Upton’s Naturals, a US plant-based food company, is appealing to the Tenth Circuit Court of Appeals a federal judge’s refusal to halt Oklahoma’s “Meat Consumer Protection Act” which prohibits plant-based meat sellers from using “meat terms” to describe their food without disclaimers in the “same size and prominence” label to reflect that their product is plant-based. 

The act expressly prohibits advertising “a product as meat that is not derived from harvested production livestock” with fines of up to USD 10,000 and punishment of up to a year in prison for non-compliance. 

In September 2020, Upton’s Naturals and the Plant-Based Foods Association (PBFA) sued the state of Oklahoma in federal court, seeking an injunction to prevent the labeling law from taking effect, since they claimed that the disclaimer is expensive and led to customer confusion. The federal court refused the injunction and the Oklahoma “Meat  Consumer Protection Act” went into effect as of November 2020.