Greenwire, January 15, 2008

FEDERAL AGENCY OKS CLONED FOOD

[Rachel's introduction: FDA tentatively ruled in 2006 that products from cloned animals, like meat and milk, are no different than those from naturally bred adult animals, calling cloning "a more advanced form of" breeding technologies already widely used in the cattle industry.]

The Food and Drug Administration has concluded that food for healthy cloned animals and their offspring are as safe to consume as food from ordinary animals.

In its unreleased "final risk assessment" obtained by the Washington Post, the agency found no evidence to support concerns that cloned food products could present a danger to humans.

The 968-page report includes hundreds of pages of raw data to support the agency's conclusions against opposition to cloned foods from multiple groups.

"Moral, religious and ethical concerns... have been raised," the agency notes in a document accompanying the report. But because the agency is banned by law to evaluate those issues, the risk assessment is "strictly a science-based evaluation."

FDA tentatively ruled in 2006 that products from cloned animals, like meat and milk, are no different than those from naturally bred adult animals, calling cloning "a more advanced form of" breeding technologies already widely used in the cattle industry.

Some consumers and consumer groups remain skeptical about cloning, as well as genetically altered foods. Some big food companies say they will not sell cloned products, while others worry about the safeguards in place to inform and protect consumers (Greenwire, Jan. 4).

Joseph Mendelson, legal director of the Center for Food Safety, a Washington advocacy group that petitioned FDA to restrict the sale of food from clones, said his group is considering legal action.

"One of the amazing things about this," Mendelson said, "is that at a time when we have a readily acknowledged crisis in our food safety system, the FDA is spending its resources and energy and political capital on releasing a safety assessment for something that no one but a handful of companies wants" (Rick Weiss, Washington Post, Jan. 15). -- EB

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