Actor Mario Lopez took a shot at California Governor Gavin Newsom for prioritizing food safety legislation, over the state’s dire epidemics of crime and homelessness.
The former “Saved By The Bell” star and current “Access Hollywood” host had a scathing response to a headline about a state bill restricting the sale of food or drinks containing harmful additives, known as the “Skittles ban,” which Newsom signed into law on Saturday.
Lopez shared an image that featured a pack of Skittles and Newsom’s face, which was superimposed with the text: “California becomes the first U.S. state to ban Skittles and 12,000 additional products for cancer-causing additives.”
“Crime is through the roof, worst drug epidemic ever & homelessness at an all time high in CA… Let’s focus on Skittles,” Lopez captioned the image.
Crime is through the roof, worst drug epidemic ever & homelessness at an all time high in CA… Let’s focus on Skittles pic.twitter.com/ohWQcUcQjf
— Mario Lopez (@mariolopezviva) October 10, 2023
California Food Safety Act, Assembly Bill 418, which was championed by Democrat Jesse Gabriel, the chair of the state Assembly Committee on Privacy and Consumer Protection, prohibits the sale, distribution, or manufacturing of of food and beverages containing four additives that have been connected to an array of harmful effects and diseases.
Food and beverage manufacturers will have until 2027 to “revise their recipes” to remove brominated vegetable oil, potassium bromate, propylparaben, and red dye 3, which is utilized in Skittles, as well as other candies, juices, and packaged foods.
According to NPR, the Food and Drug Administration banned red dye 3 from cosmetics in 1990, after it was found to cause cancer in lab animals, but have allowed its continued use in food and drinks.
While California is the first state to ban the additives, while the United Kingdom, Canada, Australia, China, Japan, and more countries have restricted their use for years.
Top brands like Skittles, have been selling their products in those countries with modified ingredients for just as long.
“It’s unacceptable that the U.S. is so far behind the rest of the world when it comes to food safety,” Gabriel said in a statement on Facebook after Newsom signed the bill into law.
“This bill will not ban any foods or products — it simply will require food companies to make minor modifications to their recipes and switch to the safer alternative ingredients that they already use in Europe and so many other places around the globe,” he noted.
The additives have been linked to “increased risk of cancer, behavioral issues in children, harm to the reproductive system, and damage to the immune system.”
“The Governor’s signature today represents a huge step forward in our effort to protect children and families in California from dangerous and toxic chemicals in our food supply,” Gabriel stated.
Lopez’s social media commenters had plenty of cracks to make about Newsom’s new law.
“I thought [since] Newsom loved the rainbow, he would give skittles a pass sense he like tasting the rainbow,” one person remarked.
“Skittles are the gateway bro,” another joked.
“But pot and edibles are legal,” someone added with an eye roll.
“Czar Newsom says, “just say NO to Skittles” while allowing illegal meth, crack, and fentanyl to flow freely throughout CA,” someone else pointed out.
According to Cal Matters, California’s opioid-related deaths skyrocketed by 121% from 2019 and 2021, and the majority of them were linked to synthetically produced fentanyl.
So far in 2023, homelessness in the state has spiked up by 9% since 2022, and those numbers were based off of a partial count of sheltered and unsheltered people from data collected in April of this year.
California is the 17th most dangerous state in the nation, with a 6% rise in both violent and property-related crimes from 2021 to 2023.
Around 33% of female and 25% of male residents experienced domestic assaults, while the state has the third highest vehicle theft rates in the country. The majority of violent crimes include theft of property, pick-pocketing and burglary.
Emeryville, a which is just North of Oakland, is the most dangerous city in the state, with roughly 1 in 15 of the area’s 12,905 residents victimized by violent crime.