Milk and meat products from cloned cattle, pigs and goats are safe for consumers to eat, according to a Food and Drug Administration document obtained by Reuters on Thursday. The FDA findings bring the agency one step closer to determining whether to allow the commercialization of food from cloned animals. A final policy decision is expected next year.
"Edible products from normal, healthy clones or their progeny do not appear to pose increased food consumption risk," said the 12-page executive summary of an FDA report. A copy of the report was provided to Reuters by an industry source.
The FDA is expected to release the executive summary of the new report on Friday. The entire report will be released at a later date.
The nascent food cloning industry, which includes companies such as ViaGen Inc., owned by Exeter Life Sciences, and Cyagra, is eagerly awaiting the FDA's decision on commercialization. Smithfield Foods, the top U.S. pork producer, has a technology development contract with ViaGen.
Industry officials hope the FDA will make a decision on commercialization quickly as some companies have had difficulty raising funds from investors because of the uncertainty surrounding the issue.
An FDA spokesman was not immediately available for comment.
Biotech companies clone animals by taking the nuclei of cells from
adults and fusing them into other egg cells from which the nuclei have
been extracted. Livestock have already been cloned for sale to
producers.
Some consumer groups have urged the FDA to address the moral and ethical concerns of animal cloning before approving its commercialization.
If the FDA does allow it, consumers are most likely to purchase meat and milk from the offspring of cloned animals, the agency said. Their parents will probably not be slaughtered for food because of their high price tag.
A cloned calf can sell for as much as $82,000. An average calf sells for less than $1,000.
Food from the offspring of cloned animals were the most likely to enter the U.S. food supply, the FDA said.
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