[Congressional Bills 118th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[S. 3281 Introduced in Senate (IS)]
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118th CONGRESS
1st Session
S. 3281
To amend the Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act to ensure that
consumers can make informed decisions in choosing between meat products
such as beef and imitation meat products, and for other purposes.
_______________________________________________________________________
IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES
November 9, 2023
Mrs. Fischer introduced the following bill; which was read twice and
referred to the Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions
_______________________________________________________________________
A BILL
To amend the Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act to ensure that
consumers can make informed decisions in choosing between meat products
such as beef and imitation meat products, and for other purposes.
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the
United States of America in Congress assembled,
SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.
This Act may be cited as the ``Real Marketing Edible Artificials
Truthfully Act of 2023'' or the ``Real MEAT Act of 2023''.
SEC. 2. LABELING OF IMITATION MEAT PRODUCTS.
The Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act is amended by inserting
after section 403C of such Act (21 U.S.C. 21 343-3) the following:
``SEC. 403D. LABELING OF IMITATION MEAT PRODUCTS.
``(a) In General.--Notwithstanding section 101.3(e) of title 21,
Code of Federal Regulations (or any successor regulations), without
respect to the relative nutritional value of the food, any imitation
meat food product; imitation beef, pork, or poultry; or imitation beef
product, pork product, or poultry product shall be deemed to be
misbranded unless its label bears, in type of uniform size and
prominence, the word `imitation' immediately before or after the name
of the food and a statement that clearly indicates the product is not
derived from, or does not contain, meat.
``(b) Coordination With Secretary of Agriculture.--
``(1) Notification of misbranding.--If the Secretary
determines that food is misbranded under subsection (a), the
Secretary shall, within 60 days of such determination, transmit
a notice of such determination to the Secretary of Agriculture.
``(2) Enforcement failure.--If the Secretary fails, within
30 days of transmitting a notice under paragraph (1), to
initiate an enforcement action with respect to the food that is
the subject of such notice, the Secretary of Agriculture may
treat each such determination of misbranding under subsection
(a) with respect to the food as a determination of misbranding
under section 1(n) of the Federal Meat Inspection Act.
``(c) Rule of Construction.--This section shall not be construed as
limiting the authority of the Secretary of Agriculture to take
enforcement or other action under the Federal Meat Inspection Act or
other applicable law with respect to a food subject to subsection (a).
``(d) Definition.--In this section:
``(1) The term `beef' or `beef product' means any food
containing edible meat tissue from domesticated Bos indicus or
Bos taurus cattle.
``(2) The term `domesticated bird' means a domesticated
chicken, turkey, duck, goose, ratite, or squab.
``(3) The term `imitation beef' means any food manufactured
to appear as beef or any food that approximates the aesthetic
qualities (primarily texture, flavor, and appearance) or the
chemical characteristics of specific types of beef but does not
contain any meat, meat food product, or meat byproduct
ingredients.
``(4) The term `imitation pork product' means any food
manufactured to appear as a pork product or any food that
approximates the aesthetic qualities (primarily texture,
flavor, and appearance) or the chemical characteristics of
specific types of pork products but does not contain any meat,
meat food product, or meat byproduct ingredients.
``(5) The term `imitation poultry product' means any food
manufactured to appear as a poultry product or any food that
approximates the aesthetic qualities (primarily texture,
flavor, and appearance) or the chemical characteristics of
specific types of poultry products but does not contain any
meat, meat food product, or meat byproduct ingredients.
``(6) The term `imitation meat food product' means any food
manufactured to appear as a meat food product or any food that
approximates the aesthetic qualities (primarily texture,
flavor, and appearance) or chemical characteristics of specific
types of meat but that does not contain any meat, meat food
product, or meat byproduct ingredients, and which is not
harvested in a traditional manner.
``(7) The term `meat' has the meaning given such term for
purposes of the Federal Meat Inspection Act.
``(8) The term `meat byproduct' has the meaning given such
term for purposes of the Federal Meat Inspection Act.
``(9) The term `meat food product' has the meaning given
the term in section 1 of the Federal Meat Inspection Act.
``(10) The term `pork' or `pork product' means any food
produced or processed in whole or in part from a domesticated
porcine animal.
``(11) The term `poultry' or `poultry product' means any
carcass, or part thereof, of a domesticated bird, or any
product that is made wholly or in part from any domesticated
bird carcass or part thereof.''.
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