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Committee clears bill to classify some genetically modified food products as drugs; amendment narrows scope to plants
Summary
Senate Bill 255 would classify food intentionally modified to produce an immune response as a drug rather than food; sponsor amended the measure in committee to exclude meat and other animals after industry and agency concerns.
The Senate Public Health, Welfare and Labor Committee gave Senate Bill 255 a favorable recommendation as amended after the sponsor and agency staff described the proposal and accepted adjustments intended to address livestock and poultry industry concerns.
Senator Penzo presented the bill as an effort to clarify how emerging biotechnology should be treated under state law. "All this bill does is state that if these pharmaceutical companies and researchers wanna develop plants that are producing these virus like proteins... they would fall under the same drug disclosures that drugs do," he said, describing the measure as a classification change: certain genetically modified plants or plant-derived food intended to elicit an immune response would be treated as drugs rather than conventional food.
Committee members asked whether the measure could unintentionally classify vaccinated livestock or conventional veterinary vaccination materials as drugs and whether the state is equipped to regulate such products given federal Food and Drug Administration (FDA) oversight. Department of Health counsel Laura Schuh told the committee the Department of Health is neutral and that, to the extent the state is not preempted by federal law, the department would enforce food-related rules.
Following industry testimony from representatives of poultry and livestock interests and concerns raised by county judges and private processors about enforcement, the sponsor offered a verbal amendment during the hearing to remove "or other animals" from the definition and later provided a written amendment that inserted the narrower phrase "food other than meat that contains a vaccine or vaccine material." The sponsor said the change was intended to address poultry and cattle industry concerns and to win support from ag stakeholders.
After the amendment was adopted the committee recorded a vote in favor and the chair declared the bill passed as amended. The transcript records several members urging continued work with the Department of Agriculture and other stakeholders before further action.
What happens next: The bill, as amended, advances with a committee recommendation and will be considered in subsequent legislative steps.
