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Quick Answer: California's AB 2244, signed into law on September 28, 2026, creates the nation's first government-backed voluntary "Non-Ultraprocessed Certified" seal. Certification agents can begin certifying products no later than June 1, 2028. For CPG R&D and procurement teams, the clock is already running. Key Takeaways: - The retailer shelf-placement requirement is a commercial incentive, not just a compliance checkbox. Retailers with over $10 million in annual gross sales carrying more than 25 certified products must prominently display at least 3 of them — endcap, checkout aisle, or entrance. - CDPH hasn't published the UPF definition yet. That means the window to understand your exposure, identify flagged ingredients, and evaluate supplier alternatives is now — before the rules are finalized. - This is a formulation data problem as much as a regulatory one. Teams that can map their current SKUs against likely UPF criteria before 2028 will have a meaningful head start on reformulation.
Governor Gavin Newsom signed AB 2244 — the California Certified Food Standard Act — into law on September 28, 2026. Authored by Assemblymember Jesse Gabriel (D-Encino) and co-sponsored by the Environmental Working Group, it passed 72-0 in the Assembly and 32-0 in the Senate. That's not a close call. This is consensus legislation.
The law creates the nation's first government-backed voluntary "Non-Ultraprocessed Certified" seal, modeled after USDA Organic. The California Department of Public Health (CDPH) is responsible for building the certification framework — including defining "ultra-processed foods" under California law. Certification agents may begin certifying products no later than June 1, 2028, with the program expected to be fully operational by 2029. Certifications renew every 3 years.
AB 2244 builds directly on AB 1264, the Real Food, Healthy Kids Act passed in 2025, which created the first U.S. statutory UPF definition and is phasing "ultra-processed foods of concern" out of K-12 school meals by 2035. AB 2244 extends that logic from school cafeterias to retail shelves.
This is the part that should get your commercial and sales teams' attention immediately.
Retailers with over $10 million in annual gross sales that carry more than 25 certified products must prominently display at least 3 certified items — endcap, checkout aisle, entrance, or equivalent high-visibility placement. That's a shelf-placement incentive written directly into law.
For CPG brands, certification isn't just a consumer-facing marketing badge. It's a potential pathway to preferred placement at qualifying retailers. The brands that move early on reformulation, get certified in 2028 or 2029, and build a portfolio of qualifying SKUs will have a structural advantage at retail before most competitors have finished their internal gap analysis.
The question isn't whether this matters commercially. It's whether your team is positioned to act on it before the window closes.
A significant amount of the framework is still in CDPH's hands. Here's where things actually stand.
What is confirmed:
What is still undefined:
Critics — including coverage in the LA Times and NY Post — have noted there is still no uniform federal UPF definition, which creates potential inconsistency across states. That's a real concern for brands selling nationally. A product that qualifies for California's seal may face different standards if other states follow with their own frameworks.
That regulatory fragmentation risk is worth tracking now, not in 2028.
AB 1264's UPF definition — which CDPH will almost certainly use as a foundation — targets products containing certain additives, emulsifiers, and preservatives combined with high levels of sugar, salt, or fat, or products containing non-nutritive sweeteners. That's a broad net.
For most mid-to-large CPG portfolios, a meaningful share of SKUs will land somewhere between "clearly qualifies" and "clearly doesn't." The complicated middle is where the real work happens.
Your R&D team needs to answer three questions before CDPH finalizes the definition:
Which of your current SKUs would likely fall inside or outside a UPF definition modeled on AB 1264's criteria? The criteria are directionally clear enough to start mapping now, even against a moving target.
Which specific ingredients or additives are the likely disqualifiers? Emulsifiers like carrageenan or polysorbate 80, synthetic preservatives, artificial flavors, certain colorants, and non-nutritive sweeteners are the obvious candidates based on AB 1264's framework.
What are the viable substitutions, and who supplies them? Clean-label emulsifier alternatives, natural preservation systems, and non-UPF-flagged sweeteners all carry different cost profiles, functional trade-offs, and supplier availability. That's a sourcing problem, not just a formulation one.
Teams that start this analysis now have roughly 18 months before certification agents can begin operating. That's enough time to reformulate, validate, and source — if you start now. It's not enough time if you wait for CDPH to publish the final definition.
Understanding the law isn't the hard part. The hard part is having visibility into your own formulations at the ingredient level — connected to supplier data and regulatory criteria — across your full SKU portfolio.
Most CPG teams still manage formulation data in disconnected systems: R&D in one tool, procurement in another, nutrition data in a third, supplier specs in email threads. That fragmentation is manageable when nothing is changing. It becomes a serious liability when you need to run a portfolio-wide assessment against an evolving regulatory definition.
The practical workflow your team needs: query your formulation library for ingredients that appear on likely UPF flagging criteria, identify which SKUs are affected, surface supplier alternatives for flagged additives, and track cost and nutrition trade-offs for each substitution option. Then do it again when CDPH publishes the definition, because the criteria will shift.
That's not a spreadsheet workflow. It's an ingredient intelligence problem.
Journey Foods connects ingredient, formulation, nutrition, and supply-chain data in one platform so teams can run exactly this kind of cross-functional analysis. The Operations Scientist technology evaluates ingredients simultaneously across nutrition, cost, sustainability, sourcing, and quality criteria — which maps directly to the multi-variable trade-off your team faces when evaluating reformulation options for AB 2244. Journey AI supports search, analysis, and substitution throughout, so your team can move from "which SKUs are exposed?" to "what do we do about it?" without switching tools.
One framing note worth being clear about: this is research and decision support, not automated compliance. Your regulatory team still owns the compliance determination. What Journey Foods provides is the ingredient-level visibility for R&D and procurement to make faster, better-informed decisions when the definition lands.
You don't need to wait for the final rules to start. Here's where to focus:
The brands that get certified in 2028 and 2029 will be the ones that started their formulation analysis in 2026 and 2027. The shelf-placement incentive is real. The commercial window is real.
Journey Foods is built for exactly this kind of multi-variable, cross-functional ingredient and formulation work. Start the analysis now.
What is AB 2244 and when was it signed?
AB 2244, the California Certified Food Standard Act, was signed by Governor Gavin Newsom on September 28, 2026. It creates the nation's first government-backed voluntary "Non-Ultraprocessed Certified" seal for food products sold in California.
When will the Non-Ultraprocessed Certified seal be available?
Certification agents may begin certifying products no later than June 1, 2028. The program is expected to be fully operational by 2029, with certifications renewing every 3 years.
Who defines "ultra-processed food" under AB 2244?
The California Department of Public Health (CDPH) is responsible for building the certification framework and defining "ultra-processed foods" under the law. That definition has not yet been published as of October 2026.
Does the retailer shelf-placement requirement apply to all stores?
No. The requirement applies to retailers with over $10 million in annual gross sales that carry more than 25 certified products. Those retailers must prominently display at least 3 certified items in high-visibility locations such as endcaps, checkout aisles, or store entrances.
How does AB 2244 relate to AB 1264?
AB 1264, the Real Food, Healthy Kids Act (2025), created the first U.S. statutory UPF definition and is phasing ultra-processed foods of concern out of K-12 school meals by 2035. AB 2244 builds on that foundation, extending the UPF framework from school meals to retail product certification.
What ingredients are most likely to disqualify a product from certification?
Based on AB 1264's criteria, the likely disqualifiers include certain emulsifiers (such as carrageenan and polysorbate 80), synthetic preservatives, artificial flavors, certain colorants, and non-nutritive sweeteners — particularly when combined with high sugar, salt, or fat content. CDPH's final definition will determine the exact criteria.
What should CPG teams do now to prepare for AB 2244?
Start by mapping your current SKU portfolio against AB 1264's UPF criteria to identify high-risk formulations. Audit additive and emulsifier use across your portfolio, identify clean-label supplier alternatives for flagged ingredients, and track the CDPH rulemaking process as it develops. Teams with centralized ingredient and formulation data will move significantly faster once the definition is published.
