Maybe it's just me, but I'm not really all that comfortable with the idea of eating cloned meat... I'm guessing (and hoping) that meat and dairy from non-cloned animals will be labeled as such, like antibiotic free meat is now.
Jan. 15, 2008 -- The FDA concluded Tuesday that meat and milk from cloned animals is safe for human consumption, clearing the way for clones to enter the U.S. food supply.
The much-anticipated decision was the culmination of years of review by the agency, which has been investigating whether cloning puts animals at risk of genetic changes that could be dangerous if consumed by humans.
"These products are no different than foods from traditionally bred animals," says Bruce I. Knight, Under Secretary for marketing and regulatory programs at the U.S. Department of Agriculture.
The decision does not necessarily mean that milk and meat from cloned animals is likely to arrive on grocery store shelves. Producers instead are interested in using cloning techniques to replicate prize breeding stock that could then be used to sire cattle for beef or milk.
In fact, the U.S. Department of Agriculture has asked producers to continue a voluntary moratorium on cloned animal products until the government and industry work out a transition plan.
Cloning Process
The cloning process for cattle is nearly identical to human embryo cloning techniques, which continue to face staunch debate in Washington and around the world.
In the process, known as somatic cell nuclear transfer, technicians remove an egg cell's DNA and replace it with DNA from a body cell of a donor. The resulting cell can then be chemically programmed to divide, and if it survives, it gives rise to an exact genetic copy of the body cell donor animal.
Knight said the U.S. government would now move to implement a "smooth and seamless transition into the marketplace for these products."
Meat, dairy, and biotech companies had pushed hard for the conclusion they got Tuesday.
The decision means that meat or milk from the offspring of cloned animals could reach grocery store shelves within two to three years "at the earliest," says Karen Batra, a spokeswoman for the National Cattlemen's Beef Association, an industry group.
In Europe, a food safety agency of the European Union has also weighed in on the issue of cloned animals for food. According to the Associated Press, the European Food Safety Authority issued a preliminary report that said that milk and meat from cloned animals is probably safe for human consumption.
Watchdogs Split
The FDA's decision split consumer groups, which have long expressed concerns about whether the offspring of cloned animals are safe.
Gregory Jaffe, biotechnology director of the Center for Science in the Public Interest, said in a statement that the government had "satisfactorily answered the safety question."
"While the safety of any food cannot be proven with absolute certainty, consumers should have confidence that meat and milk from cloned animals and their offspring will be safe," Jaffe said in a statement.
But Joseph Mendelson, legal director of the consumer watchdog group Center for Food Safety, suggested the FDA had rushed to judgment. "We know the process causes a number of genetic defects in clones," he tells WebMD.
"They're saying it's just too hard to figure out the [effects] in offspring of clones so we're not going to talk about that," he says.
Labeling Controversy
Mendelson says his group and others would now shift part of their focus to requiring producers to label meat and milk from cloned parents. "Labeling is going to be a big fight," he says.
Batra, the cattlemen's association spokeswoman, says her industry would oppose labels drawing a distinction between traditional meat and meat from cloned sources.
"The science says there is no difference between the two, and it's perfectly safe, and it doesn't need to be labeled," she says.
Stephen Sundlof, the director of the FDA's Center of Food Safety and Applied Nutrition, says the agency did not intend to label cloned products on grocery store shelves. "The FDA does not require labeling if there are no food safety issues."
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