You may soon find cloned meat on grocery store shelves without any label informing you what it is.
Health Canada revealed in consultation documents last November that they plan to remove cloned cattle and swine products from their "novel foods" category, which would have required a pre-market safety review and public disclosure.
The health agency says there is no need for such measures because the science shows cloned meat - usually derived from the offspring of cloned animals - is "as safe and nutritious as foods from traditionally bred animals."
The attempt to make the policy change without a press release or public statement sparked enough backlash in December that Health Canada paused the policy update, at least for now. But some industry observers say that, even if backed by sound science, the move betrays a lack of transparency.
"The existing science may show this meat is exactly the same as conventional meat, but it's not just about what the science says or doesn't say," says Faculty of Law professor Angela Lee, an expert on the intersection between technology, food and law.
"If this isn't something citizens are on board with, then this isn't something we can just continue to push through."
Lee wrote her PhD dissertation on in vitro or lab-grown meat and contributed a chapter on it and genetically modified animals to a book that she also co-edited, Food Law and Policy in Canada. She points out that while the science may not yet point to any danger associated with cloned meat, it also "doesn't necessarily say it's something we can trust as being completely safe."
"There haven't been long-term studies as to its health or biodiversity effects - the broader environmental, human health and social consequences of introducing these kinds of technological changes into the food system."
