Cloned Meat Considered ‘Safe’ in Great Britain

An advisory panel on food safety will decide whether the food from cloned animals should be labelled on a case-by-case basis, but food from the descendents of clones will not need a label.

The new guidance was prompted by a scare in the summer when it emerged that meat from the offspring of a cloned cow had been sold unwittingly in butchers’ shops without a license being obtained.

The discovery sparked a storm of controversy over ethics of cloning animals for food and the FSA commissioned an investigation into the safety of the practice.

Critics branded the new guidance “appalling”and raised fears about the ethics and safety of eating cloned food.

Animal welfare groups pointed to high levels of miscarriage, organ failure and gigantism among new-born clones.

Caroline Spelman, the Environment Secretary, is thought to favour the unrestricted sale of meat and milk from the descendents of cloned animals.

FSA papers disclosed earlier this month that the Government considered a ban on cloning animals for food “disproportionate in terms of food safety and animal welfare”.

The Advisory Panel on Novel Foods and Processes (ACNFP) said in November the meat and milk from cloned cattle and their offspring showed no difference to conventional produce and was therefore safe to eat.

Under the new FSA guidelines, meat and milk from cloned animals will be classed as a “novel food” and farmers wishing to sell it will have to apply for the panel’s approval.

But FSA said yesterday that there were “no safety grounds” for regulating foods from the descendants of cloned animals and said enforced labelling of the products would be “unnecessary and disproportionate”.

The new guidance is in line with existing advice from the European Commission, which states that produce from the descendents of cloned animals should be sold freely.

The European Union proposed a five-year ban onthe use of cloned animal meat or milk for food production in October, but declared that food from the offspring of clones should be sold freely in supermarkets.

Joyce D’Silva of the campaign group Compassion in World Farming said she was “appalled” by the FSA’s decision.

“Many cloned farm animals suffer greatly from organ failure, muscular abnormalities or poor immune systems and many die or have to be culled within the first few weeks of life,” she said.

“British consumers have shown that labelling is important to them by choosing free range eggs over factory farmed eggs, as these eggs are now clearly identified in the shops. Surely people equally have a right to know if the meat and milk they buy is linked to the plethora of suffering involved in cloning?”

An RSPCA spokesman said: “The RSPCA is totally opposed to cloning for food production on animal welfare and ethical grounds. Cloning has huge potential to cause unnecessary pain, suffering and distress which cannot be justified by purely commercial benefits.”

The FSA guidelines will now undergo a consultation before ministers make a final decision on the regulation of cloned meat and milk.

A spokesman for the Department of Environment, Food and Rural Affairs said: “We are aware that the FSA met today to discuss their interpretation of novel foods. We will review any updated advice.”