Only One Quarter of Americans Care About Additives

While people in Poland, Mexico and Spain are more likely to study food labels to find out which products use artificial flavors and preservatives, Americans are less prone to do so. In a survey by Statista Consumer Insights, only 25 percent of U.S. respondents said they actively avoided these food additives, the third-lowest result among 21 countries.

This is despite the fact that the U.S. still allows substances to be added to food that have, for example, been outlawed or severely restricted in EU countries, the United Kingdom, Canada, Australia, China and Japan. The issue came to the forefront again last week when California passed a law banning four such additives from 2027, some of which continue to be used in popular sweets, drinks and baked goods. One affected brand, Just Born, has already announced it was removing one of the additives in question, red dye 3, from popular Easter candy Peeps ahead of the deadline. The company already did away with the artificial color in another of their candies, Hot Tamales, recently.