[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.


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                   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

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                                 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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