SENATE BILL
To require companies that package meat and grocery stores to label all meat products treated with carbon monoxide.
To be enacted in both Houses of Congress Assembled,
Section 1: Title
This legislation may be cited as the Red Meat Labeling Act.
Section 2: Findings
Congress finds and declares that;
1.) Carbon monoxide (often referred to as CO) is a colorless, odorless, tasteless gas, one measly oxygen molecule away from the carbon dioxide all humans exhale. However, this chemical can have detrimental effects on the human body at very low concentrations.
2.) The Canadian Meat Packers Council recommends that the internal meat temperatures not go above 4 degrees Celsius or 39 degrees Fahrenheit. That has also been defined by other international meat regulators as the optimum storage temperature of meat.
3.) In a carbon monoxide system, with low oxygen, the carbon monoxide will react with myoglobin and give aged meat a bright red color. The low oxygen mixture artificially limits the growth of spoilage organisms that are commonly caused by increased levels of heat in display cases.
4.) More than 70% of all beef and chicken in the United States, Canada and other countries is being treated with poisonous carbon monoxide gas to look fresh.
Section 3: Meat Labeling Requirement
1.) All meat treated with carbon monoxide must have a label that reads "TREATED WITH CARBON MONOXIDE" on their packages at a font size no smaller than 13 pt.
2.) Butchers/meat producers that sell meat that do not contain such labels will be warned on a first offense, and fined $35,000 per offense thereafter.
Section 4: Enactment
This legislation shall take effect on January 1, 2020.
People's Regional SenatePassed 6-0 in the Atlasian Senate Assembled,
