Texas school lunches will no longer contain several additives

AUSTIN, Texas - Starting this fall, all schools across the state will remove several additives from students' free and reduced meals.

Local perspective:

Lake Travis ISD is ahead of the curve by providing healthier food options for its students. 

The school district has been working closely with the Central Texas Food Bank and local farmers to provide them with greener options.

Senate Bill 314 bans certain food additives in school lunches. 

There are seven additives listed:

• Brominated vegetable oil
• Potassium bromate
• Propylparaben
• Azodicarbonamide
• Butylated hydroxyanisoleR
• Red dye 3
• Titanium dioxide.

Lawmakers say the chemicals are linked to severe harm and shouldn't be served to children because there is healthier food available.

What they're saying:

Marissa Bell dietitian at Lake Travis ISD says, the district uses clean label initiatives where we restrict food additives, like artificial food dyes, high fructose corn syrup, and MSG in all of their products. 

On top of that, they are increasing their scratch cooking and continuing to partner with local farmers.

"We've already been ahead of the curve, reducing these additives in our meals for quite some time. We will be relying on our food manufacturers to help with the remaining couple of products that are out there that do have some of these food additives. So there'll be a minimal impact to our parents and families at Lake Travis," says Bell.

What's next:

Starting this week, students can start to see changes being made to their lunches.

Bell points out, in the future, school districts could face a hurdle on how to get fresh food from local farms to students. 

The Central Texas Food Bank has been working with Lake Travis, Manor and Florence Independent School Districts and launched a food hub program to provide a channel to local farmers and ranchers.