Cloned hamburger meat still seen a long way off

US - It may be years before consumers will be buying fast-food hamburgers or grilling T-bone steaks made from cloned cattle because the cloning process is too expensive and currently is not commercially viable, two livestock economists said on Thursday.

29 December 2006

1 minute read

North America

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration on Thursday said in a draft report that milk and meat from cloned animals was safe to eat. If the report gains final approval, U.S. consumers theoretically could buy food made from cloned cattle, pigs, and goats, but not sheep.

However, consumers will not likely be finding cloned meat and milk products any time soon, the economists said.

"Cloned animals are very expensive and commercially are not going to happen, at least in any quantity," said Jim Robb, an economist with the Denver-based Livestock Marketing Information Center.

Clones are made by taking cells from an adult animal and fusing them with other cells before implanting them in a surrogate mother. A relatively small amount of cloned livestock now exists in the United States.

Source: Reuters