By: White H.B. No. 242

A BILL TO BE ENTITLED

AN ACT

relating to the advertising and labeling of certain food products.

BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:

SECTION 1. Section 433.003, Health and Safety Code, is amended by amending Subdivisions (1), (20), and (21) and adding Subdivisions (1-a), (1-b), (1-c), (2-a), (11-a), (13-a), and (19-a) to read as follows:

(1) "Advertising" has the meaning assigned by Section 431.002.

(1-a) "Analogue product" means a food product derived by combining processed plant products, insects, or fungus with additives to approximate the texture, flavor, appearance, or other aesthetic qualities or the chemical characteristics of any specific type of meat, meat food product, poultry, or poultry product.

(1-b) "Animal food manufacturer" means a person in the business of manufacturing or processing animal food any part of which is derived from a carcass, or a part or product of a carcass, of livestock.

(1-c) "Beef" means any edible portion of a formerly live and whole cattle carcass. The term includes any commonly understood variation or abbreviation of the term. The term does not include a cell-cultured, plant-based, or insect-based food product.

(2-a) "Cell-cultured product" means a food product derived by engineering muscle tissue fibers from animal cells in a laboratory or similar setting.

(11-a) "Meat" means the part of the muscle of cattle, sheep, swine, or goats that is skeletal or is found in the tongue, diaphragm, heart, or esophagus, with or without the accompanying and overlying fat, and the portions of bone, including bone-in products, skin, sinew, nerve, and blood vessels that normally accompany the muscle tissue and that are not separated from it in the process of dressing. The term has a comparable meaning as applied to equine food products. The term does not include:

(A) muscle found in the lips, snout, or ears;

(B) animal tissue containing significant portions of bone, including hard bone and related components, such as bone marrow, or any amount of brain, trigeminal ganglia, spinal cord, or dorsal root ganglia; or

(C) cell-cultured, plant-based, or insect-based food products.

(13-a) "Misleading" means the use of a false or deceptive oral or written statement, advertisement, label, display, picture, illustration, or sample.

(19-a) "Pork" means any edible portion of a formerly live and whole swine carcass. The term includes any commonly understood variation or abbreviation of the term. The term does not include a cell-cultured, plant-based, or insect-based food product.

(20) "Poultry" means any [a] live or dead domesticated bird, including chickens, turkeys, ducks, geese, guineas, ratites, or squabs.

(21) "Poultry product" means any [a] poultry carcass, part of a poultry carcass, or [a] product [any part of which is] made wholly or partly from a poultry carcass or part of a poultry carcass. Unless the context requires otherwise, the term includes only articles capable of use as human food. The term does not include [, except a product that]:

(A) a cell-cultured, plant-based, or insect-based food product [contains poultry ingredients only in a relatively small proportion or that historically has not been considered by consumers as a product of the poultry food industry]; or [and]

(B) a product that is exempted from the definition of poultry product under 9 C.F.R. Section 381.15 [by department rule under conditions assuring that the poultry ingredients in the product are unadulterated and that the product is not represented as a poultry product].

SECTION 2. Section 433.005, Health and Safety Code, is amended by amending Subsection (a) and adding Subsection (d) to read as follows:

(a) A livestock, [or] poultry product, analogue product, or cell-cultured product is misbranded if:

(1) any part of its labeling is false or misleading;

(2) it is offered for sale under the name of another food;

(3) it is an imitation of another food, unless its label bears, in prominent type of uniform size, the word "imitation" immediately followed by the name of the food imitated;

(4) its container is made, formed, or filled so as to be misleading;

(5) except as provided by Subsection (b), it does not bear a label showing:

(A) the manufacturer's, packer's, or distributor's name and place of business; and

(B) an accurate statement of the quantity of the product by weight, measure, or numerical count;

(6) a word, statement, or other information required by or under the authority of this chapter to appear on the label or labeling is not prominently placed on the label or labeling in sufficient terms and with sufficient conspicuousness, compared with other words, statements, designs, or devices in the label or labeling, to make it likely to be read and understood by the ordinary individual under customary conditions of purchase and use;

(7) it purports to be or is represented as a food for which a definition and standard of identity or composition has been prescribed by department rule under Section 433.043 unless:

(A) it conforms to the definition and standard; or

(B) its label bears:

(i) the name of the food specified in the definition and standard; and

(ii) to the extent required by department rule, the common names of optional ingredients present in the food, other than spices, flavoring, and coloring;

(8) it purports to be or is represented as a food for which a standard of fill of container has been prescribed by department rule under Section 433.043 and the food does not meet the standard of fill of container, unless its label bears, in the manner and form prescribed by department rule, a statement that it does not meet the standard;

(9) except as provided by Subsection (c), it does not purport to be or is not represented as a food for which a standard of identity or composition has been prescribed by department rule unless its label bears:

(A) any common or usual name of the food; and

(B) if it is fabricated from two or more ingredients, the common or usual name of each ingredient;

(10) it purports to be or is represented for special dietary uses and its label does not bear the information concerning its vitamin, mineral, and other dietary properties that the department, after the executive commissioner or department consults with the United States Secretary of Agriculture, has determined, and the executive commissioner has prescribed by rule, to be necessary to fully inform purchasers of its value for those uses;

(11) it bears or contains artificial flavoring, artificial coloring, or a chemical preservative unless it bears labeling stating that fact, except as otherwise prescribed by department rule for situations in which compliance with this subdivision is impracticable; [or]

(12) it does not bear on itself or its container, as prescribed by department rule:

(A) the inspection legend and establishment number of the establishment in which the product was prepared; and

(B) notwithstanding any other provision of this section, other information required by department rule to assure that the product will not have false or misleading labeling and that the public will be informed of the manner of handling required to keep the product in wholesome condition;

(13) for an analogue product of meat, a meat food product, poultry, or a poultry product, its label does not bear in prominent type of uniform size immediately before the name of the product any of the following terms:

(A) "analogue";

(B) "meatless";

(C) "plant-based";

(D) "made from plants"; or

(E) a similar qualifying term or disclaimer intended to clearly communicate to a consumer the contents of the product; or

(14) for a cell-cultured product, its label does not bear in prominent type of uniform size immediately before the name of the product any of the following terms:

(A) "cell-cultured"; or

(B) "lab-grown".

(d) If a food is alleged to be misbranded because the labeling or advertising is misleading, the department in determining whether the labeling or advertising is misleading shall consider, among other characteristics:

(1) a representation made or suggested by a statement, word, design, image, device, sound, or any combination of these; and

(2) the extent to which the labeling or advertising suggests the food is:

(A) authentic meat or poultry if the food is not meat or poultry;

(B) a meat product or poultry product if the food is not a meat product or poultry product; or

(C) derived from livestock in any form if the food is not derived from livestock.

SECTION 3. As soon as practicable after the effective date of this Act, the executive commissioner of the Health and Human Services Commission shall adopt rules as necessary to implement the changes in law made by this Act.

SECTION 4. This Act takes effect on the 91st day after the last day of the legislative session.