Is clone meat dangerous?

Consumers inside the EU may already be eating cloned beef and pork products without knowing it - at least from time to time.

Until now, the rules forbid the cloning of animals for the purpose of food production inside the EU. But it is possible for breeders to import sperm from outside the EU to impregnate cows or sows. And that sperm could come from cloned animals.

Currently, meat stemming from the descendants of such cloned animals must not be specially labeled before sale in the EU. It can land on the plate without the consumers knowing about its pedigree. But are there dangers with such technology?

Does meat from cloned animals taste different?

In the supermarket, you will not be able to buy meat from cloned animals any time soon - that would be much too expensive. But you can buy meat from their descendants. According to everything scientifically known today, it is absolutely identical to conventional meat and there is no risk whatsoever to consumers.

Nonetheless, Christoph Then from the independent Testbiotech research institute advocates caution on cloned food: "We should wait for further test results before we eat it," he recommends.

There are no statistics about the market share of meat from cloned lineage, but it is probably very small.

Are there risks for the animals?

Yes, cloned animals are more prone to get sick than normal animals. Often there are complications at birth and malformations. Cloning-critic Christoph Then, therefore, stresses ethical concerns: "Even the surrogate mothers of clones get health problems. The animals are suffering more," he says.

The Friedrich-Loeffler-Institut (FLI) - the German Research Institute for Animal Health - says, however, that the progeny of cloned animals suffer from no specific health problems.

But in the end, the ethical and moral question remains: "Are we allowed do do this?"

Why introduce a labeling requirement?

Through the import of sperm from cloned animals, more and more breeding material will get into the EU, critics argue. If cloned animals are not labeled and the origin of the meat cannot be traced back, in a few years nobody will know anymore: some steaks might have some cloning in their heritage, others might not.

For Björn Petersen of the FLI, this is exactly the reason to refuse the idea of labeling: "It only makes sense to label something that you can control and enforce. But it will not be possible to determine whether a calf was born by a conventional mother, or from its clone. If we can not prevent abuse, labeling makes no sense." He adds that his institute considers no need for any regulatory action, because there is no proven health risk involved.

Why cloning at all?

Cloning is not returning great revenue and at the same time, the procedure is very inefficient. The technical effort is considerably higher than in traditional breeding. Therefore, meat from clones will probably never land on supermarket-shelves. But there are some market niches: "Breeders want a backup of their best stud, or they want to meet a high demand for breeding sperm," Petersen explains.

It would be technically possible to implement specific genetic mutations at this point, too - for example to get more meat on those bones. In the EU, such forms of breeding are illegal, but proving they're occurring would be almost impossible: What is the result of classical breeding and what is the result of genetic manipulation?

"In essence, the result is the same as what classical breeders have achieved over centuries - except that the process goes faster," Petersen explains. He thinks that politicians will soon have to address the question of whether or not to allow such meats onto our plates.

What's the next step?

The European Parliament on Tuesday voted for a universal ban of any clone-produce, such as meat or milk from cloned animals. The ban would also apply to descendents of clones, and to sperm or fertilized eggs. But if the EU-Commission decides against such a ban, it will be difficult to keep clone-sperm from the U.S, or China outside the EU.

Now, the commission and the parliament will have to agree on a solution: Either a ban, a strict but difficult-to-enforce labeling regime, or continuing with the ambiguous status quo.

If you ask European citizens, a clear majority would favor a labeling regime, a recent opinion poll by the Eurobarometer agency showed. This could mean that everybody could decide for themselves whether to eat clone-meat or not - provided the labels are accurate. That may prove very difficult to achieve.