Food and Food Products

Plain English Breakdown

The official source material does not provide specific details about the enforcement mechanisms or penalties for violating this law.

Food Labeling Requirements for Antibiotics and Vaccines

This bill makes it illegal to sell food containing antibiotics or vaccines without clear labeling about their presence and classifies such foods as drugs under Tennessee law.

What This Bill Does

• Makes the manufacture, sale, delivery, holding, or offering for sale of any food that contains an antibiotic or vaccine material a crime if the food does not have clear labels stating these ingredients are present.
• Defines any food containing an antibiotic as a drug under Tennessee's Food, Drug and Cosmetic Act.

Who It Names or Affects

• Food manufacturers
• Retailers selling food products

Terms To Know

Drug

Under the bill, any food containing an antibiotic is considered a drug.

Conspicuous notification

A clear and noticeable label on food packaging that informs consumers about the presence of antibiotics or vaccine materials.

Limits and Unknowns

• The bill does not specify what constitutes 'conspicuous' labeling.
• It is unclear how this law will be enforced or what penalties will apply for violations.

Official Summary Text

This bill makes it a

C
las
s C misdemeanor
under the Tennessee
Food, Drug and Cosmetic Act
for a person to
manufacture, s
ell
, or deliver, hold
ing
or offering for sale of a food that contains a
n antibiotic, or a
vaccine or vaccine
,
material unless the food labeling contains a conspic
uous notification of the presence of the
antibiotic,
vaccine
,
or vaccine material in the food.

This bill also defines food containing an antibiotic as a "drug" under the Tennessee
Food, Drug and Cosmetic Act
. Under present law, the Act requires that the
packaging for a drug fabricated from two or more ingredients contain the name of each active ingredient.

Current Bill Text

<BillNo> <Sponsor>

HOUSE BILL 1100
By Towns

HB1100
003142
- 1 -

AN ACT to amend Tennessee Code Annotated, Title 47,
Chapter 18 and Title 53, relative to food.

BE IT ENACTED BY THE GENERAL ASSEMBLY OF THE STATE OF TENNESSEE:
SECTION 1. Tennessee Code Annotated, Section 53-1-102(14), is amended by adding
the following as a new subdivision:
( ) "Drug" also means food that contains an antibiotic;
SECTION 2. Tennessee Code Annotated, Section 53-1-103(a), is amended by adding
the following as a new subdivision:
( ) The manufacture, sale, or delivery, holding, or offering for sale of any food
that contains an antibiotic, or a vaccine or vaccine material, unless the food labeling
contains a conspicuous notification of the presence of the antibiotic, vaccine, or vaccine
material in the food.
SECTION 3. If any provision of this act or its application to any person or circumstance
is held invalid, then the invalidity does not affect other provisions or applications of the act that
can be given effect without the invalid provision or application, and to that end, the provisions of
this act are severable.
SECTION 4. This act takes effect upon becoming a law, the public welfare requiring it.