SB25

Nutrition education, school activity and food warnings

SB25 combines nutrition education, protections for school physical activity, professional continuing education and a food-warning-label requirement. It was signed June 22, 2025, with a general effective date of September 1, 2025, but several requirements start in 2027. The food-warning provision has also been the subject of a preliminary court injunction; it should not be read as an unconditional, currently enforceable requirement against every manufacturer. official history; final law; February 11, 2026 court order (filed copy).

School activity: four middle-school semesters, not six

The act expressly extends the physical-activity requirements to open-enrollment charter schools. It retains at least 30 minutes of moderate or vigorous daily activity for full-day pre-K through grade 5, and for at least four semesters across grades 6–8. Part-day pre-K is covered to the extent practicable. The alternatives remain: 135 minutes per week for a below-grade-6 grade level when daily scheduling is impractical, or 225 minutes per two weeks for a grade level using block schedules. Illness/disability exemptions and qualifying middle-school extracurricular exemptions remain. Rules must permit the qualifying school-related or private-league/club activity exemption when participation is proved. final law, Section 1.

Employees cannot withhold the covered recess or curriculum physical activity in kindergarten–grade 5, or curriculum physical activity in grades 6–8, as punishment for academic performance or behavior. This protection is not postponed to 2027. The final act did not adopt the proposal to increase middle-school participation from four to six semesters. final law, Sections 1 and 24.

Education and training beginning in 2027

Beginning in 2027–28, K–8 health standards must include nutrition instruction based on the new advisory committee’s guidelines. Districts and charter schools with high-school programs must offer a half-credit nutrition-and-wellness elective using State Board of Education-approved materials. Culinary skills, horticulture and consumer economics may be included. Students are not required by this act to take that elective to graduate. final law, Sections 1–2 and 15.

Public higher-education institutions must provide entering associate- and bachelor’s-degree students enrolling on or after July 1, 2027 an opportunity to complete a nutrition course—not require every student to take it. Specified health-related institutions must implement nutrition curricula by July 1, 2027 and require the covered medical, nursing, allied-health or other health-care-service students to complete them to remain eligible for the distributions and grants specified in Education Code Chapter 63. This is a condition on those funding streams, not automatic loss of all state funding. final law, Sections 3–7 and 16–17.

Physicians, physician assistants, nurses and licensed dietitians must complete nutrition/metabolic-health continuing education under their boards’ rules for renewal applications filed on or after January 1, 2027. Rules must set the hours and content based on committee guidelines by December 31, 2026. For dietitians, the act caps the overall required continuing education under the new Section 701.302 at 12 hours per renewal; it does not mandate 12 additional nutrition hours. Dietitian renewal can be refused for failure to complete the required education. Earlier renewal applications remain under prior law. final law, Sections 10–14 and 20–23.

A seven-member nutrition advisory committee

The governor appoints seven members, including an expert in the listed metabolic/culinary/lifestyle/integrative-medicine fields, a physician certified in functional medicine, an Agriculture Department representative, rural and urban representatives, and a pediatrician specializing in metabolic health. Members serve staggered four-year terms. The governor must consider recommendations from the three specified legislative committee chairs and limit potentially conflicting academic or health-institution affiliations to no more than two members. final law, Section 119B.003.

Ownership interests in food, beverage, supplement or pharmaceutical manufacturers, or specified relatives’ ownership interests within the third degree, disqualify an appointee. Past/current affiliations and other potential conflicts must be disclosed; failure to disclose permits removal. The committee is attached administratively to the Department of State Health Services. It must independently review scientific studies, study nutrition and ultra-processed foods’ relationship to chronic health problems, educate the public and maintain guidelines based on the consensus of available science. final law, Sections 119B.002–.004.

The act required appointments by December 31, 2025 and an initial report by September 1, 2026, followed by annual September 1 reports and an accessible, annually updated state webpage. Those are statutory duties, not a claim here that every deadline was met. The committee expires December 31, 2032. final law, Sections 119B.005–.008 and 18.

What the food-label provision says

The enacted text requires a manufacturer offering food in Texas, wherever manufactured, to warn when a human-consumption product contains an ingredient in its 44-entry list and FDA rules require that ingredient to be named on the label. Examples include specified artificial colors, bleached/bromated flour, BHA/BHT, titanium dioxide and certain oils and additives; the exact list is in Section 431.0815(a). It is a disclosure requirement, not a Texas ban on selling every listed ingredient. The statute’s list is not, by itself, scientific proof that every ingredient is dangerous or banned abroad. final law, Section 9.

The prescribed wording is: “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 warning must be prominent, reasonably visible and high-contrast, using type no smaller than the smallest FDA-required consumer-information type. Online sales also require the information to be posted legibly or otherwise communicated; a retailer’s statutory duty applies to the extent the manufacturer supplies the required information. final law, Section 431.0815(b)–(c).

Exceptions cover non-human-consumption ingredients; restaurant food; food labeled, prepared or served in a retail establishment; USDA Food Safety and Inspection Service products; products bearing a governmental warning with a U.S. surgeon-general recommendation; drugs/supplements; and agricultural chemicals used in producing, storing or transporting raw agricultural commodities. Merely being sold at retail is not the same as every packaged product receiving the retail-establishment exception. final law, Section 431.0815(d).

The statutory labeling duty applies only to labels developed or copyrighted on or after January 1, 2027, not automatically to every existing label. The attorney general may seek an injunction, up to $50,000 per day for each distinct noncompliant food product, and reasonable investigation/enforcement costs. The provision creates no private lawsuit right. Section 431.0817 separately provides that the warning requirement has no effect under specified federal-law/regulation triggers involving ingredient prohibitions, conditions, safety determinations or processed-food labeling. The final text says law or regulation, not mere federal guidance. final law, Sections 9 and 19.

Court and rulemaking qualification

In American Beverage Association v. Paxton, the February 11, 2026 order barred the attorney general from enforcing Section 9 against the plaintiffs or their members. The judge found likely success on the compelled-speech claim, not a final merits judgment, and did not find likely success at that stage on the vagueness or federal-preemption claims. The court did not finally decide whether the warning was false or misleading. The order does not repeal the entire nutrition/education act or expressly protect everyone outside its stated scope. Texas’s notice of appeal certifies electronic filing on March 5, although its signature-date line says February 9. These dated court documents are not a representation that a complete current appeal docket has been audited. February 11, 2026 court order (filed copy); notice of appeal (signed copy).

DSHS adopted implementing rules effective February 23, 2026. Its responses to comments discuss label-creation dates, federal-law interactions and covered businesses. Rule adoption by itself does not show that the court’s injunction disappeared. Read the enacted requirements together with the applicable rules and court orders, rather than treating the warning’s foreign-regulator statement as an independently established health finding. February 2026 adopted food-label rules.