---
type: "Bill"
title: "AN ACT TO AMEND TITLE 16 OF THE DELAWARE CODE REGARDING DEFAULT BEVERAGES IN CHILDRENS’ MEALS IN RESTAURANTS."
description: "This bill requires the State food safety standards for restaurants to include a system for requiring healthy beverages to be offered as the default beverage with a combination children’s meal inclusive of a drink, sold together at a unit price. It does not prohibit the restaurant’s ability to sell, or a customer’s ability to choose, a substitute or alternative beverage as-requested by a customer. This effectively creates an “opt in” instead of an “opt out” for many sugar-rich drink choices for children."
jurisdiction: "us/states/de"
legislature: "Delaware General Assembly"
session: "150"
identifier: "HB 79"
citation: "Delaware HB 79 (150)"
classification: ["bill"]
subjects: []
status: "enacted"
primary_sponsors: ["Catherine Cloutier", "Franklin D. Cooke", "Laura V. Sturgeon", "Melissa Minor-Brown", "Michael F. Smith", "S. Elizabeth Lockman", "Stephanie T. Bolden", "Valerie Longhurst"]
version_count: 3
action_count: 11
vote_count: 2
first_action: "2019-05-30"
last_action: "2019-07-17"
source: "openstates"
source_identifier: "ocd-bill/5d19a03b-4bcb-4cb3-8a44-9620fbc14e5d"
source_url: "https://legis.delaware.gov/BillDetail?LegislationId=47551"
source_hash: "b4c355271984777873bc2e83a4d873c1721b693c95844790cd43f57c2427bb88"
vintage: "2026-07-01"
source_snapshot: "https://data.openstates.org/daily/2026-07-01/public.pgdump"
retrieved_at: "2026-07-06"
confidence: "reported"
tags: ["legislation", "bill", "us-de"]
---

# Delaware HB 79 (150) — AN ACT TO AMEND TITLE 16 OF THE DELAWARE CODE REGARDING DEFAULT BEVERAGES IN CHILDRENS’ MEALS IN RESTAURANTS.

This bill requires the State food safety standards for restaurants to include a system for requiring healthy beverages to be offered as the default beverage with a combination children’s meal inclusive of a drink, sold together at a unit price. It does not prohibit the restaurant’s ability to sell, or a customer’s ability to choose, a substitute or alternative beverage as-requested by a customer. This effectively creates an “opt in” instead of an “opt out” for many sugar-rich drink choices for children.

## Version chain

The bill's text revisions, in order — the diff chain from filing to enrollment.

1. **Bill Text** (committee substitute) — [source](https://legis.delaware.gov/json/BillDetail/GenerateHtmlDocument?legislationId=47551&legislationTypeId=1&docTypeId=2&legislationName=HB79)
2. **HA 1 to HB 79** (committee substitute) — [source](http://legis.delaware.gov/json/BillDetail/GeneratePdfDocument?legislationId=47774&legislationTypeId=5&docTypeId=2)
3. **HA 2 to HB 79** (committee substitute) — [source](http://legis.delaware.gov/json/BillDetail/GeneratePdfDocument?legislationId=47786&legislationTypeId=5&docTypeId=2)

## Votes

- SM — **28–11** (pass) · lower
- SM — **15–6** (pass) · upper

## Sponsors

- Catherine Cloutier — primary (person)
- Franklin D. Cooke — primary (person)
- Laura V. Sturgeon — primary (person)
- Melissa Minor-Brown — primary (person)
- Michael F. Smith — primary (person)
- S. Elizabeth Lockman — primary (person)
- Stephanie T. Bolden — primary (person)
- Valerie Longhurst — primary (person)
- Anthony Delcollo — cosponsor (person)
- Bryan Townsend — cosponsor (person)
- David B. McBride — cosponsor (person)
- David Bentz — cosponsor (person)
- David L. Wilson — cosponsor (person)
- David P. Sokola — cosponsor (person)
- Earl G. Jaques Jr. — cosponsor (person)
- Harris B. McDowell — cosponsor (person)
- Kendra Johnson — cosponsor (person)
- Kevin S Hensley — cosponsor (person)
- Michael Ramone — cosponsor (person)
- Nicole Poore — cosponsor (person)
- Nnamdi O. Chukwuocha — cosponsor (person)
- Paul S. Baumbach — cosponsor (person)
- Raymond Seigfried — cosponsor (person)
- Stephanie L. Hansen — cosponsor (person)
- Trey Paradee — cosponsor (person)

## Timeline

The legislative action history — every referral, reading, and vote.

- **2019-05-30** Introduced and Assigned to Economic Development/Banking/Insurance & Commerce Committee in House `introduction, referral-committee`
- **2019-06-12** Reported Out of Committee (Economic Development/Banking/Insurance & Commerce) in House with 6 On Its Merits, 1 Unfavorable `committee-passage-unfavorable, committee-passage`
- **2019-06-20** Amendment HA 1 to HB 79 - Introduced and Placed With Bill `amendment-introduction`
- **2019-06-20** Amendment HA 2 to HB 79 - Introduced and Placed With Bill `amendment-introduction`
- **2019-06-20** Amendment HA 1 to HB 79 - Passed In House by Voice Vote `amendment-passage`
- **2019-06-20** Amendment HA 2 to HB 79 - Passed In House by Voice Vote `amendment-passage`
- **2019-06-20** Passed By House. Votes: 28 YES 11 NO 2 ABSENT `passage`
- **2019-06-21** Assigned to Health & Social Services Committee in Senate `introduction, referral-committee`
- **2019-06-27** Reported Out of Committee (Health & Social Services) in Senate with 1 Favorable, 2 On Its Merits `committee-passage-favorable, committee-passage`
- **2019-06-27** Passed By Senate. Votes: 16 YES 5 NO `passage`
- **2019-07-17** Signed by Governor `executive-signature`

## Source

OpenStates / OpenCivicData bulk snapshot [2026-07-01](https://data.openstates.org/daily/2026-07-01/public.pgdump); origin `ocd-bill/5d19a03b-4bcb-4cb3-8a44-9620fbc14e5d`. Confidence: reported (aggregated from official Delaware legislature records).