Tennessee passes law stating any food with vaccine material must be classified as a drug

Tennessee passed a bill with a large majority that would force any food that includes vaccines or vaccine-related materials to be classified as a drug.

The topic of edible vaccines has been talked about for years since the COVID-19 vaccine faced pushback, but the Tennessee legislature has sought to ensure that no ingestible pharmaceuticals slide under the radar.

HB 1894 defines food that contains a vaccine or vaccine material as a drug under the Tennessee Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act.

A vaccine or vaccine-material was described by the state as:

"A substance intended for use in humans to stimulate the production of antibodies and provide immunity against disease, prepared from the causative agent of a disease, its products, or a synthetic substitute, treated to act as an antigen without inducing the disease, that is authorized or approved by the United States food and drug administration."

The state House passed the bill by a whopping 73-22, while the state Senate passed the bill with a vote of 24-6.

Democrat state Sen. Heidi Campbell, who voted "no" in the Senate, called the passing of the legislation "messy" and called its need into question. Campbell asked for evidence of "any instances of there being food offered in the state of Tennessee that contains vaccines."

Supporting Senate members said that they did not have any specific examples but that the bill was meant to ensure regulations were in place.

Campbell also claimed that the "idea that this would somehow correlate to some kind of a retail offering of vegetables, especially when that vegetable would cost many thousands of dollars, just seems to me [to be] messy to be passing legislation for that reason."

However, there have been several instances of studies that have researched how to include COVID-19 vaccines or mRNA technology in vegetables. MSN cited a research project from the University of California that was funded by a $500,000 federal grant. The study's purpose was to determine whether mRNA technology could be implanted into the cells of edible plants to replicate and then be consumed.

In early 2024, researchers from Japan, India, and other countries published a study regarding tomato-made edible COVID-19 vaccines.

The study claimed that plant-based edible vaccines provided two-layer protection against "severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus (SARS-CoV-2)" and performed better than vaccines that are absorbed outside the digestive tract. These "predominantly cause a systemic immune response," the study said.

The bill now moves to Republican Gov. Bill Lee's desk for final approval.

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