S. 1496 — New Markets for State-Inspected Meat and Poultry Act of 2025

This section revises Section 301 of the Federal Meat Inspection Act to authorize the Secretary of Agriculture to permit the shipment in interstate commerce of carcasses, parts of carcasses, meat, and meat food products inspected under cooperating state meat inspection programs that impose ante mortem and post mortem inspection, reinspection, and sanitation requirements at least equal to federal standards under subchapter I of the act (previously limited to intrastate distribution ("solely for distribution within such State")). It further prohibits any state or local government from restricting the movement or sale of meat or meat food products inspected and passed under federal standards for interstate commerce. (As background, state programs eligible for federal cooperation protect intrastate consumers from adulterated or misbranded meat through inspection equivalent to the federal program administered by the Food Safety and Inspection Service.) The section also (1) redesignates the section heading as "Sale of inspected meat and meat food products"; (2) restructures subsection (a) to specify a congressional policy statement and state program authorities; and (3) makes conforming and technical amendments throughout subsections (b) through (d), including removing "solely for distribution within such State" or equivalent intrastate limitations, updating gendered pronouns to "the Secretary," and redesignating paragraphs.

This section authorizes the Secretary of Agriculture to permit shipment in interstate commerce of poultry products inspected under approved state poultry products inspection programs (previously limited to intrastate distribution) and prohibits states or local governments from restricting the movement or sale of federally inspected poultry products. (As background, such state programs must impose ante-mortem and post-mortem inspection, reinspection, and sanitation requirements at least equal to federal standards to qualify for federal technical assistance and up to 50% of program costs.)