SB 415: Advertising and Sale of Meat; prohibit any person from producing, selling, trading, distributing for human consumption any lab-grown meat

Georgia currently regulates how meat is advertised and sold under Article 4 of Chapter 2 of Title 26 of the Official Code of Georgia Annotated, but it does not specifically address meat grown from animal cell cultures in a lab rather than raised as livestock. This bill adds a new section, O.C.G.A. § 26-2-162, to that law. The bill defines 'animal' broadly to include cattle, swine, sheep, goats, fish, poultry (including eggs), and game animals as defined elsewhere in Georgia law. It defines 'lab-grown meat' as any food product made wholly or partly by artificially growing cell cultures of animal muscle or organ tissue. With those definitions in place, the bill makes it illegal for any person to produce, sell, trade, distribute, or even offer to do any of those things with lab-grown meat intended for human consumption. The bill does not list a specific effective date beyond the standard process, and it repeals any conflicting Georgia laws.

• Adds a new Code section, O.C.G.A. § 26-2-162, banning the production, sale, trade, or distribution of lab-grown meat for human consumption in Georgia.
• Also bans merely offering to produce, sell, trade, or distribute lab-grown meat for human consumption, not just completing the transaction.
• Defines 'lab-grown meat' as a food product made wholly or partly by artificially growing animal muscle or organ cell cultures.
• Defines 'animal' broadly to cover cattle, swine, sheep, goats, fish, poultry and eggs, and game animals as defined in Georgia's game and fish laws.
• Repeals any existing Georgia laws that conflict with this new ban.

Any company or person that produces, markets, or sells lab-grown or cultivated meat products in Georgia, grocery stores and restaurants that might carry such products, and Georgia consumers who might otherwise be able to buy lab-grown meat in the state.

If enacted, lab-grown meat products, an emerging food technology grown from animal cells rather than raised livestock, could not legally be produced, sold, or distributed in Georgia for people to eat, even on an offer-to-sell basis, closing off that market to producers and consumers in the state.

• Section 1 adds new Code section 26-2-162 to Article 4 of Chapter 2 of Title 26 of the Official Code of Georgia Annotated, which governs meat advertising and sale.
• Subsection (a)(1) defines 'animal' to include livestock, poultry, eggs, fish, and game animals as defined in O.C.G.A. § 27-1-2.
• Subsection (a)(2) defines 'lab-grown meat' as any food product made wholly or partly by artificially growing animal muscle or organ cell cultures.
• Subsection (b) prohibits producing, selling, trading, distributing, or offering to do any of those things with lab-grown meat for human consumption.
• Section 2 repeals any existing Georgia laws that conflict with this new provision.

1. 2026-01-27Senate Read and Referred (Senate)
2. 2026-01-16Senate Hopper (Senate)

• Jason T. Dickerson (R, SD-021)Primary sponsor
• Russ Goodman (R, SD-008)
• Drew Echols (R, SD-049)
• Sam Watson (R, SD-011)
• Lee Anderson (R, SD-024)
• Carden Summers (R, SD-013)
• Max Burns (R, SD-023)
• Larry Walker (R, SD-020)
• Bo Hatchett (R, SD-050)

• lab-grown meat
• food regulation
• agriculture
• meat sales law
• cultivated meat ban