EU panel rates clones' meat and milk as safe

WASHINGTON — The European Food Safety Authority on Friday said meat and milk from healthy cloned cattle and pigs is "very unlikely" to pose risks to consumers, opening the door to possible European sales of those controversial foods.

The highly anticipated draft scientific opinion of the European agency comes just days before the U.S. Food and Drug Administration is due to release its final report on food from clones, which is expected to reach virtually the same conclusion. Some backers of the fledgling agricultural cloning industry have said they hoped a positive report from Europe might help ease the process of gaining acceptance by U.S. consumers.

It remains unclear, however, whether the European Union will approve the sale of cloned products, and if so, under what conditions.

Unlike in the United States, such decisions in Europe must incorporate social and ethical factors. And the European public broadly supports the "precautionary principle," which calls for society to err on the side of caution when risks are uncertain.

Moreover, the European agency, which provides scientific advice to the European Commission, noted in its report that many cloned farm animals have health problems, including life-threatening physiological abnormalities. In Europe, where animal welfare is a higher-profile issue than in the United States, that reality could become a stumbling block.

The report concluded, however, that unhealthy clones would be screened out by standard food-inspection methods. And, echoing earlier assertions by the FDA, it found that milk and meat from healthy clones are as nutritious and safe as milk and meat from ordinary animals.

"Based on current knowledge, there is no expectation that clones or their progeny would introduce any new food-safety risks compared with conventionally bred animals," the report said.

The report also concluded that sexually produced offspring of clones — far more likely to enter the food supply than clones, which are too valuable to slaughter — are fully normal.

Scientists at a handful of companies around the world, including at least two in the United States, want to clone prizewinning beef cattle, dairy cows and pigs as a way to bring more consistently high-quality products to market. But consumer reaction has been chilly.