Is eating steak made from a cloned cow more appealing if it was raised organically?

The answer is no, according to Canadian food authorities.

Canada has declared organic food and cloned animals to be mutually exclusive -- which means any products derived from cloned animals won't carry the country's new organic logo.

The restriction will be introduced under a sweeping set of revised national guidelines, released last week, that are designed to regulate the country's organic food industry and prevent companies from making false or misleading claims.

Last year, U.S. health officials declared that any cloned milk or meat could not be called organic.

The Canadian ban on cloned organic products was quietly added in October to an existing list of substances prohibited in organic production. The list, along with all other rules regarding organic production methods, will come into effect on June 30.

The new rules require all foods, beverages and other products of organic agriculture to be certified by a nationally recognized body and carry a new organic label introduced by the government. The contents of all products carrying the new label must be at least 95 percent organic, which is the current standard the majority of organic certification bodies use.

The national rules will allow consumers to tell easily which organic products have met a high standard. But when it comes to organic seafood, cosmetics, pet food and textiles, it's still buyer beware. The government has exempted those categories from mandatory organic certification, mainly because there are no rules for how to produce them organically.

This means companies selling those products will be allowed to use an organic label without the guarantee that they have met a high standard. The move to prohibit cloned animals from organic agriculture and production comes amid brewing debate over whether Canada should allow any cloned products to enter the country -- whether they're organic or not.

Health Canada spokeswoman Joey Rathwell wrote in an e-mail that "there are currently no foods derived from cloned animals approved for sale in Canada."

But it's unclear whether the department has ruled out developing a policy that would allow cloned meat or milk to be sold here in the future.

Members of the organic industry, who generally don't support cloning or genetically modifying animals, say they're relieved by the new restriction on cloned organic products.

"That would be something that wouldn't really be considered normal or right by the industry," said Ted Soudant, chairman of the Organic Council of Ontario. "For the organic industry, it's just really not an option."