Earlier this week, our Closer Look podcast sliced into a controversial topic: Would you eat a ribeye steak if it came from a cloned cow?
At the time, Health Canada was on the verge of introducing new regulations that would remove meat from cloned animals from the agency’s “novel foods” category.
Simply put, the rule change would allow your local grocery to sell meat from cloned animals — without any labels.
But Health Canada has suddenly slammed on the brakes, announcing on its website that the department has “indefinitely paused the policy update.”
“The Government of Canada has received significant input from both consumers and industry about the implications of this potential policy update,” the statement reads. “The Department has therefore indefinitely paused the policy update to provide time for further discussions and consideration.”
Despite the pause, Health Canada insists that meat from cloned animals is safe to eat. In fact, it’s been sold in the United States for years.
“Health Canada, in collaboration with other departments, applied a rigorous process in reviewing the scientific literature of foods made from cloned cattle and swine,” the statement says. “The science underpins Health Canada's conclusion that food products made from these animals and their progeny are as safe and nutritious as foods from traditionally bred animals. This is consistent with the interpretation of other trusted jurisdictions.”
Dr. Sylvain Charlebois, director of the Agri-Food Analytics Lab at Dalhousie University, agrees with that conclusion. But he told our podcast that any meat from cloned animals should be labelled as such, no exceptions.
“It doesn't represent any more risks, which is actually true,” he said. “If I actually give you guys a conventional piece of meat and a cloned meat piece, you wouldn't be able to notice the difference between the two, to be honest. It’d be the same piece of meat, basically. But in 2025 that's not really the argument here. The argument is about transparency.”
You can watch the full episode HERE.
Hosted by Village Media’s Michael Friscolanti and Scott Sexsmith, and produced by Derek Turner, Closer Look is a new daily podcast that goes way beyond the headlines with insightful, in-depth conversations featuring our reporters and editors, leading experts, key stakeholders and big newsmakers.
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