FDA Calls Food From Cloned Animals Safe

THURSDAY, Dec. 28 (HealthDay News) -- U.S. regulators released a draft document on Thursday that could pave the way for food from cloned animals to dress Americans' dinner tables.

U.S. Food and Drug Administration staffers stressed their confidence in the food's safety, yet emphasized that a voluntary moratorium on such products remains in place.

"Our draft risk assessment concludes that food and milk from [cloned animals and their offspring] is as safe to eat as the food we eat every day," Dr. Stephen Sundlof, director of the FDA's Center for Veterinary Medicine, said at a Thursday news conference. "Cloning poses no unique risks to animals that have not already been seen with other assisted-reproductive technologies currently used widely in agriculture and even in natural mating."

If meat and milk from cloned adult cattle, pigs and goats, and their offspring, were eventually allowed in the United States, it would be the first country to do so. Due to limited data on sheep clones, the FDA is not recommending that sheep clones be used for human food.

The public comment period on the FDA's risk-assessment document will last 90 days, until April 2, 2007, after which time the FDA will review and assess the comments. "It's not inconceivable that a decision will be made before the end of [next] year but there are no promises at this point," Sundlof said.

Critics were quick to fault the FDA's reasoning.

"The FDA is saying that because there are so few cloned animals with so little data, their own confidence that this food is safe is low," said Andrew Kimbrell, executive director of the Center for Food Safety. "If you don't have the science, you don't have facts, you haven't done your homework. It's a rush to judgment, and it's really not in the best interest of consumers."

What's more, the FDA's ability to police the field is like "Katrina on a plate," Kimbrell added. "We have a federal agency that is understaffed and underfinanced. We have no real confidence in the agency to do the job."

Don't expect to see meat and milk from cloned animals in grocery stores any time soon, however.

"The release of this draft document does not lift the moratorium on foods from clones or their offspring," Sundlof said. "The release does not end the agency's review of cloning. Instead we view this as the beginning of interaction with the public on this issue."

A voluntary moratorium on selling these products has been in place for several years.

Proponents of the cloning technology say it would be used primarily for breeding purposes. Cloning lets farmers and ranchers make copies of exceptional animals.