Sponsors (20)
The bill improves consumer labeling clarity and protects traditional cheesemakers with a federal definition of "natural cheese," but it shifts costs and market risk onto some manufacturers and leaves questions about future FDA exclusions.
Consumers nationwide can identify true "natural cheese" more reliably because the bill creates clearer, standardized labeling rules.
Producers of traditionally made cheeses (especially small, artisanal businesses) gain statutory protection from misleading competition, helping preserve product reputation and value.
The bill creates a uniform national standard by preempting differing state rules, reducing a patchwork of state regulations for manufacturers and simplifying multi-state compliance.
Some manufacturers—particularly small and processed-cheese producers—will incur compliance costs to meet the new statutory definition (relabeling, reformulation, updated packaging), imposing financial burdens.
Products that previously used "natural" claims but do not meet the new definition could face enforcement actions, lost sales, and short-term market and supply-chain disruption (confusion in retail ordering and consumer choice).
Giving the FDA discretion to designate additional "process cheese" exclusions may create ongoing regulatory uncertainty for manufacturers about which products will qualify as "natural" in the future.
Based on analysis of 3 sections of legislative text.
Creates a federal definition of “natural cheese” and bans using that label unless the product meets the new legal definition, with limited agency-guided exceptions.
Introduced February 14, 2025 by Bryan Steil · Last progress February 14, 2025
Defines “natural cheese” in federal food law and makes it unlawful to label a product as "natural cheese" (or use related unqualified claims) unless the product meets that new legal definition. The definition ties "natural cheese" to traditional coagulation-based cheesemaking (using milk-derived proteins, rennet or similar coagulating agents, partial whey drainage, or conformity with established standards of identity) and excludes a set of processed cheese products and any products the Secretary of Agriculture designates as process cheese.