Food companies pledge not to use clones.

Twenty food companies have told a consumer group that they won't use milk or meat from cloned livestock. The companies--including Smithfield Foods and Kraft Foods--were responding to a survey conducted by the Center for Food Safety, a consumer group that opposes animal cloning.

Other companies, including Wal-Mart and Tyson Foods, have also banned the use of cloned animals in food products. Many haven't made a similar pledge to avoid using food from the conventionally bred offspring of clones, however, partly because no one is tracking the offspring.

After FDA ruled in January that products from cloned cattle, swine, goats and their offspring "are as safe to eat as the food we eat every day," U.S. regulators quietly withdrew their request for the food industry to voluntarily refrain from selling milk and meat from offspring of clones. A similar request for products made from the cloned animals themselves remains in place.

Clones--at about $20,000 a copy--are too expensive to be slaughtered for food themselves, but some ranchers said they have sold clones' offspring for food. Polls have shown most consumers are uncomfortable with the idea of eating products from cloned livestock, whether for health, ethical or environmental reasons. At the same time, products from the offspring of cloned animals are trickling into the food supply. Currently, the best way for consumers to avoid such foods is to eat organic food.

The Center for Food Safety began surveying the industry after the FDA denied its petition in January asking for mandatory labeling of clones and their offspring, as well as the regulation of animal cloning as a "new animal drug," which would require pre-market approval for safety before cloning can be used on animals. The FDA said the requests didn't meet the requirements for such actions.

In related news, The European Parliament last week demanded that the European Commission propose legislation that would ban the cloning of animals for food production and also insisted the EU should outlaw the import of cloned animals, their offspring, and products derived from them.

The Bureau of National Affairs reports that the resolution, approved by an overwhelming majority (622 in favor, 32 against and 25 abstentions), insisted that cloning of animals raises serious concerns not only about food safety but also animal welfare, and would significantly reduce genetic diversity within livestock populations and therefore leave them much more susceptible to disease.

European Health and Food Safety Commissioner Androula Vassiliou, who participated in the European Parliament debate on the issue, said that even though the efficiency of animal cloning has improved in recent years, adverse effects on animal health and welfare still occur today.