North Carolina HB 471: Food Labeling Transparency Act.

Bill Text

GENERAL ASSEMBLY OF NORTH CAROLINA
SESSION 2025
H 3
HOUSE BILL 471
Committee Substitute Favorable 4/1/25
Committee Substitute #2 Favorable 4/8/25

Short Title: Food Labeling Transparency Act. (Public)
Sponsors:
Referred to:
March 24, 2025
*H471-v-3*
A BILL TO BE ENTITLED 1
AN ACT TO PROHIBIT THE MISBRANDING OF CERTAIN FOOD PRODUCTS. 2
The General Assembly of North Carolina enacts: 3
4
REQUIRE LABELING OF MANUFACTURED-PROTEIN MEAT PRODUCTS 5
SECTION 1.(a) G.S. 106-549.15 reads as rewritten: 6
"§ 106-549.15. Definitions. 7
As used in this Article, except as otherwise specified, the following terms shall have the 8
meanings stated below: 9
... 10
(1a) "Agricultural food animal" means a domesticated animal belonging to the 11
bovine, caprine, ovine, or porcine species. 12
... 13
(5a) "Cell-cultured food product" means a food product having one or more 14
sensory attributes that resemble a type of tissue originating from an 15
agricultural food animal but that, in lieu of being derived from meat 16
processing, is derived from manufacturing cells, in which one or more stem 17
cells are initially isolated from an agricultural food animal, are grown in vitro, 18
and may be manipulated, as part of a manufacturing operation. 19
(5b) "Close proximity" means any of the following: 20
a. Immediately before or after the name of the product. 21
b. In the line of the label immediately before or after the line containing 22
the name of the product. 23
c. Within the same phrase or sentence containing the name of the 24
product. 25
... 26
(9a) "Identifying meat term" means any word or phrase that states, indicates, 27
suggests, or describes a meat product, regardless of whether the word or 28
phrase is used individually, as a portmanteau, or as a compound word. This 29
term includes all of the following: 30
a. A common name for the species of the agricultural food animal subject 31
to slaughter and processing, including a calf or cow, goat or kid, hog 32
or pig, lamb, or sheep. 33

General Assembly Of North Carolina Session 2025
Page 2 House Bill 471-Third Edition
b. A common name for a characteristic of a species of the agricultural 1
food animal subject to slaughter and processing based on age, breed, 2
or sex. 3
c. Meat; beef or veal; cabrito or chevon; lamb or mutton; or pork. 4
d. A common name used to describe a major cut of a meat of an 5
agricultural food animal slaughtered and processed, including a major 6
meat cut specified in 9 C.F.R. § 317.344, or the common name of an 7
organ or offal, including heart, liver, kidney, or tongue. 8
e. Any other common name that a reasonable purchaser would 9
immediately and exclusively associate with a meat product prepared 10
for sale in normal commercial channels such as bacon, baloney, 11
bologna, bone, brat or bratwurst, brisket, burger or hamburger, butt, 12
chop, chuck, cold cut, cutlet, filet, flat iron, frank or frankfurter, ham, 13
hock, hot dog, jerky, liverwurst, loin, London broil, lunch meat, New 14
York strip, pepperoni, porterhouse, ribeye, roast, rib or sparerib, 15
salami, sausage, shank, sirloin, tenderloin, or a comparable word or 16
phrase. 17
(9b) "Insect-protein food product" means a food product having one or more 18
sensory attributes that resemble a type of tissue originating from an 19
agricultural food animal but that, in lieu of being derived from meat 20
processing, is manufactured from insect parts. 21
... 22
(12a) "Manufactured-protein food product" means a cell-cultured food product or 23
insect-protein food product. 24
... 25
(14) "Meat food product" means any product capable of use as human food that is 26
made wholly or in part from any meat or other portion of the carcass of any 27
cattle, sheep, swine, goats, bison, fallow deer, or red deer, or any cell-cultured 28
food product made from cells of those animals, excepting products that 29
contain meat or other portions of such carcasses only in a relatively small 30
proportion or historically have not been considered by consumers as products 31
of the meat food industry, and that are exempted from definition as a meat 32
food product by the Board under such conditions as it may prescribe to assure 33
that the meat or other portions of such carcasses contained in such product are 34
not adulterated and that such products are not represented as meat food 35
products. This term as applied to food products of equines shall have a 36
meaning comparable to that provided in this subdivision with respect to cattle, 37
sheep, swine, goats, and bison. 38
(15) "Misbranded" shall apply to any carcass, part thereof, meat or meat food 39
product under one or more of the following circumstances: 40
a. If its labeling is false or misleading in any particular; 41
b. If it is offered for sale under the name of another food; 42
c. If it is imitation of another food, unless its label bears, in type of 43
uniform size and prominence, the word "imitation" and immediately 44
thereafter, the name of the food imitated; 4