North Carolina HB 135: Even-Year Elections/City of Trinity.

Bill Text

GENERAL ASSEMBLY OF NORTH CAROLINA
SESSION 2025
H 2
HOUSE BILL 135
Committee Substitute Favorable 4/29/25

Short Title: Misbranding/Cell-Cultured Meat/WNC Donations. (Public)
Sponsors:
Referred to:
February 18, 2025
*H135-v-2*
A BILL TO BE ENTITLED 1
AN ACT TO REQUIRE LABELING OF CELL-CULTURED FOOD PRODUCTS; TO 2
PROHIBIT COMMUNITY COLLEGES, UNIVERSITIES, AND PUBLIC SCHOOLS 3
FROM PURCHASING CELL-CULTURED FOOD PRODUCTS; TO ESTABLISH A 4
VOLUNTARY DONATION PROGRAM TO SUPPORT FARMS AFFECTED BY 5
HURRICANE HELENE; AND TO APPROPRIATE FUNDS FOR A FARM AND 6
FORESTRY DISASTER RELIEF EFFICIENCY AUDIT. 7
The General Assembly of North Carolina enacts: 8
9
REQUIRE LABELING OF CELL-CULTURED FOOD PRODUCTS 10
SECTION 1.(a) G.S. 106-549.15 reads as rewritten: 11
"§ 106-549.15. Definitions. 12
As used in this Article, except as otherwise specified, the following terms shall have the 13
meanings stated below: 14
... 15
(1a) "Agricultural food animal" means a domesticated animal belonging to the 16
bovine, caprine, ovine, or porcine species. 17
... 18
(5a) "Cell-cultured food product" means a food product having one or more 19
sensory attributes that resemble a type of tissue originating from an 20
agricultural food animal but that, in lieu of being derived from meat 21
processing, is derived from manufacturing cells, in which one or more stem 22
cells are initially isolated from an agricultural food animal, are grown in vitro, 23
and may be manipulated, as part of a manufacturing operation. 24
(5b) "Close proximity" means any of the following: 25
a. Immediately before or after the name of the product. 26
b. In the line of the label immediately before or after the line containing 27
the name of the product. 28
c. Within the same phrase or sentence containing the name of the 29
product. 30
... 31
(9a) "Identifying meat term" means any word or phrase that states, indicates, 32
suggests, or describes a meat product, regardless of whether the word or 33
phrase is used individually, as a portmanteau, or as a compound word. This 34
term includes all of the following: 35

General Assembly Of North Carolina Session 2025
Page 2 House Bill 135-Second Edition
a. A common name for the species of the agricultural food animal subject 1
to slaughter and processing, including a calf or cow, goat or kid, hog 2
or pig, lamb, or sheep. 3
b. A common name for a characteristic of a species of the agricultural 4
food animal subject to slaughter and processing based on age, breed, 5
or sex. 6
c. Meat; beef or veal; cabrito or chevon; lamb or mutton; or pork. 7
d. A common name used to describe a major cut of a meat of an 8
agricultural food animal slaughtered and processed, including a major 9
meat cut specified in 9 C.F.R. § 317.344, or the common name of an 10
organ or offal, including heart, liver, kidney, or tongue. 11
e. Any other common name that a reasonable purchaser would 12
immediately and exclusively associate with a meat product prepared 13
for sale in normal commercial channels such as bacon, baloney, 14
bologna, bone, brat or bratwurst, brisket, burger or hamburger, butt, 15
chop, chuck, cold cut, cutlet, filet, flat iron, frank or frankfurter, ham, 16
hock, hot dog, jerky, liverwurst, loin, London broil, lunch meat, New 17
York strip, pepperoni, porterhouse, ribeye, roast, rib or sparerib, 18
salami, sausage, shank, sirloin, tenderloin, or a comparable word or 19
phrase. 20
... 21
(14) "Meat food product" means any product capable of use as human food that is 22
made wholly or in part from any meat or other portion of the carcass of any 23
cattle, sheep, swine, goats, bison, fallow deer, or red deer, or any cell-cultured 24
food product made from cells of those animals, excepting products that 25
contain meat or other portions of such carcasses only in a relatively small 26
proportion or historically have not been considered by consumers as products 27
of the meat food industry, and that are exempted from definition as a meat 28
food product by the Board under such conditions as it may prescribe to assure 29
that the meat or other portions of such carcasses contained in such product are 30
not adulterated and that such products are not represented as meat food 31
products. This term as applied to food products of equines shall have a 32
meaning comparable to that provided in this subdivision with respect to cattle, 33
sheep, swine, goats, and bison. 34
(15) "Misbranded" shall apply to any carcass, part thereof, meat or meat food 35
product under one or more of the following circumstances: 36
a. If its labeling is false or misleading in any particular; 37
b. If it is offered for sale under the name of another food; 38
c. If it is imitation of another food, unless its label bears, in type of 39
uniform size and prominence, the word "imitation" and immediately 40
thereafter, the name of the food imitated; 41
... 42
m. The product is a cell-cultured food product and it is not labeled in 43
accordance with G.S. 106-549.28A. 44
... 45
(2