FDA Downplays Long-Term Impact of Animal Cloning

WASHINGTON — Meat and milk products of offspring from the 600 cloned animals in the United States most likely have not entered the nation's food supply, an official with the U.S. Food and Drug Administration said on Thursday, as the agency downplayed the long-term impact of cloning.

The FDA last week said meat and milk from cloned cattle, swine and goats and their offspring were as safe to eat as products obtained from traditional animals. Before then, farmers and ranchers had followed a voluntary moratorium that prevented the sale of clones and their offspring.

"There is no feeling that this will ever become a way of mass producing animals," Stephen Sundlof, director of FDA's Center for Food Safety and Applied nutrition, told reporters.

He noted that another reproductive technique used in agriculture, in vitro fertilization and embryo transfer, has been used to create only a small portion of the millions of animals on U.S. farms.

It could take four or five years before consumers are able to buy clone-derived food on a wide scale as animals need to be cloned, mature and give birth. So far, several major food companies including Tyson Foods, the largest U.S. meat company, and Smithfield Foods have said they would avoid using cloned animals.

Read the full Reuters story here.