UAE yet to decide on cloned meat

Dubai:
Meat and dairy products from cloned animals or their offspring can
enter the UAE from the United States without being labelled as such,
after the US Food and Drug Agency declared them safe for consumption.

After
a six-year scientific review, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA)
announced on Tuesday that food products from cloned animals were safe,
despite opposition from organic food enthusiasts and some lawmakers.

FDA
only allows companies to label products as ‘clone-free’ but does not
require those coming from a cloned animal or its offspring to be
identified.

Dr
Abdullah Abu Ruwaidhah, general health and environment consultant at
the UAE General Secretariat of Municipalities, told Gulf News so far no
decision has been made to bar genetically-modified (GM) food products.

“We
follow the Codex Alimentarius Commission [a world food code body] regulations and they say we should not differentiate from other
products and genetically-modified foods.”

The
UAE is likely to allow FDA ‘clone-free’ labels on food products to
remain as is. The United States supplies meat and dairy products to the
UAE, including beef and cheese.

High on hygiene

Khalid
Al Awadi, head of food safety at Dubai Municipality, told Gulf News GM
foods are low on their priority list. “We’re mainly concerned with
making sure the animals were slaughtered in the halal way and have high
hygienic standards,” he said.

Natural and organic food enthusiasts in the UAE are opposed to cloned foods, questioning their safety.