"cloned meat" news and stories

With the safety and ethics of new food technologies causing concern across Europe, the European Parliament asked Wednesday for a ban on the sale of foods from cloned animals and their offspring, the New York Times reported. The group also called for a suspension of foods containing ingredients created with nanotechnology.

The parliament is looking to create legislation that deals specifically with cloning because of concerns over the process and animal cruelty, the Times reported.

"Although no safety concerns have been identified so far with meat produced from cloned animals, this technique raises serious issues about animal welfare, reduction of biodiversity, as well as ethical concerns," said Corinne Lepage, a French member of the European Parliament.

In 2008 the U.S. Food and Drug Administration said there were no inherent safety problems with meat or milk from cloned animals -- specifically cows, goats or pigs -- or their offspring, Slashfood reported. It also lifted a moratorium on the sale of meat from cloned animals or their kin.

Call it Showdown at the Cloned Cow Corral. The European Union is split on whether cloned animals and their offspring should be allowed into the food supply of that continent.

News organizations across the pond report that two of the EU's governing arms say yes, one has said no -- twice -- and is likely to vote a final "no" in July, which will send the whole thing into a reconciliation process.

The irony here is that while the EU debates, meat and milk (only a very small amount, granted) from the offspring of cloned animals probably already is in the U.S. food supply -- and you have no way of knowing whether you're eating or drinking it.

Here's the deal: In January 2008, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, after years of study, said it found no inherent safety problems with meat or milk from cow, goat or pig clones or their offspring. (The FDA didn't have enough information to weigh in on sheep.) It also lifted a long-standing voluntary moratorium on putting such meat and milk on the market while it studied clones.

Gourmet's Barry Estabrook investigates the possibility of the presence of cloned beef's existence in the nation's meat supply. The following is an excerpt of his findings published on Gourmet.com.

I just found out that I may have dined on meat from the progeny of a cloned cow. You may have, too.

In January, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) decreed that meat and milk from cloned livestock was safe to eat. Last week, the agency went a step further and said that it was "theoretically possible" that the meat from the offspring of cloned cattle was already in the food supply.

The story continues at Gourmet.com: Politics of the Plate: Dining on Cloned Beef