CRISPR bacon and hot dogs will soon be commonplace. Here’s why they are safe

From hot dogs to crispy bacon, US food staples could be made of gene-edited meat as early as 2026. Yes, really: the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) recently approved the farming of a specific kind of genetically enhanced pig. And regulators around the world may not be far behind.

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The first thing you should know: not every gene-edited animal will be directly spawned from a lab. Rather, such livestock are merely bred from animals whose DNA was edited early on – often at the single-cell or fertilised egg stage – to give them beneficial traits.

And no, this gene editing isn’t about making pork taste better – it’s about protecting pigs from disease.

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These genetically enhanced pigs are even less of a novelty when you consider there is no effective vaccine for PRRS.

The stakes are enormous. In the US alone, efforts to control the spread of PRRS cost the pork industry an estimated $1.2bn (£878m) every year.

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