NEW YORK – At least 13 bills have been introduced in state legislatures across the country that call for words or symbols alerting shoppers to the presence of cloned foods.

The language in all the bills -- which have been introduced in states including California, Tennessee, New Jersey and Kentucky -- is similar. For instance, the Kentucky House bill says: "No person shall sell, offer or expose for sale, have in his possession for sale, or give away, for human consumption, any fresh or frozen meat, meat preparation, meat by-product, dairy food or dairy food product, or poultry or poultry product derived from a cloned animal or its offspring unless the product is clearly and conspicuously labeled as such."

These bills are strongly opposed by the biotech and livestock industries, which are pinning their hopes on the cloning technology to replicate the highest quality meat and milk in the industry for mass consumption, BusinessWeek reports.

Some food experts agree. "The problem with labeling is that it implies that something is wrong with the food," said William Hallman, director of the Food Policy Institute at Rutgers University. "Just like a label warns of peanuts, a label on cloned foods will be interpreted as a warning."

After genetically modified food was given the green light by the federal government in 1992, at least 16 states introduced bills that called for labeling of such food. None of them became law.

Still, consumer advocates believe that unlike genetically engineered food, cloning is still a nascent technology that can be easily tracked. “State legislators are more willing to set the groundwork as the technology is introduced, rather than retroactively look at it when problems occur in the future,” said Joseph Mendelson, legal director at the Center for Food Safety in Washington.