Lipidology does not - and will never - use tallow sourced from cloned cattle.

Health Canada recently removed cloned cattle and swine from the definition of “novel foods,” meaning that meat (and by‐products) derived from cloned animals could soon be sold in Canada without mandatory labelling notifying customers about what they are buying. However, after significant pushback from consumers and industry, Health Canada updated its website to say that it has “indefinitely paused the policy update to provide time for further discussions and consideration.”

While we’re glad that the government had reconsidered the idea to allowing cloned animal products to be sold without labelling, this news has prompted us to reaffirm a commitment to our customers: we will never use suet or tallow derived from cloned cattle - including any progeny - in any of our products.

At Lipidology, we believe in the importance of transparency, integrity and respect for the source of our ingredients and our customers. We can make this promise because, despite the government coming so close to making it virtually impossible for customers to know whether beef and other products on grocery store shelves are derived from cloned animals, we know our suet and tallow suppliers well and we share their traditional values with regard to raising cattle organically.  

What's changed in Canada

Without any press release or public discourse, Health Canada revised its regulatory framework  to treat cloned animals and their by- products the same as conventionally bred livestock. As a result, consumers may have no way of  knowing whether the food on their plate was derived from cloned stock. A few weeks later, it quietly updated its website to say it has “indefinitely paused” the policy.

Why this news matters for tallow cosmetics

When we started Lipidology tallow cosmetics in 2018, hardly anyone in Canada was selling tallow skincare products. Today, it seems like new tallow brands come online every week. While we think it is wonderful that more people can access natural skincare products, we have also seen a lot of unscrupulous behaviour in this industry. Some companies market themselves as “a Canadian brand” even though they do not disclose whether the tallow they use is from Canada. Certain companies blatantly sell counterfeit tallow products (especially on Amazon and Etsy), claiming to be a reputable brand but actually selling cheap knock-offs made with who-knows-what, imported from who-knows-where.

Tallow may not be the first thing one thinks of when reading about “cloned meat,” but the principle is the same: sourcing matters, and if rogue tallow companies are looking for cheap ingredients, tallow from cloned animals could enter the market as an inexpensive ingredient in tallow balms, creams, soaps and more.

Tallow is a key ingredient in all Lipidology products. We pride ourselves on earning our customers’ trust by only sourcing clean, natural ingredients. Even if regulators say cloned-derived products are “safe,” we believe consumers have a right to know what goes into their skincare products and make informed decisions for themselves.

We maintain a zero tolerance for cloned cattle or their progeny in our supply chain

At Lipidology, we affirm the following:

• We will only source suet and tallow from suppliers who maintain traceable lineage and abide by ethical farming practices.
• We will not source ingredients from suppliers that sell any cattle line produced by somatic cell nuclear transfer (cloning) or whose parent stock were cloned.
  
• We will label openly and continue to inform our customers about where our ingredients come from and document our sourcing and production processes publicly. 

Why transparency matters 

Consumers deserve to know what goes on and into their body. Your skin deserves ingredients you understand. If your tallow skincare supplier doesn’t inform you about how an animal was bred or the integrity of its supply line, then you can’t really make an informed choice.

How do we ensure that our tallow is derived from natural, non-cloned cattle? It comes down to knowing your suppliers. We know our suppliers and have confirmed with them that the tallow and suet that they provide to us is from cattle that are still bred and raised in the traditional way. Moreover, we use Organic Raised tallow and the organic standard prohibits the use of anything which uses biotechnology to manipulate genes.

Across the board, our suppliers have assured us that they are not and will not be involved in any production of cloned animals. These are farms that have spent generations fine tuning their breeding programs and they will not partake in any cloned animal program. 

We will continue to hold this standard with all our current and future new producers.

Cloning is still a contentious topic that has implications on ethical farming practices and animal welfare. Documented concerns around animal health and welfare in the cloning process include “large offspring syndrome” (oversized fetuses, dystocia, placental defects), perinatal mortality and congenital abnormalities, higher rates of disease and early death in some clones. These issues were cited in a 2023 internal draft report by Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada, the Canadian Food Inspection Agency, Environment and Climate Change Canada and Health Canada.

Being open about sourcing is the way forward for the consumer goods sector, including the food and skincare industries. Brand integrity is at the heart of our company. We are a small-batch manufacturer and we pride ourselves on authenticity. We would only produce products for sale that we would (and do) use ourselves.

What you can do 

As a consumer and concerned citizen, you can take steps to encourage the industry to be more transparent than the government requires companies to be. You can ask your skincare brand where their ingredients come from. If they use tallow, you can ask how the cattle from which their tallow is sourced were bred and raised.  Talk is cheap so be sure to look closely at their online presence to see if they provide any assurance about their sourcing practices. You can choose brands that are responsive and transparent and support companies that align with your values as regards to their sourcing practices.

Good fat for good skin 

Lipidology is a small family business. We are committed to and do in fact exceed the basic regulatory requirements. We make products from scratch using ingredients that are wholesome and pure. We have photos and videos of our sourcing and production processes and share our journey here on our website and on social media. We use tallow that comes from grass fed cattle, which are raised using organic, regenerative practices. Our farmer partners never use synthetic fertilizers, hormones, pesticides, vaccines, or cloned animals for any of the materials that we source from them.

We appreciate our customers and thank you for trusting us.