BRUSSELS (AFP) — A European report voicing ethical misgivings over cloned animal products on Thursday fuelled a growing debate in the EU on "frankenfood", despite approvals granted this week by US food authorities.
"Considering the current level of suffering and health problems of surrogate dams (mothers) and animal clones, the EGE has doubts as to whether cloning animals for food supply is ethically justified," the European Group on Ethics in science and new technologies (EGE) said in an opinion delivered to the European Commission.
The EU-endorsed group added that it "does not see convincing arguments to justify the production of food from clones and their offspring", in its opinion made public Thursday after being delivered to EU authorities late Wednesday.
The latest opinion from the ethics group comes after the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) said last week that meat and milk from healthy cattle and pig clones was probably safe for human consumption.
However, commission spokeswoman Nina Papadoulaki played down the EFSA conclusion as a "preliminary report" and said: "We will ask Europeans what they think about cloning before giving our opinion in May 2008."
Following EFSA's report, an influential Italian farmers union on Monday said meat and milk from cloned animals would pose an "unacceptable risk" to consumers.
"We are prepared to mobilise strongly to prevent such a frightening reality from reaching our dinner tables, something that is not needed by either European companies or consumers," Coldiretti president Sergio Marini said on the group's website.
In the United States, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) this week showed none of the misgivings aired in Europe.
On Tuesday the FDA approved meat and milk from cloned animals, clearing the way for them one day to appear on store shelves despite opposition on ethical and health grounds.
"Meat and milk from clones of cattle, swine, and goats, and the offspring of clones from any species traditionally consumed as food, are as safe to eat as food from conventionally bred animals," FDA official Randall Lutter told a news conference in Washington.
The FDA however said it did not have enough information to rule on whether cloned sheep and other cloned animals were safe to eat.
The US has endorsed so-called "frankenfoods" much quicker than the Europeans despite the fact that Dolly the sheep, the first cloned mammal, was born in Britain in 1996.
The EGE, which acts independently although its 15 experts are picked by the EU Commission, laid out several recommendations should food from cloned animals eventually be allowed onto European markets.
These included guaranteeing their safety with the help of scientific updates and failsafe methods to trace and identify individual animals where necessary.
Further studies should also be carried out on the offspring of cloned animals.
The EGE also called on the European Commission to draw up a code of conduct on responsible farm animal breeding, including animal cloning.
The debate over cloned animals adds to a debate within the European Union, and a row with the US, on the use of genetically modified (GM) crops.
The EU missed a World Trade Organisation deadline Friday to comply with a decision against EU restrictions on some genetically modified organisms (GMOs).
And on the same day, the French government announced it was imposing a ban on the only genetically modified crop grown in the country.
The United States said Monday it would temporarily hold fire on sanctions on European Union goods in a last-ditch attempt to resolve the bitter trade dispute.
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