NoClones.ca

Cloned-animal foods are allowed without labels in Canada. Here’s what to know and how to act.

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Cow and calf

What’s Happening in Canada

Canada allows food from animal clones and their offspring — particularly cattle and swine — to be treated as conventional. This means cloned‑animal products can enter the market without mandatory labelling or special regulation.

In short: Steaks, burgers, sausages, and processed foods can contain products from animal clones and their offspring — and there’s no requirement to tell consumers.

Key Facts

  • Cloned‑animal meat and milk are treated as conventional foods in Canada.
  • No labelling requirement exists for cloned or clone‑offspring meat or dairy.
  • Government reports have not found material compositional differences in limited datasets — but animal welfare problems and long‑term unknowns remain.
  • Animal cloning raises ethical and reproductive health concerns, including high failure and stillbirth rates.

Why It Matters

  • Consumers do not have a clear right to know what’s on their plate.
  • Transparency and traceability in the food chain are weakened.
  • Health and ethical questions remain unresolved.

Our Position

We call for an immediate ban on the sale and import of cloned‑animal foods and their progeny in Canada until government publishes a comprehensive, public report and puts enforceable safeguards in place — and for mandatory labelling in all cases, regardless.
  • Ban (moratorium) until a government report demonstrates long‑term food safety with independent, adequately powered studies.
  • Public documentation of current practices, cloning efficiency, veterinary interventions, and animal welfare outcomes.
  • Clear limitations on new practices and enforceable safeguards against abuse and corner‑cutting.
  • Mandatory reporting of failed experiments, adverse outcomes, and a transparent recall protocol.
  • Permanent, mandatory labelling and full supply‑chain traceability for clones, progeny, and derived ingredients.

Latest Updates

Concerning Quotes from Health Canada’s Scientific Opinion

Selections from Health Canada’s scientific opinion used to inform policy on foods from SCNT clones and their progeny.

“Although animal clones have been successfully derived … there are problems associated with SCNT animal cloning, including lower rates of reproductive success, altered birth weights and higher organ failure rates. The origins and mechanisms underlying these problems are not completely understood.”

Canada.ca — Scientific opinion

“Considerably less information is known about the long-term effects on health and fertility of SCNT animal clones, mainly because cloning in livestock animals is a relatively new technology, so few clones have reached the advanced stages of their normal life expectancy.”

Canada.ca — Scientific opinion

“In microbiological terms, contamination of foods of animal origin is inevitable … However, regarding the impact of the technologies on the microbiological safety of foods derived from SCNT animal clones and their progeny, there is no data that has been collected to date on the impact of SCNT on the microflora of these animals.”

Canada.ca — Scientific opinion

“Consideration was given to the food as carrier of chemical residues … However, there is no data that has been collected to date on the impact of SCNT on the levels of chemical residues in the meat and milk of animal clones or of their progeny.”

Canada.ca — Scientific opinion

“Despite the fact that there is little empirical data on animal health and food and feed safety for livestock clones of advanced age, nor on species other than cattle and swine, any new data based on these factors are not expected to raise any new concerns for SCNT cattle and swine clones.”

Canada.ca — Scientific opinion

“There is little to no data available on composition of meat and milk from sheep and goat clones, in addition to little or no data on older livestock animals.”

Canada.ca — Scientific opinion

“All of the clinical abnormalities associated with SCNT animal cloning have been observed in natural breeding and other ART procedures, although at a higher frequency in the ARTs and even higher in SCNT technologies.”

Canada.ca — Scientific opinion

“SCNT cattle and swine clones themselves … have higher incidences of birth defects/malformations, and pregnancy related complications … compared to their conventionally-bred counterparts.”

Canada.ca — Scientific opinion

Source: Scientific opinion on the impact of SCNT (Canada.ca).