Texas Gov. Greg Abbott has signed Senate Bill 261, making the Lone Star State the seventh in the nation to ban lab-grown meat.
Texas new law establishes a prohibition on the offering for sale and sale of cell-cultured protein for human consumption and provides civil and criminal penalties. The law will take effect on Sept. 1; unless extended, the prohibition will expire on Sept. 7, 2027.
The Texas Health and Safety Code (sec. 431.0805-2) defines “cell-cultured product” under the Texas Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act as a food product derived by harvesting animal cells and artificially replicating those cells in a growth medium in a laboratory to produce tissue.
SB261 raised concerns that cell-cultured protein may pose safety risks for consumers, as its creation process involves direct interaction with microplastics that can cause disruptions in the human cell membrane.
The new law amends the Texas Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act and the Texas Meat and Poultry Inspection Act to prohibit the offering for sale or selling of cell-cultured protein for human consumption within the state.
Violators of the ban will be treated in the same manner as those who violate other prohibitions under the Texas Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act. For the purposes of the Texas Meat and Poultry Inspection Act, the law will control to the extent of a conflict between the bill and another state law. It replaces references to “cell-cultured product” in the Texas Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act and the Texas Meat and Poultry Inspection Act with references to cell-cultured protein.
The law creates a new Class A misdemeanor offense related to the offering for sale or sale of cell-cultured protein for human consumption, subject to enhancement to a state jail felony if previously convicted.
According to the fiscal note, creating this new offense may result in additional demands upon state and local correctional resources because of a possible increase in the number of individuals placed under supervision in the community or sentenced to a term of confinement. The demand on state correctional resources is not expected to be significant.
The Texas & Southwestern Cattle Raisers Association (TSCRA) backed SB261’s passage to protect “Texas consumers from being a science experiment as companies seek to profit from selling cell-cultured protein with no long-term health studies.”
The TSCRA has influenced the Texas Legislature since it was formed in 1877 to combat cattle theft.
The organization sees the new law as necessary to block “an agenda by certain radical groups and companies who seek to end traditional animal agriculture.”
In taking a two-year moratorium approach to banning lab-grown meat, Texas is following a path similar to that taken by Indiana in May. The Hoosier State ban runs from July 1, 2025 to June 30, 2027. If Indiana allows the ban to expire, cultivated meat products will then be required to display the phrase “this is an imitation meat product.”
Texas joins Indiana, Nebraska, Montana, Mississippi, Alabama and Florida by banning lab-grown meat. The interim bans may be less likely to draw court challenges. UPSIDE Foods, which has gained U.S. government approval for its lab-grown products, has sued Florida over the Sunshine State’s ban. A federal judge wants to hear the case and has denied Florida’s motion to toss it.
Two federal government agencies, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and the USDA’s Food Safety and Inspection Service (FSIS), share regulatory authority over lab-grown meat, which is not yet generally available in the marketplace.
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