Dalli ‘would eat cloned meat’ as talks on new rules collapse

EU Health and Consumer Affairs Commissioner John Dalli yesterday said he would have no problem eating meat from cloned animals, after three-year talks on new regulations to control the so-called “novel foods” collapsed.

He was addressing a press conference in Brussels following a marathon negotiating session between the European Parliament and the EU Council in which no compromise could be reached.

Cloning, which uses DNA transfer to create an exact genetic copy of an animal, isn’t widespread in Europe and there are no rules that allow or ban food from the offspring of cloned livestock.

The two sides, MEPs and the council representing member states, had agreed that food deriving from cloned animals should be banned.

However, MEPs also wanted a ban on food from the offspring of cloned animals bred by conventional methods and were only prepared to drop this demand so long as such products were clearly labelled.

However, the Council only agreed to label fresh beef products, saying the Parliament’s proposals would be too costly and could create friction with trading partners like the US, Brazil and Argentina, from which the EU imports hundreds of thousands of tonnes of beef every year.

“I remain convinced that the only way to guarantee a good deal for EU consumers and food business operators is to deliver a proposal that is based on common sense and one that is both practicable and enforceable including on the issue of labelling,” Mr Dalli said yesterday.

“I will reflect on the disappointing outcome in view of assessing the next steps both with respect to the novel food regulation and the follow-up to the Commission’s report on the issue of cloning in food production.”

Asked specifically whether he would eat cloned meat, Mr Dalli said scientific assessments on cattle found “absolutely no risk to health as there is no differentiation at all between cloned animals and normally-bred animals.”

“So yes, I would eat cloned meat,” he said. The Commission will not have to go back to the drawing board. It is also expected to propose separate regulation to control the use of cloning in Europe.

Europe’s public opinion is clearly opposed to animal cloning and food production from it. Recent surveys show that 63 per cent of EU citizens are unlikely to buy food from cloned animals while 61 per cent find animal cloning morally wrong.