Health Canada has indefinitely paused its proposal to exclude cloned cattle and swine from novel food assessment, following considerable public pushback. The proposal could have paved the way for the products to enter the market without special assessment and notification to the authorities.
A novel food assessment is a mandatory pre-market safety evaluation. The decision by Health Canada follows a wave of objections from activists and the public that Canadians could soon be eating cloned beef and pork products without knowing it. A two-month public consultation was conducted last year between March and May.
