Trade in food products from cloned animals set for approval

摘要

The EU will soon have to tackle the thorny issue of whether to allow trade in food products derived from cloned animals. The US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) is expected in the coming days to give the all clear for companies to market meat and milk products derived from cloned animals or their progeny. Whether such products may be legally exported to the EU - or even produced inside the EU - is not clear, one European Commission official told Europolitics Environment. Such products may need to be labelled as such under the Novel Foods Regulation (258/97/EC), raising the spectre of a transatlantic tussle akin to that over genetically modified organisms (GMOs).rnThe European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) will issue its opinion next week on animal cloning. "We would be surprised if EFSA comes to a different conclusion than the FDA because it is looking at the same scientific evidence," the Commission official said. However, he added that EFSA was examining not just if it was safe for humans to eat cloned animals but the animal welfare implications too.