Group Challenges FDA On Cloned Food

The FDA released a risk assessment last December indicating that meat from cloned animals is ready for human consumption. The Center for Food Safety responded today with a 36-page report citing flaws in the study's methodology and conclusions.

Some examples to whet your appetite:

-The FDA review contradicts itself, first claiming that genetically defective clones will pose no risk to the food supply because the sick animals will be detected and removed, but then admitting that some sick and defective clones may in fact end up as food.

-[The] FDA says the defects seen in clones also occur in natural reproduction, differing only by degree in clones, but the Agency also finds several defects in clones that are rarely or never seen in normal animals. For example, one common abnormality in clones that can result in stillbirth or early death - or death of the mother - occurs in normal cows only once in 7,500 instances, while it may occur in up to 42% of cloned cows.

-While the FDA claims that improvement in cloning technology is resulting in better success rates for clones, a 2005 scientific review found that success rates in cloning remain less than 5%.

The full list of their objections is available as a 36-page report titled Not Ready for Prime Time. (.pdf)

The FDA's December report can be read in its 678-page (.pdf) entirety.

Earlier Wired News coverage is also available.

Group Blasts FDA Plan to Allow Food from Clones [Reuters]