(STAT) – Genetically engineering pigs so they lack a certain sugar on the surface of their cells that triggers meat allergies or organ rejection won approval from the Food and Drug Administration Monday.

The regulatory clearance — the first of an intentional genomic alteration in a product with both food and medical uses — means the animals could be safer sources of not just food but also treatments such as the blood-thinner heparin. “Today’s first-ever approval of an animal biotechnology product for both food and as a potential source for biomedical use represents a tremendous milestone for scientific innovation,”

FDA Commissioner Stephen Hahn said in a statement. There have been four previous approvals for such genetic engineering in animals, three for biomedical purposes and one for food, but none for both biomedicine and food, Steven Solomon, director of  the FDA’s Center for Veterinary Medicine, said in a conference call with reporters.

GalSafe pigs, named for their lack of detectable alpha-gal sugar, could potentially provide tissues and organs for patients without the danger of rejection caused by the presence of the sugar in cross-species procedures known as xenografts or xenotransplantation. Alpha-gal is considered a primary cause of rejection, Solomon said, but he was hesitant to say it is the only source. READ MORE