I 
110TH CONGRESS 
1ST SESSION H. R. 3115 
To amend the Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act to provide restrictions 
on the use of carbon monoxide in meat, poultry, and seafood, and 
for other purposes. 
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES 
JULY 19, 2007 
Mr. STUPAK (for himself, Mr. MARKEY, and Ms. DELAURO) introduced the 
following bill; which was referred to the Committee on Energy and Commerce 
A BILL 
To amend the Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act to 
provide restrictions on the use of carbon monoxide in 
meat, poultry, and seafood, and for other purposes. 
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa-
tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, 
SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. 
This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Carbon Monoxide 
Treated Meat, Poultry, and Seafood Safe Handling, La-
beling, and Consumer Protection Act’’. 
SEC. 2. FINDINGS. 
Congress finds the following: 
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(1) It is well documented in the published lit-
erature that consumers rely heavily on color to 
evaluate the freshness of meat, poultry and seafood 
products. 
(2) The Secretary of Health and Human Serv-
ices has accepted the use of carbon monoxide in 
modified atmosphere packaging for fresh beef and 
pork to help maintain the characteristic red color of 
fresh meat. 
(3) The Secretary of Health and Human Serv-
ices has allowed the use of carbon monoxide under 
conditions that affect the color of case-ready fresh 
cuts of poultry and ground poultry. 
(4) The Secretary of Health and Human Serv-
ices has accepted the use of carbon monoxide for use 
on raw tuna, before it is frozen, to preserve its taste, 
aroma, texture, and color. 
(5) Carbon monoxide reacts with myoglobin in 
fresh 
meat, 
poultry, 
and 
seafood, 
to 
form 
carboxymyoglobin that simulates the color that con-
sumers associate with freshness and safety in fresh 
meat, poultry and seafood. 
(6) The color imparted by carbon monoxide per-
sists in meat, poultry and seafood packaged with 
carbon monoxide regardless of the age of the meat, 
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poultry, or seafood, its microbial count, or whether 
it has been exposed to temperature abuse, and the 
browning consumers have come to associate with 
meat, poultry or seafood that may not be fit to con-
sume will not occur. 
(7) Congressional investigators recently re-
ported that at the port of San Francisco, California, 
a significant proportion of the seafood products of-
fered for import have been treated with carbon mon-
oxide to affect the color so as to give the appearance 
of freshness, yet twenty percent of the carbon mon-
oxide-treated seafood has been refused entry as de-
composed. 
(8) It is well documented in the published lit-
erature that ideal temperature control is not consist-
ently maintained in the course of distribution, stor-
age, and retail and consumer handling of fresh 
meat, poultry, and seafood products, and that seri-
ous microbial stability problems exist because of the 
frequency of temperature abuse. 
(9) The use of carbon monoxide under condi-
tions affecting the color of meat, poultry, and sea-
food products is not currently required to be labeled 
with adequate information and warnings such that 
consumers have no way of knowing that they cannot 
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rely on color to judge the freshness and safety of 
meat, poultry, and seafood products packaged with 
carbon monoxide. 
(10) Date labeling is not adequate to overcome 
the loss to consumers of color as a key freshness and 
safety indicator, and such date labeling becomes ir-
relevant once meat, poultry, or seafood has been 
subjected to temperature abuse or frozen and subse-
quently defrosted. 
(11) The amendments made by this Act are 
necessary to prevent consumer deception and serious 
risks to the public health from foodborne illness that 
may occur if consumers purchase and consume 
meat, poultry, or seafood products that have become 
spoiled or otherwise unfit for consumption, where 
consumers were led to think the meat, poultry, or 
seafood was fresh and safe based upon its color. The 
amendments will benefit in particular the elderly and 
other vulnerable subpopulations whose sense of smell 
may be compromised and who cannot rely on odor 
as an indicator of spoilage, and others who may be 
particularly susceptible to illness from consumption 
of meat, poultry, or seafood products that have 
spoiled. 
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SEC. 3. LABELING REQUIREMENTS FOR MEAT, POULTRY 
PRODUCTS, AND SEAFOOD THAT CONTAIN 
CARBON MONOXIDE. 
(a) IN GENERAL.—Subsection (t) of section 201 of 
the Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act (21 U.S.C. 
321(t)) is amended by adding at the end the following new 
paragraph: 
‘‘(4) In the case of food that is meat within the 
meaning of the Federal Meat Inspection Act, a poul-
try product within the meaning of the Poultry Prod-
ucts Inspection Act, or seafood (including all fresh 
or saltwater finfish, molluscan shellfish, crustaceans, 
and other forms of aquatic animal life) intended for 
human consumption as food within the meaning of 
section 201(f) of this Act (referred to collectively in 
this subsection as ‘seafood’), the term ‘color addi-
tive’ shall include carbon monoxide under conditions 
of use that may impart, maintain, preserve, stabilize, 
fix, or otherwise affect the color of fresh meat, poul-
try products, or seafood, unless the label of such 
food bears, prominently and conspicuously in such 
place and in such manner as to render it likely to 
be read and understood by the ordinary person, the 
following statement to prevent consumer deception 
and serious risks to the public health: ‘SAFETY 
NOTICE: Carbon monoxide has been used to pre-
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