Japanese Group Approves Cloned Animals For Food
Cloned animals have been deemed safe for human consumption, according to a study group for Japan’s top safety watchdog, making it the first step in a series of decisions needed before the watchdog makes recommendations to the government.
However, it will still be months before the Food Safety Commission reports its assessment on the safety of food in production using the controversial reproductive technology, as there are still several more meetings pending by a higher-level committee of experts.
The United States leads the way in bringing meat and milk from cloned cattle, hogs and goats and their offspring into the food supply in January of last year.
Kazuo Funasaka, a spokesman at the commission, said on Tuesday that the working group focused on the assessment of the health of cloned cattle and hogs.
“The assumption of their discussion was that if such animals are healthy, food made from them would be safe,” he told Reuters.
“Their conclusion is that based on the scientific knowledge and information available at present, such food is as safe as cattle and hogs bred conventionally."
Cloning animals could be a key technology to improving efficiency in livestock production, Reuters reported.
Japan’s health ministry asked the commission in April 2008 for its assessment on safety of such food.
But the Japanese government has faced fierce criticism from consumers over its handling of tainted imported rice, and a series of food scandals last year have made consumers even more cautious about food from cloned animals.
Japan is one of the first countries to produce cloned animals.
In 1998, Japanese scientists bred cloned cattle and the cumulative total of such cattle now totals more than 550. Cloned hogs and goats have also been bred for research purposes.
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