Meat from the offspring of cloned animals could soon enter the Canadian food supply, and a leading food researcher warns that consumers may not know they’re buying it.
Sylvain Charlebois, director at Dalhousie University’s Agri-Food Analytics Lab, told Global News Saturday that Health Canada will allow meat from the offspring of cloned animals to be sold in the country without labels or a formal risk assessment.
“The science is pretty clear from a food safety perspective. There shouldn’t be any concerns at all,” he said. “There’s actually a lot of literature on this issue the last 25 years. But the science is not really the problem here. It’s the silence, really, I think.”
Health Canada began a consultation in 2024 to gather feedback from Canadians on its proposed approach to food derived from cloned animals and their offspring.
The change would remove cloned animals from the definition of “novel foods,” ending a requirement for a pre-market safety assessment or mandatory labelling. The agency emphasized it does not participate in cloning practices “now or ever.”
A sign is displayed at Health Canada headquarters in Ottawa on Jan.3, 2014. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Sean Kilpatrick.
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In early November, duBreton, a Quebec-based certified humane and organic pork producer, sounded alarm over meat from cloned animals entering Canada’s food supplies. The company stated that the regulatory change will allow stores to sell beef and pork from cloned animals without a safety review or mandatory labels.
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In a release Vincent Breton, duBreton’s chief executive, wrote: “Consumers have the right to decide for themselves. The government quietly changing the definition of a novel food, means that unless it’s labeled organic, there is no way to distinguish brands that support animal cloning — from brands that don’t.
“People want and deserve to know that.”
Charlebois said consumers, many of whom are attracted by lower prices, won’t know when cloned products are in front of them.
“If I give you two pieces of meat, one is conventional, the other one is cloned, you won’t be able to tell the difference,” he said. “However, if it is labelled and I offer you the cloned meat half price, which one would you choose?”
He stated clone products could eventually be cheaper for industry to produce, adding, “Without labelling, how can consumers possibly benefit from these technological advances? That’s really the matter here.”
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