Bill Text: WV HB4095 | 2020 | Regular Session | Introduced
Bill Title: Defining the term milk
Spectrum: Partisan Bill (Republican 10-0)
Status: (Introduced - Dead) 2020-01-10 - To House Agriculture and Natural Resources [HB4095 Detail]
Download: West_Virginia-2020-HB4095-Introduced.html
WEST virginia legislature
2020 regular session
Introduced
House Bill 4095
By Delegates Howell, Waxman,
Rowan, Cadle, Bibby, Summers, D. Jeffries, Cooper, Barnhart and D. Kelly
(By Request)
[Introduced January 10, 2020; Referred to the Committee on Agriculture and Natural Resources then the Judiciary]
A BILL to amend the Code of West Virginia,1931, as amended, by adding thereto a new article, designated §19-11E-1, §19-11E-2, and §19-11E-3, all relating to defining the term milk, prohibiting its use in certain cases and requiring actions by other states to make the law effective.
Be it enacted by the Legislature of West Virginia:
article 11e. milk labeling.
§19-11E-1. Definitions.
As used in this article the following words are defined as follows:
(1) “Milk” means the lacteal secretion, practically free of colostrum, obtained by the complete milking of one or more healthy hooved mammals, including members of the order cetartiodactyla, including:
(i) Family Bovidae, including cattle, water buffalo, sheep, goats and yaks;
(ii) Family Cervidae, including deer, reindeer, and moose; and
(iii) Family Equidae, including horses and donkeys.
(2) “Grade A milk” means the milk of a cow, goat or other hooved mammal produced, processed, pasteurized bottled, packaged or prepared in accordance with the law.
(3) “Manufactured milk” means the milk of a cow, goat or other hooved mammal which is not Grade A milk and which is produced, processed, pasteurized, bottled. packaged or prepared in accordance with “Milk for Manufacturing Purposes and Its Production and Processing: recommended Requirements”.
§19-11E-2. Milk labeling.
(a) After the milk product has been processed, each milk product shall be labeled with:
(1) The description of that milk product under this article or the rules proposed by the Commissioner of Agriculture under the provisions of §29A-3-1 et seq.; and
(2) Any other information the commissioner requires by rule.
(b) This section does not apply to human breast milk.
(c) A person may not state on a label of a food product that the product is milk unless the product meets the definition of “milk” established in this article.
(d) The commissioner shall establish and implement a plan to enforce the prohibition of subsection (c) of this section, including notice of the department’s intent to implement a ban on all products that do not meet the requirements of subsection (c) of this section, including plant- based products mislabeled as milk.
§19-11E-3. Contingency of article.
The effectiveness of this article is contingent upon the enacting of a similar law in any 11 states of the group of states composed of Alabama, Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, North Carolina, Oklahoma, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas, Virginia, and West Virginia. The Department of Agriculture shall notify the legislative manager within 10 days after 11 states of these 14 states have enacted a law similar to this article. If notice of enactment is not received by the legislative manager on or before October 1, 2029, this article is null and void with no further action required by the Legislature.
NOTE: The purpose of this bill is to define the term “milk” and limit its use to products that meet the definition.
Strike-throughs indicate language that would be stricken from a heading or the present law and underscoring indicates new language that would be added.
