On Feb. 18, the North Carolina General Assembly proposed House Bill 134, an act to regulate labels on meat and other protein products.
The bill, named an Act to Prohibit the Misbranding of Certain Food Products, was proposed by N.C. Rep. Jimmy Dixon (R-Duplin, Wayne) and co-sponsored by 16 other representatives.
Under H.B. 134, suppliers will have to market alternative protein products differently from meat, even if they contain meat.
The bill differentiates meat products from other protein food products and defines meat products as foods made entirely or partially from meat, excluding products that contain only small amounts of meat or have not historically been considered meat from this definition.
"So real meat has a negative, and these products were designed to try to partly fight the climate side of real meat," UNC nutrition professor Barry Popkin said.
If passed, H.B. 134 will require protein food products to be labeled in 20-point font with a qualifying term physically near the word “meat” on the label to indicate to consumers that a product is not fully meat. Qualifying terms include plant, fake or vegetarian, and products that do not meet this standard will be deemed misbranded and can be recalled or pulled off of shelves.
“Farmers want to make sure other products aren't sold under the label of what they’re raising the traditional way,” N.C. Rep. Eric Ager (D-Buncombe), a sponsor of the bill, said.
Ager, who grew up on a dairy farm, said he does not see an immediate threat of consumer confusion when it comes to mislabeled meat products, but that the bill is a preventative measure to provide consumers with more information than they would normally have.
“Whether [it’s] chicken that was raised on a farm, or chicken that was cultured in a lab, I think having consumers understand the difference is important,” he said. “Advertising and companies can often try to sort of blur those differences in ways that can confuse the consumer.”
