North Dakota Considers Plan to Label Cell-Based Meat

Add North Dakota to the growing list of states keen to regulate labeling of cell-based meat products. Legislation introduced in the North Dakota House of Representatives would define meat as "flesh of an animal born, nurtured and processed for the purpose of human consumption" and would bar food companies from advertising cell-based meat as a "meat food product." The text of the bill says a “nonmeat” product must be labeled as a “cultured food product” and may not contain the word “beef” on the label. The legislation has strong backing from North Dakota’s beef industry and will be considered this week by the state House Agriculture Committee. Dwight Keller, president of the Independent Beef Association of North Dakota, says the bill needed to help inform consumers by defining “traditional meat” such as beef. “Deceptive labeling could mislead reasonable people to believe cultured or lab-grown meat is produced in the traditional manner and it is not,” he added. “This is about truth in advertising." The measure is similar to proposals under consideration in several other states, including Montana, Nebraska, Tennessee, Virginia and Wyoming, and shows a growing trend of state legislatures wading into the regulatory debate over cell-based meat.