EU agency asked to rule on cloned meat and milk

BRUSSELS, Mar 8 (Reuters) Europe's top food safety agency has been asked to determine whether meat and milk from cloned animals are safe to eat, European Commission officials said today.

In a letter sent to the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) the same day, the European Union's executive arm asked it to ''assess the possible implications of cloning for food safety, animal health, animal welfare and environment in the EU''.

If the technology gets a green light from the EFSA -- the ruling is due in six months -- cloned food products could be in supermarkets across the 27-country bloc by next year.

Many consumer and religious groups strongly oppose cloning, which takes cells from an adult and fuses them with others before implanting them in a surrogate mother. They say scientists lack knowledge of its effects on nutrition and biology.

Advocates of livestock cloning say the technology will help produce more milk and lean, tender meat by creating more disease-resistant animals. They insist it is perfectly safe.

The Commission will also ask its ethics committee to give its opinion on the matter.

US RULING Commission officials said the move by the EU executive was prompted by a draft ruling from the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) last December that meat and milk products from cloned cattle, pigs and goats were safe for consumption.

Hundreds of livestock have been cloned mainly in the United States, but the Commission's letter said cloning ''appears likely to develop both in the EU and internationally''.

''Britain and Germany are pushing the matter. Britain has confirmed that it has imported a cloned offspring,'' a Commission official told Reuters.

''As far as we know, no products from the offspring have entered the food cycle.'' The initial FDA ruling, to be endorsed fully in April, gave no assurances on sheep clones. But it did approve food made from clones' offspring, which would account for most of the clone-related food making its way onto dinner tables.

The FDA said it would be unlikely to recommend special labels for food made from clones, which are genetic twins of donor animals, but would not decide on the labelling issue until April following a 90-day public consultation.

Regardless of the EFSA's decision, consumers may need more assurances. More than half of shoppers in a recent survey by the International Food Information Council said they were unlikely to buy food made from cloned animals.

The largest US dairy producer and distributor, Dean Foods, said last month that it would not sell milk from cloned animals due to consumer concerns.

REUTERS AKJ BST1622