Cloned foods 1

Cloned Foods Coming to a Store Near You

It may take a few years, but products from cloned animals are coming to supermarket shelves
By Pallavi Gogoi

Ready for a cloned-beef burger? On Dec. 28, the Food & Drug Administration issued a draft report which concluded that meat and milk from cloned animals are safe for consumption. The report was based on the analysis of hundreds of peer-reviewed publications and followed a similar review by the National Academy of Sciences. The FDA is now in the process of taking public comments on the issue and will continue to do so until Apr. 2. Still, the FDA is likely to give its approval by the end of the year for the sale of meat, milk, and other byproducts from clones. It will take some time for these products to show up on store shelves. One reason is that cloned animals are expensive. Cloning a cow or bull can cost $16,000 and a pig $10,000, so it doesn't make commercial sense at this point to sell the cloned animals themselves. The FDA and experts expect that offspring from the cloned animals will be the animals used commercially for their meat and milk. So ham and bacon from them likely will take at least two and a half years to appear in supermarkets, while beef and milk may take as long as five years. Here's a look at how cloning will affect products consumers see on supermarket shelves in the years ahead.