U.S. Confirms Food From Cloned Animals Safe

Jan 16, 12:05 PM

After years of debate, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration on Tuesday declared that food from cloned animals and their progeny is safe, removing the last government hurdle before meat and milk derived from copies of prize dairy cows and superior hogs can be sold at grocery stores.

The decision comes more than four years after the agency tentatively declared that food from cloned animals was safe, only to face a backlash of criticism from consumer groups and some scientists who said the science supporting the decision was shaky.

On Tuesday, the FDA declared that further studies had confirmed its earlier decision.

"Following extensive review, the risk assessment did not identify any unique risks for human food from cattle, swine or goat clones, and concluded that there is sufficient information to determine that food from cattle, swine and goat clones is as safe to eat as that from their more conventionally bred counterparts," the agency said in a statement.

The FDA ruling was a major victory for cloning companies, which hope to use the cloned animals primarily for breeding purposes, selling copies of prize dairy cows, steers and hogs.

Consumer groups and some in Congress have fought the decision, arguing that there was still not enough science to support such a decision.

It remains to be seen how widely the technology will be adopted. Interest from the food industry has been tepid, with some companies declaring that they will not sell milk or meat from cloned animals or their offspring.

Even if the technology is widely adopted, it is unlikely that clones themselves will wind up on grocery shelves, since they cost thousands of dollars apiece to produce. A limited amount of milk from cloned cows might be sold, but mostly it would be meat and milk from second- and third-generation offspring of clones that would enter the food supply.

Originally published by The New York Times Media Group.

(c) 2008 International Herald Tribune. Provided by ProQuest Information and Learning. All rights Reserved. U.S. Confirms Food From Cloned Animals Safe
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