I
119THCONGRESS
1
STSESSION H. R. 2162
To provide for the protection of the integrity of honey marketed in the
United States, and for other purposes.
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
MARCH14, 2025
Mr. S
TEUBE(for himself, Mr. PANETTA, and Mr. EZELL) introduced the
following bill; which was referred to the Committee on Energy and Commerce
A BILL
To provide for the protection of the integrity of honey
marketed in the United States, and for other purposes.
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa-1
tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, 2
SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. 3
This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Honey Integrity Act’’. 4
SEC. 2. STANDARD OF IDENTITY FOR HONEY. 5
Not later than 1 year after the date of the enactment 6
of this Act, the Secretary shall establish a standard of 7
identity for honey in accordance with applicable United 8
States Pharmacopeia standards under section 401 of the 9
Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act (21 U.S.C. 341). 10
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SEC. 3. REPORT TO CONGRESS ON ENFORCEMENT ACTIONS 1
WITH RESPECT TO MISBRANDED HONEY. 2
Not later than 2 years after the date of the enact-3
ment of this Act, the Secretary shall submit a report to 4
Congress on enforcement actions taken under the Federal 5
Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act (21 U.S.C. 301 et seq.) 6
with respect to— 7
(1) honey that is adulterated under section 402 8
of such Act (21 U.S.C. 342); and 9
(2) honey that is misbranded under section 403 10
of such Act (21 U.S.C. 343). 11
SEC. 4. HONEY INTEGRITY PROGRAM. 12
(a) I
NGENERAL.—The Secretary shall establish a 13
program for the purposes of detecting economically moti-14
vated adulteration and improving honey integrity for 15
honey introduced, or delivered for introduction, into inter-16
state commerce. Such program shall be known as the 17
Honey Integrity Program. 18
(b) T
ESTINGREQUIRED.— 19
(1) I
N GENERAL.—Pursuant to the Honey In-20
tegrity Program, beginning 180 days after the date 21
of the enactment of this Act, the Secretary shall re-22
quire that each qualifying commercial honey packer 23
in the United States— 24
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(A) conduct testing on honey the packer 1
intends to be marketed in the United States, as 2
described in paragraph (2); 3
(B) certify to the Secretary that the packer 4
has complied with the requirements of this sec-5
tion and that the packer has no reason to be-6
lieve that the packer has traded in honey that 7
has been the subject of economically motivated 8
adulteration; and 9
(C) report the results of such testing to 10
the Secretary at such time and in such manner 11
as the Secretary may specify. 12
(2) T
ESTING REQUIREMENTS .—A qualifying 13
commercial honey packer shall ensure that testing 14
conducted pursuant to paragraph (1) shall— 15
(A) use all the best available science, in-16
cluding nuclear DNA testing, mitochondrial 17
DNA testing, and any other established forensic 18
DNA identity testing methods, nuclear mag-19
netic resonance, high-resolution mass spectrom-20
etry, and other tests in a combined protocol de-21
signed to produce the most scientifically valid 22
outcomes with respect to detecting economically 23
motivated adulteration; 24
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(B) ensure that a minimum volume of 1
honey is tested to be effective according to law 2
enforcement protocols to be developed by the 3
Secretary, in consultation with the Commis-4
sioner of U.S. Customs and Border Protection, 5
and the heads of other Federal agencies, as the 6
Secretary determines appropriate; and 7
(C) be consistent with, or superior to, the 8
best practices of other countries with respect to 9
conducting testing of honey for economically 10
motivated adulteration (as defined by the Sec-11
retary). 12
(3) P
ACKER OBLIGATIONS .—The Secretary 13
shall require each qualifying commercial honey pack-14
er to— 15
(A) report to the Secretary findings of 16
testing conducted under this section, at such 17
time and in such manner as the Secretary may 18
specify; and 19
(B) in the case of a packer identifying eco-20
nomically motivated adulteration (as defined by 21
the Secretary) in any honey the packer intends 22
to market in the United States— 23
(i) report such information to the Sec-24
retary and such law enforcement officials 25
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as the Secretary may require, not later 1
than 24 hours after that identification; and 2
(ii) refuse receipt of such honey. 3
(4) E
FFECT OF EMA IDENTIFICATION .—Upon 4
receipt of an alert of the identification of economi-5
cally motivated adulteration (as defined by the Sec-6
retary), the Secretary shall— 7
(A) investigate, test, and destroy honey de-8
termined to be so adulterated after confirming 9
results through Federal laboratory findings; 10
(B) maintain and share data on such iden-11
tification with relevant enforcement agencies at 12
the Federal, State, and local level, including the 13
Commissioner of U.S. Customs and Border 14
Protection and the Secretary of Agriculture; 15
and 16
(C) maintain and share data on such iden-17
tification with stakeholders, including national 18
domestic producer associations. 19
(c) L
IST OFPACKERS.—The Secretary shall— 20
(1) publish, and update as necessary, a list of 21
each qualifying commercial honey packer in the 22
United States, including packers excluded by the 23
Secretary from being considered a qualifying com-24
mercial honey packer; and 25
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(2) distribute such list, upon initial publication, 1
and upon each update, to relevant stakeholders, as 2
determined by the Secretary. 3
(d) I
NTERAGENCYCOOPERATION.— 4
(1) C
ONSULTATION.—In developing the testing 5
requirements under subsection (b), the Secretary 6
shall consult with the Commissioner of U.S. Cus-7
toms and Border Protection, the Secretary of Agri-8
culture, and the head of any other Federal agency 9
the Secretary determines to be appropriate, and the 10
Secretary may consult with such Commissioner, such 11
Secretary, and the heads of such other Federal 12
agencies in otherwise carrying out this section. 13
(2) R
ESOURCES.—In the case that the Food 14
and Drug Administration lacks the necessary re-15
sources and laboratories available to test honey, U.S. 16
Customs and Border Protection and the Department 17
of Agriculture shall make available to the Secretary 18
laboratory and other resources required by the Sec-19
retary for purposes of carrying out this section. 20
(e) F
EES ANDFUNDING.— 21
(1) A
SSESSMENT.—Each qualifying commercial 22
honey packer shall be subject to a fee due at such 23
time and in such amounts as the Secretary may 24
specify. 25
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(2) CREDITING AND AVAILABILITY OF FEES .— 1
Fees authorized under paragraph (1) shall be col-2
lected and available for obligation only to the extent 3
and in the amount provided in advance in appropria-4
tions Acts. Such fees are authorized to remain avail-5
able until expended. 6
(3) A
UTHORIZATION OF APPROPRIATIONS .— 7
There is authorized to be appropriated for fees 8
under this section an amount equal to the amount 9
necessary to carry out this section. 10
(f) D
EFINITIONS.—In this section: 11
(1) The term ‘‘economically motivated adultera-12
tion’’ means any practice, such as intentionally leav-13
ing out, taking out, substituting a valuable ingre-14
dient or part of a food, or adding a substance to a 15
food, that is intended to increase the value of a food 16
(as defined in section 201 of the Federal Food, 17
Drug, and Cosmetic Act (21 U.S.C. 321)) that 18
makes such food adulterated within the meaning of 19
section 402 of such Act (21 U.S.C. 342). 20
(2)(A) The term ‘‘qualifying commercial honey 21
packer’’ means any packer who is required to pay an 22
assessment to the National Honey Board established 23
pursuant to the Commodity Promotion, Research, 24
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and Information Act of 1996 (7 U.S.C. 7411 et 1
seq.). 2
(B) Such term excludes packers who meet such 3
criteria for exclusion as the Secretary may develop. 4
(3) The term ‘‘Secretary’’, except as otherwise 5
specified, means the Secretary of Health and 6
Human Services, acting through the Commissioner 7
of Food and Drugs. 8
Æ
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