Cloned beef entered UK food chain

Meat from the offspring of a cloned cow entered the UK food chain last year and was eaten, the Food Standards Agency revealed.

Experts said two bulls born in the UK from embryos harvested from a cloned cow had been slaughtered, one of which “will have been eaten” while the other was stopped from entering the food chain.

The revelation came amid an FSA probe into whether any matter from cows born of a clone have been used in food production.

Under European law foodstuffs, including milk, produced from cloned animals must pass a safety evaluation and gain authorisation before they are marketed.

But the FSA, the UK body responsible for the assessment of “novel foods” produced by cloned animals and their offspring, said it had neither made any authorisations nor been asked to do so.

An investigation was launched in the wake of claims that a British farmer had admitted using milk in his daily production without labelling it as from the offspring of a cloned cow.

The FSA said yesterday it had traced a single animal, Dundee Paradise, believed to be part of a dairy herd, but could not confirm that milk from the animal had entered the food chain.

It added that during the investigation officials had identified the two bulls born in the UK from a cloned cow in the US.

An FSA spokeswoman said: “The first, Dundee Paratrooper, was born in December 2006 and was slaughtered in July 2009. Meat from this animal entered the food chain and will have been eaten.

“The second, Dundee Perfect, was born in March 2007 and was slaughtered on July 27 2010. Meat from this animal has been stopped from entering the food chain.

“The agency is continuing its work on tracing the offspring of clones claimed to produce milk for the UK dairy industry. We have traced a single animal, Dundee Paradise, which is believed to be part of a dairy herd but at present we cannot confirm that milk from this animal has entered the food chain.

“As part of this investigation local authority officials are visiting the farm on which this herd is kept.”

UK dairy industry body DairyCo said it was “confident” no milk from the offspring of cloned animals has entered the human food chain.

DairyCo said a British farmer had denied reports he was selling milk produced by a cow born of a clone – something banned without (FSA) approval.

The farmer, who has not been named, told DairyCo he was only using the offspring of a cloned pedigree Holstein cow to create embryos for sale abroad.

In relation to cloned animal food safety, the European Food Safety Authority issued an opinion in 2008 which stated that: “No clear evidence has emerged to suggest any differences between food products from clones or their offspring, in terms of food safety, compared to products from conventionally bred animals.

“But we must acknowledge that the evidence base, while growing and showing consistent findings, is still small.”

The European Parliament voted last month for an immediate moratorium on the sale of food from cloned animals and their offspring until new legislation expressly banning it can be introduced.

Campaigners have voiced concerns about the possibility of produce from cloned farm animals entering the food chain, but farming groups insisted it posed no risk.

Emma Hockridge, the Soil Association’s head of policy, said cloning raised worrying issues about animal welfare, ethics, public safety, reducing genetic diversity within agriculture and the spread of animal diseases.

Eight animals, four male and four female, were bred in Britain in 2007 from a clone of a prize-winning American Holstein cow, according to breed society Holstein UK.

One of the female animals died of natural causes at about one month old, but the other three, kept on three different farms, have calved and produced milk.