Date published: 2007/03/08
The BBC says:
Europe's food watchdog is to assess whether meat and dairy products from cloned animals are safe to eat.
The European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) was asked by the European Commission to look into the future impacts of livestock cloning.
At present, there is no specific regulation on food products from cloned animals for consumption in the EU.
Last year, the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) concluded that products from cloned animals were safe.
It has put that draft ruling out for consultation, but it is widely expected that the FDA will give the go-ahead to the sale of food products made through animal cloning later this year.
In the light of this, the European Commission wrote to the EFSA, asking them "to advise on food safety, animal health, animal welfare and environmental implications of cloned animals... their offspring, and of products obtained from these animals".
It added: "According to experts, animal cloning... is on the verge of widespread commercial use and expected to spread within the global food chain before 2010.
"Food derived, in particular from traditionally produced offspring of cloned animals, might therefore be available to consumers in the future."
The EFSA has said its scientific committee will lead the research. The commission has asked for the watchdog to provide its scientific conclusions within the next six months.
It has also asked the European Group of Ethics to look into the ethics of cloning.
It doesn't really matter what the scientists say (unless it is a complete thumbs down) because no doubt the so-called environmentalists will again hijack the public debate. The EU does not have a good track record on agricultural biotechnology.
_________________________________________________________
All material not included from other sources is copyright cambridge2000.com.
For further information or questions email: info [at] cambridge2000 [dot] com
(replace "[at]" with "@" and "[dot]" with ".").