique, Hormel Foods and Kraft Heinz.
Others who signed the letter urging lawmakers to remove the labeling requirement from the bill included the Texas Association of Business, the Dairy Products Institute of Texas, the Texas Food and Fuel Association, and the Texas Beverage Association.
They employ “hundreds of thousands of hard-working Texans — people who work in retail, manufacturing, logistics, distribution and food and beverage,” the letter read. “These jobs help power local economies across every corner of the state.”