North Carolina HB 134: State Health Plan Claims Administrator Changes.

Bill Text

GENERAL ASSEMBLY OF NORTH CAROLINA
SESSION 2025
H 2
HOUSE BILL 134
Committee Substitute Favorable 3/11/25

Short Title: Prohibit Misbranding of Certain Food Products. (Public)
Sponsors:
Referred to:
February 18, 2025
*H134-v-2*
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
SECTION 1.(a) G.S. 106-549.15 reads as rewritten: 4
"§ 106-549.15. Definitions. 5
As used in this Article, except as otherwise specified, the following terms shall have the 6
meanings stated below: 7
... 8
(1a) "Agricultural food animal" means a domesticated animal belonging to the 9
bovine, caprine, ovine, or porcine species. 10
... 11
(5a) "Cell-cultured food product" means a food product having one or more 12
sensory attributes that resemble a type of tissue originating from an 13
agricultural food animal but that, in lieu of being derived from meat 14
processing, is derived from manufacturing cells, in which one or more stem 15
cells are initially isolated from an agricultural food animal, are grown in vitro, 16
and may be manipulated, as part of a manufacturing operation. 17
(5b) "Close proximity" means any of the following: 18
a. Immediately before or after the name of the product. 19
b. In the line of the label immediately before or after the line containing 20
the name of the product. 21
c. Within the same phrase or sentence containing the name of the 22
product. 23
... 24
(9a) "Identifying meat term" means any word or phrase that states, indicates, 25
suggests, or describes a meat product, regardless of whether the word or 26
phrase is used individually, as a portmanteau, or as a compound word. This 27
term includes all of the following: 28
a. A common name for the species of the agricultural food animal subject 29
to slaughter and processing, including a calf or cow, goat or kid, hog 30
or pig, lamb, or sheep. 31
b. A common name for a characteristic of a species of the agricultural 32
food animal subject to slaughter and processing based on age, breed, 33
or sex. 34
c. Meat; beef or veal; cabrito or chevon; lamb or mutton; or pork. 35

General Assembly Of North Carolina Session 2025
Page 2 House Bill 134-Second Edition
d. A common name used to describe a major cut of a meat of an 1
agricultural food animal slaughtered and processed, including a major 2
meat cut specified in 9 C.F.R. § 317.344, or the common name of an 3
organ or offal, including heart, liver, kidney, or tongue. 4
e. Any other common name that a reasonable purchaser would 5
immediately and exclusively associate with a meat product prepared 6
for sale in normal commercial channels such as bacon, baloney, 7
bologna, bone, brat or bratwurst, brisket, burger or hamburger, butt, 8
chop, chuck, cold cut, cutlet, filet, flat iron, frank or frankfurter, ham, 9
hock, hot dog, jerky, liverwurst, loin, London broil, lunch meat, New 10
York strip, pepperoni, porterhouse, ribeye, roast, rib or sparerib, 11
salami, sausage, shank, sirloin, tenderloin, or a comparable word or 12
phrase. 13
... 14
(14) "Meat food product" means any product capable of use as human food that is 15
made wholly or in part from any meat or other portion of the carcass of any 16
cattle, sheep, swine, goats, bison, fallow deer, or red deer, or any cell-cultured 17
food product made from cells of those animals, excepting products that 18
contain meat or other portions of such carcasses only in a relatively small 19
proportion or historically have not been considered by consumers as products 20
of the meat food industry, and that are exempted from definition as a meat 21
food product by the Board under such conditions as it may prescribe to assure 22
that the meat or other portions of such carcasses contained in such product are 23
not adulterated and that such products are not represented as meat food 24
products. This term as applied to food products of equines shall have a 25
meaning comparable to that provided in this subdivision with respect to cattle, 26
sheep, swine, goats, and bison. 27
(15) "Misbranded" shall apply to any carcass, part thereof, meat or meat food 28
product under one or more of the following circumstances: 29
a. If its labeling is false or misleading in any particular; 30
b. If it is offered for sale under the name of another food; 31
c. If it is imitation of another food, unless its label bears, in type of 32
uniform size and prominence, the word "imitation" and immediately 33
thereafter, the name of the food imitated; 34
... 35
m. The product is a cell-cultured food product and it is not labeled in 36
accordance with G.S. 106-549.28A. 37
... 38
(21a) "Qualifying term" means a word, compound word, or phrase that would 39
clearly disclose to a reasonable purchaser of meat food products that a food 40
product is a cell-cultured meat product. This includes the following terms: 41
"cell-cultured," "fake," "lab-grown," or "grown in a lab." 42
(21b) "Ratite" means a bird whose breastbone is smoo