The DIRECT Act of 2025 allows local meat and poultry businesses to sell their products online and ship them directly to customers across state lines. Currently, federal law restricts interstate sales of meat and poultry products, but this bill creates an exception for state-inspected meat and poultry that are sold through the internet by retail stores, restaurants, and similar businesses. The key requirement is that products must be shipped directly to individual households in normal retail quantities—meaning small orders for personal use, not bulk commercial shipments.

This change primarily affects small local meat producers, butcher shops, and restaurants that want to expand their customer base beyond their immediate geographic area. For consumers, it means you could potentially order specialty meats or poultry products from a business in another state and have them shipped to your home. The bill maintains food safety standards by requiring that only state-inspected products qualify for this interstate shipping exception, ensuring the meat and poultry meet established inspection requirements before being shipped. The legislation also includes technical corrections to clean up outdated language in the existing federal meat and poultry inspection laws.

DIRECT Act of 2025

Marshall, Roger

Direct Interstate Retail Exemption for Certain Transactions Act of 2025 or the DIRECT Act of 2025This bill allows meat and poultry products inspected by State Meat and Poultry Inspection programs to be sold by retail stores, restaurants, or similar retail-type establishments over the internet and shipped by a carrier in commerce (other than for export to a foreign country). The state-inspected meat and poultry products must be shipped directly to household consumers and in normal retail quantities (e.g., do not exceed 300 pounds for beef, 100 pounds for pork, and 27.5 pounds for lamb).As background, under the inspection programs, the Department of Agriculture Food Safety and Inspection Service allows states that meet certain requirements to inspect meat and poultry. The state-inspected products are currently limited to intrastate commerce, unless a state opts into a separate Cooperative Interstate Shipment Program.