FDA affirms cloned animal safety but objections raised

FDA confirmed Tuesday the safety of meat and milk from cloned animals but asked the food and biotech industries to keep in place a voluntary moratorium on selling the food until more is known about consumer acceptance and marketplace effects.

The Agriculture Department will convene industry leaders to ease the transition for the food industry and consumers, probably pushing back the sale of cloned food several years. FDA will not require labeling of clone-derived milk and meat because the agency determined safety concerns are no different than traditional food, said Stephen Sundlof, FDA's food center director.

The effort to prepare the marketplace satisfied some groups that had voiced concerns with the effect that potential consumer fears and perceptions of other countries could have on food companies.

"Numerous surveys reveal that consumers are not comfortable with the idea of buying milk from cloned cows, and more time is needed for the American public to gain a better understanding of this new technology," said Connie Tipton, president of the International Dairy Foods Association.

The Consumer Federation of America did not back down from its opposition even with the voluntary moratorium. "The pro-cloning juggernaut has successfully turned aside congressional concerns and rolled over consumer opposition," said Carol Tucker Foreman, the director of CFA's Food Policy Institute.

HHS denied a petition Tuesday from consumer groups, including CFA, asking it to make a determination on the moral and ethical issues of cloning. While praising the Agriculture Department's effort to conduct market analysis, the Center for Science in the Public Interest called on Congress to hold hearings on the ethical, animal safety and environmental implications of cloning.

Sen. Barbara Mikulski, D-Md., criticized FDA, saying that the agency rushed its determination. "We had time to do the work -- now the FDA has rushed into a decision that could have dangerous consequences," she said.

Mikulski included language in the FY08 Agriculture spending bill that strongly encouraged FDA to withhold its assessment, which many stakeholders knew was imminent. House Agriculture Appropriations Subcommittee Chairwoman Rosa DeLauro, D-Conn., said: "Clearly, the agency has not learned the lessons from the past few years of the dangers posed by products that were approved hastily. The FDA has decided to continue the alarming trend of acting on behalf of political and corporate interests at the expense of improving food safety and the public health."

The European Union reached the same conclusion as FDA just days before the U.S. agency's decision Tuesday. FDA began the cloning risk assessment in 2001 and released a draft document a little more than a year ago in which it deemed food from cloned animals safe.

Because clones are expensive to create, FDA anticipates most food will come from the offspring of cloned animals, while the clones will be used almost strictly for reproduction.