Azodicarbonamide

Texas Senate Bill 25 (89th Legislature, 2025) lists this substance among 44 ingredients that trigger a mandatory consumer warning label under Texas Health & Safety Code Sec. 431.0815. The label reads: "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." It applies to food labels developed or copyrighted on or after January 1, 2027. On February 11, 2026 the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Texas preliminarily enjoined enforcement against the plaintiff trade groups and their members; Texas appealed to the Fifth Circuit on March 5, 2026.

Named in Texas SB 25 (2025) among 44 ingredients requiring a consumer warning label: "not recommended for human consumption by the appropriate authority in Australia, Canada, the European Union, or the United Kingdom." The requirement applies to labels developed or copyrighted on or after Jan 1, 2027, and was preliminarily enjoined by a federal court (W.D. Tex., Feb 11 2026); Texas’s appeal is pending at the Fifth Circuit.

Weight of evidence suggests that azodicarbonamide can induce asthma in a significant proportion of exposed people, and azodicarbonamide should be considered as a human skin sensitizer.

WHO's chemical-safety assessment finds azodicarbonamide can induce occupational asthma and is a human skin sensitizer in exposed workers.

The FDA is planning to revisit its approval of the food additive ADA (azodicarbonamide), which it previously approved to whiten cereal flour and improve baking bread dough; ADA is nicknamed the 'yoga mat chemical' and remains banned in Europe due to concerns that the chemical can create a potential carcinogen called semicarbazide during bread production.

FDA announced it is reassessing its approval of azodicarbonamide (the 'yoga mat chemical'); the additive is already banned in Europe over a semicarbazide carcinogen concern.

Azodicarbonamide may be used as an aging and bleaching ingredient in cereal flour 'in an amount not to exceed 2.05 grams per 100 pounds of flour (0.0045 percent; 45 parts per million),' and as a dough conditioner in bread baking 'in a total amount not to exceed 0.0045 percent (45 parts per million) by weight of the flour used.'

U.S. federal regulation (21 CFR 172.806) caps azodicarbonamide in cereal flour and bread dough at 45 parts per million.