In late-August 2025, social media posts liked thousands of times claimed that Mountain Dew, a popular soda, was "just banned" in the state of Texas, and that it's also banned in 160 countries.
The most popular of these posts was a Facebook post (archived) liked over 7,000 times. Multiple other Facebook (archived) posts (archived) were liked hundreds of times. An X post (archived) making the claim was viewed over 30,000 times. Many Snopes readers searched the site to find out if the claim was true.
This claim is false. Texas has not banned Mountain Dew. The U.S. formulation for Mountain Dew was banned in many countries, but Mountain Dew could still sell in those countries with other formulations, and the banned ingredient in the American version was removed about a decade prior to the social media posts.
The posts were most likely referring to Texas Senate Bill 25 (SB25), which was passed on June 22, 2025, and became law on Sept. 1, 2025.
While the text of SB25 was broadly focused on nutrition standards, a section of the law concerned food labeling. The law requires food manufacturers to put warning labels explaining a product has ingredients that are "not recommended for human consumption by the appropriate authority in Australia, Canada, the European Union, or the United Kingdom" when sold in Texas if the product includes one of 44 ingredients listed in the law's text.
At the time of the law's passage, the standard flavor of Mountain Dew included one ingredient on Texas' list, according to the drink's listed ingredients on the Pepsico website. That ingredient was Yellow 5, which is a commonly used synthetic dye also called tartrazine. Even so, the law would not ban the sale of Mountain Dew's current formula; it would just require that Pepsico put a label on Mountain Dew cans and bottles warning consumers that it has an ingredient "not recommended for human consumption."
It's possible Mountain Dew may eventually remove Yellow 5 from its formula anyway. In April, the Trump administration's Food and Drug Administration (FDA) said it would work with the food industry to eliminate the use of six synthetic dyes, including Yellow 5.
As of September 2025, food products with Yellow 5 sold in the European Union and United Kingdom must include warning labels that declare it could have an adverse effect on attention and activity, but neither jurisdiction bans it entirely. Yellow 5 is permitted in Australia and Canada.
The current U.S. formulation of Mountain Dew is banned in the U.K. because of an ingredient not included in Texas' list. That ingredient is calcium disodium EDTA.
At one point, Mountain Dew's U.S. formulation was reportedly banned in many countries across the globe, including in the U.K., the countries of the EU and Japan, according to Mashable. That was because of an ingredient called brominated vegetable oil (BVO), which Pepsico says it no longer uses in Mountain Dew. The FDA revoked its approval for the use of BVO in food in 2024.
Snopes previously wrote about the use of BVO in Mountain Dew and its later removal from the drink.