A Consumer Tool Kit Explaining Livestock Cloning - Points for Retailers to Provide to Consumers
March 10, 2016
Consumer Questions About Food Products From Cloned Animals:
Talking Points for Retailers
Q. What is cloning?
A. Cloning is an assisted reproductive technique that produces an animal that is an
identical twin of an existing animal.
Q. Is cloning safe?
A. Yes cloning is safe. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration and U.S. Department of
Agriculture have determined that cloning does not affect the safety or healthfulness of
meat and milk.
Q. How does livestock cloning benefit consumers?
A. The use of cloning in livestock breeding programs will enable food retailers to provide
consumers with more consistently high-quality meat and milk from the best livestock at
an affordable price.
Q. How does livestock cloning benefit food retailers?
A. Thanks to the use of cloning in livestock breeding programs, retailers will be able to
source meat nationally from superior animals.
Q. Can consumers avoid food from cloned animals?
A. There is no such thing as cloned food because consumers are unlikely to ever eat food
products from cloned animals. Cloned livestock are for breeding, not eating. Meat and
milk will continue to come from conventionally-produced animals.
Q. How can consumers be certain a food product does not come from a cloned animal?
A. A supply chain management system has been developed to ensure that food retailers
may use voluntary labeling to indicate that a food product does not come from a cloned
animal. Such labels are now in development. We respect and support consumer choice.
Q. But I heard the U.S. Food and Drug Administration did not approve labels for food
products from cloned animals. Is that true?
A. Yes it is true that FDA stated that mandatory labeling is not required. Because cloning
does not affect food safety or food ingredients, the FDA does not require food products
from cloned animals to be labeled. However, food marketers are free to voluntarily label
food products to indicate whether or not they came from cloned animals. Similar
voluntary, process-based labels are used to identify organic and kosher food products.
BIO provides detailed comments in advance of the July 31, 2023 NIH Workshop, “Transforming Discoveries into Products: Maximizing NIH’s Levers to Catalyze Technology Transfer.
As organizations representing America’s highly innovative and competitive food and agricultural value chain, we write to express our thanks for USTR’s announcement that it will begin technical consultations with Mexico concerning its action to ban…
BIO submitted a statement for the record to the Senate Committee on Agriculture, Nutrition and Forestry hearing titled "Farm Bill 2023: Rural Development and Energy Programs." BIO called for a "farm bill centered on innovation" to incentivize…
Consumer Questions About Food Products From Cloned Animals:
Talking Points for Retailers
Q. What is cloning?
A. Cloning is an assisted reproductive technique that produces an animal that is an
identical twin of an existing animal.
Q. Is cloning safe?
A. Yes cloning is safe. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration and U.S. Department of
Agriculture have determined that cloning does not affect the safety or healthfulness of
meat and milk.
Q. How does livestock cloning benefit consumers?
A. The use of cloning in livestock breeding programs will enable food retailers to provide
consumers with more consistently high-quality meat and milk from the best livestock at
an affordable price.
Q. How does livestock cloning benefit food retailers?
A. Thanks to the use of cloning in livestock breeding programs, retailers will be able to
source meat nationally from superior animals.
Q. Can consumers avoid food from cloned animals?
A. There is no such thing as cloned food because consumers are unlikely to ever eat food
products from cloned animals. Cloned livestock are for breeding, not eating. Meat and
milk will continue to come from conventionally-produced animals.
Q. How can consumers be certain a food product does not come from a cloned animal?
A. A supply chain management system has been developed to ensure that food retailers
may use voluntary labeling to indicate that a food product does not come from a cloned
animal. Such labels are now in development. We respect and support consumer choice.
Q. But I heard the U.S. Food and Drug Administration did not approve labels for food
products from cloned animals. Is that true?
A. Yes it is true that FDA stated that mandatory labeling is not required. Because cloning
does not affect food safety or food ingredients, the FDA does not require food products
from cloned animals to be labeled. However, food marketers are free to voluntarily label
food products to indicate whether or not they came from cloned animals. Similar
voluntary, process-based labels are used to identify organic and kosher food products.