As of this Saturday, Oklahomans scanning the supermarket shelves will now be served a side of clarity with their food purchases. The state is setting forth a new mandate – the Truth in Food Labeling Law – which insists that any cultivated- or manufactured-protein products, including those made from plant or insect proteins, must bear labels clearly defining them as distinct from traditional meat. Jim Grego, a Republican representative from Wilburton, authored the game-changing House Bill 1126.
In a move that purports to slice through the confusion often experienced by consumers in the ever-growing alternative protein market, the legislation requires manufactured protein food items to be transparent about their origins. This means that a product derived from cell-cultivated processes or nonanimal sources such as plants or insects cannot be marketed as meat. In a statement obtained by Oklahoma House of Representatives, Rep. Grego articulated the dual intent behind the bill: consumer clarity and local agricultural industry protection. "This law is an effort to help the buying public distinguish between what is real meat from an animal and what has been grown or manufactured in a lab or from a nonanimal source," Grego said. "This also will protect our state farmers and ranchers against the flood of products claiming to be meat."
The legislation draws a line in the sand defining what constitutes an "Agricultural food animal" – limited to the bovine, caprine, ovine, porcine species, as well as domesticated chickens and turkeys. The term "Cultivated-protein food product" refers to any food that resembles animal tissue but is, in fact, a product of manufacturing cells or comes from nonanimal sources. As for "Manufactured-protein food product," it's a term that encompasses insect-protein and plant-protein food products containing more than just a trace amount of plant elements.
Enforcement of the new labeling rules falls to The Department of Agriculture, Food and Forestry, an entity now charged with investigating any credible allegations of false advertising or meat product misbranding. Proponents of the law, including Senate author Roland Pederson, a Republican from Burlington, believe it will embolden an informed consumer choice philosophy. "This is truth in labeling," Pederson stated.
