A study on current risk assessments and guidelines on the use of food animal products derived from cloned animals

•There is no evidence that meat and milk derived from cloned animals or their progeny pose a risk to food safety.•Four principles of safety assessment for meat and milk derived from cloned animals is suggested to establish the guidelines.•Four principles are similarities of chemical composition, reproductive effects, genotoxicity, and allergic reactions.•If there are no differences in the four safety assessments, meat and milk derived from cloned animals are safe.

The author widely surveyed and analyzed the food safety issues, ethical issues, permits, and approval of animal products from animals cloned by somatic cell nuclear transfer worldwide. As a result of a 2-year survey, the author found that there is no evidence that meat and milk derived from cloned animals or their progeny pose a risk to food safety in terms of genotoxicity, adverse reproductive effects, or allergic reactions. Most countries have not approved meat and milk derived from cloned animals, and their progeny are entering the food supply. To establish the guidelines, the author suggests four principles of safety assessment for meat and milk derived from cloned animals. The four main principles for safety assessment are similarities of chemical composition, adverse reproductive effects, genotoxicity, and allergic reactions under the influence of meat and milk from cloned animals and noncloned counterparts. This principle means that meat and milk derived from a cloned animal are safe if there are no differences in the four safety assessments of meat and milk between cloned animal's progeny and noncloned counterparts.