January 18, 2008

Germany voices reservations over cloned food

Germany's agriculture minister said Thursday that he would have "great reservations" about introducing meat and other products from cloned animals, despite a US assessment that it would be safe.

The US Food and Drug Administration said Tuesday that food products from cloned animals are safe to eat. The decision came after a preliminary EU study, released last week, said such products were unlikely to pose a risk.

German Agriculture Minister Horst Seehofer said he has "extremely great reservations from an ethical point of view about bringing cloned animals into the food chain."

He argued that it should not be discussed purely as a scientific or health issue, and stressed that, as a matter of ethics, he views it with "very great skepticism, bordering on rejection."

The issue offers "a typical example of the fact that society cannot and should not put into practice everything that technically is possible," said Seehofer, who also is responsible for consumer protection.

EU officials Wednesday assured consumers and critics that meat and milk from cloned animals was not about to appear on European shelves.

The 27-nation union has only just launched consultations on whether to allow cloned food into the food chain, and says no decision is imminent.

The US agency's six-year study concluded that meat or milk from successfully cloned animals - which by definition carry the same DNA as the original -are no different from the products of traditionally bred livestock.