Cloned food moves a step closer following authorities backing

The use of cloned animals in livestock breeding has moved a step closer, with both the US Food and Drug Administration and the European Food Safety Authority speaking in their favour.

The FDA in Washington has concluded that “meat and milk from clones of cattle, swine and goats, and the offspring of clones from any species traditionally consumed as food, are as safe to eat as food from conventionally bred animals”.

The FDA added that it would not require special labelling for food from these animals. But it did not expect the supply to be great anyway, as most clones would only be used for breeding.

US Farm Bureau Federation president Bob Stallman said cloning would give farmers and ranchers “additional production options”, improve breeding stock and, in time, boost the “healthfulness” of food.

But meat processors Smithfield Foods and Tyson Foods have distanced themselves from the technology, saying they have no plans to sell cloned meat.

The US developments followed a recent draft report from the European Food Safety Authority. This concluded that, while “death and disease rates of clones are significantly higher than those in conventionally reproduced animals”.”it is very unlikely that any difference exists in terms of food safety”.

EFSA has now launched a public consultation, which will feed into its final opinion in May.

Meanwhile, the European Group on Ethics in Science – another advisory body – has said that, given the health problems of surrogate dams and clones, it “does not see convincing arguments to justify the production of food from clones and their offspring”.

The EU Commission will decide later this year whether to allow clones in the commercial arena and how to deal with imports from the USA.