On May 17, 2024, Law No. 21,664, which amends the Chilean Sanitary Code to define the concept of meat and prohibit the use of this designation for products that are not of animal origin, was published in the Official Gazette.

This law introduces a new Paragraph III to Title II of Book Four of the Sanitary Code, called “Of Meat”. New Article 105 undecies defines “meat” as “the edible part of the muscles of slaughter animals such as cattle, sheep, pigs, horses, goats, camelids and other species fit for human consumption”, replicating the definition contained in Article 268 of the Sanitary Food Regulations (Decree No. 977/96).

Further, the new article 105 duodecies complements this definition, stating that “meat includes all the soft tissues surrounding the skeleton, including its fat covering, tendons, vessels, nerves, aponeurosis, bones of each cut when they are attached to the corresponding muscular mass and all tissues not separated during slaughter, except the supporting muscles of the hyoid apparatus and esophagus”.

Article 105 terdecies, on the other hand, prohibits classifying any product that is not of animal origin and that does not comply with the definitions of the preceding articles as “meat”. It also prohibits the use of concepts associated with products of animal origin, such as “hamburger”, “chorizo”, “sausage”, “sausage”, “jerky” or others to describe, promote or market foods that contain a higher proportion of vegetable matter than meat, unless their vegetable origin is expressly, visibly and unequivocally indicated.

This law will enter into force 18 months after its publication in the Official Gazette.

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