ATLANTA — Georgia lawmakers took the term “red meat bill” to a new level with the introduction of legislation to ban calling plant-based or lab-grown meat products as meat on restaurant menus or on grocery store products.
The legislation was filed by Woodstock Republican Rep. Jordan Ridley to prevent food containing “cell cultured meat” or plant-based meat alternatives as “conventional meat.”
Under the proposal in House Bill 163, the state would define conventional meat as any food product “made wholly or in part from the carcass of any animal, including, but not limited to, cattle, swine, sheep, goats, fish, shellfish and poultry.” The bill also specifies that these products do not contain any cell-cultured meat or plant-based meat alternatives.
Food products “grown from cell cultures of animal muscle or organ tissues” and “designed to share sensory characteristics with conventional meat products” would be legally defined as “cell-cultured meat,” according to the bill.
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Additionally, plant-based alternatives would be legally defined as food items “produced or derived from one or more plants, or parts of plants,” also designed to mimic the sensory characteristics of conventional meat products.
If passed, HB 163 would require all food service establishments in Georiga that serve food containing cell-cultured meat or plant-based alternatives to “conspicuously display on their menus, or on placards visible to the public” that the products contain either, or both, of these non-conventional meat ingredients.
The bill would also require that no food containing cell-cultured meat or plant-based alternatives is advertised as a conventional meat product.
So far, the bill’s been through two readers and a full committee review, where it was reported favorable, though no votes have taken place yet to move it forward in the Georgia House of Representatives.
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