Overview
Beware meat and egg product makers! On March 20, 2026, a new product labeling law will go into effect in Ohio. The bill, known as HB 10, targets products labeled as "meat" and "egg" items, but are, in reality, made of plant-based, insect-based, or lab-grown ingredients.
What is Ohio’s HB 10?
Ohio’s HB 10 is the latest in the recent trend of increased labeling requirements for "alternative meats." For example, Georgia, Kansas, Oklahoma, and Louisiana have labeling requirements for lab-grown and plant-based products, while other states like Kentucky focus on cell-cultured meat.
HB 10 designates meat products as "misbranded" when all of the following are true:
- The food is a manufactured-protein food product or the food contains a manufactured-protein food product;
- The food is offered for sale by a food processing establishment;
- A label that is part of or placed on the package or other container storing the manufactured-protein food product includes an identifying meat term; and
- The label that is part of or placed on the package or other container storing the manufactured-protein food product does not contain a conspicuous and prominent qualifying meat term in close proximity to the identifying meat term.
In other words, if you are selling a meat alternative that contains "manufactured-protein food product", you must have a label informing the consumer of that fact.
The law does not only apply to meat alternatives. Egg substitutes also must be labeled if they contain a "fabricated-egg product".
To what types of food does the new labeling requirement apply?
You may be wondering at this point if your products are covered by this new law. Well, the statute defines "manufactured-protein food products" as "cultivated-protein food," "insect-protein food," and "plant-protein food." The law also applies in similar fashion to "fabricated-egg products."
Plant-protein and insect-protein food products are foods that resemble parts of food animals, but are derived from "manufacturing plant parts" or "manufacturing insect parts". Meanwhile, "cultivated-protein food product" refers to a food resembling parts of food animals, but instead is derived from a process in which stem cells are grown in vitro and manufactured into a final food product.
Who is responsible for labeling?
A "food processing establishment" is a premises where food is processed, packaged, manufactured, or otherwise held or handled for distribution to another location or for sale at wholesale. This includes bakeries, canneries, warehouses, and distributors. The language of HB 10 does not suggest that retailers will be responsible for labeling, but they should label food they prepare and package on-site, such as to-go sushi containing imitation crab.
What are the penalties for non-compliance?
It appears that the State has sole authority to enforce the statute through the Department of Agriculture and the Attorney General. Key points include:
- The Department can refer violations to the Attorney General, who can bring a lawsuit to enforce the civil penalties of up to $10,000 per day.
- When the Ohio Department has reason to believe food is misbranded, it can tag it and detain or embargo the product in Ohio.
- HB 10 also empowers the Department to develop rules to guide enforcement and inspections.
We are unaware of a private enforcer mechanism for HB 10, but we expect aggressive plaintiff lawyers to use violations of HB 10 as the basis of class action lawsuits alleging unfair and deceptive acts pursuant to Ohio’s Consumer Sales Practices Act.
What should businesses do?
Businesses should label meat-like and egg-like food products to disclose that they contain ingredients made from plants, insects, or are lab-grown. Manufacturers cannot use common meat or egg descriptors like "beef," "bacon," "hot dog," "chicken," "egg whites," etc., without prominent, qualifying language in close proximity, such as imitation beef, vegan sausage, contains plant-based egg whites, veggie burger, lab-grown steak, on the front label.
There remains the ever-present risk of class action claims brought under general consumer protection laws such as Ohio’s Consumer Sales Practices Act and California’s False Advertising Law. We believe that the best way to mitigate risk is to take a broad approach to compliance, providing more disclosure rather than less. As Benjamin Franklin once said, "an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure."
Questions remain about how large the disclaimer for an ingredient must be. For example, is an asterisk and print at the bottom of a front label enough? Can there be a small disclaimer on the front label, with an explanation on the back? Similarly, must the phrase "plant-based" be as large as "chicken sausage"? It is not clear at this early stage how Ohio courts or the Department of Agriculture will interpret "conspicuous and prominent qualifying language in close proximity", but the clearer the language, the better.
Steptoe LLP will continue to monitor developments in this area of law and our attorneys are prepared to work with companies to mitigate the risks.
