Iowa Enacts Meat Integrity Bill, Requires Labels for Meat Alterna

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Iowa Governor Signs ‘Meat Integrity Bill’

by: Food and Drug Law at Keller and Heckman of Keller and Heckman LLP - The Daily Intake

Tuesday, May 21, 2024

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On May 15, 2024, Iowa Governor Kim Reynolds signed the Iowa Meat Integrity Bill (SF 2391) to require specific labels for cell-cultivated, plant-based, and insect-based meat and egg alternatives, as well as prevent products deemed misbranded under the law from being sold to supplemental nutrition programs and schools. This follows bans on cell-cultivated meat in Alabama and Florida and moves by other states and Congress to restrict lab-grown meat sales, which we have previously blogged about.
Under the Iowa bill, a “manufactured-protein food product” will be deemed misbranded if the label does not contain a “conspicuous and prominent qualifying term in close proximity to an identifying meat term.” A “qualifying term” is defined as “a word, compound word, or phrase that would clearly disclose to a reasonable purchaser of meat products from a food processing plant that a food product is not a meat product” and includes words such as cell-cultivated, cell-cultured, fake, grown in a lab, imitation, insect, insect-based, insect-protein, lab-created, lab-grown, meat free, meatless, plant, plant-based, vegan, vegetable, vegetarian, or veggie.
The bill will require regulatory authorities to inspect food processing plants and grocery stores for compliance and allow them to issue a stop order or embargo order for violations.
The bill was led by Iowa Senator Dawn Driscoll and Representative Heather Hora, who said that “[l]ab-grown products are not the same as the high-quality meat raised by Iowa farm families.” According to the governor, the bill “prohibits companies from exploiting the trust consumers have with our livestock producers and misleading the consumers into buying products they don’t want.” While some legislators warned that the law could lead to national brands being unavailable to Iowa consumers, proponents argued that most major brands’ packaging is already within the bounds of the new law.