FDA panel: Data not in on safety of clones' food

http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=676&e=1&u=/usatoday/11938183

In a surprising setback to the Food and Drug Administration (news - web sites), one of its advisory committees threw a wrench into tentative plans to remove restrictions on the sale of food from cloned animals.


A majority of the members of the veterinary medicine advisory panel said Tuesday that the FDA has not provided enough data to prove that such food is safe for human consumption or that cloned animals are as healthy as those born the old-fashioned way.


The advisory committee, which met in Rockville, Md., was given a draft copy of an FDA risk assessment on animal cloning. The FDA said in a widely publicized statement Friday that the risk assessment concluded that "food products derived from animal clones and their offspring are likely to be as safe to eat as food from their non-clone counterparts, based on all available evidence." And that "healthy adult clones are virtually indistinguishable from their conventional counterparts."


FDA critics questioned the agency's judgment in releasing that statement.

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From the article:

"A majority of the members of the veterinary medicine advisory panel said Tuesday that the FDA has not provided enough data to prove that such food is safe for human consumption or that cloned animals are as healthy as those born the old-fashioned way."