Inquiry as shoppers are hit by cloned cow milk scare

Safety watchdog the Food Standards Agency (FSA) is examining claims that milk from the offspring of a cloned cow had somehow made it into the UK's food supply chain without being authorised – something banned under British law.

Retailers were last night keen to stress they knew where all of their milk came from and one of Britain's leading dairy organisations said it was "confident" no milk from the offspring of cloned animals was being sold.

The allegations have, however, reignited the debate over GM food and labelling, with campaigners calling for urgent action to be taken to ensure no genetically modified foods can enter the food chain.

The Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) last night confirmed it does not keep a record of how many cows bred from cloned animals were currently in the country. The investigation was sparked after an American newspaper carried quotes from an anonymous UK dairy farmer claiming he had sold milk from a cow with cloned parentage.

Since then the same farmer has denied the claim – saying he was instead using the offspring of cloned animals to create embryos for sale abroad.

Just weeks ago, the European Union issued a ban on the sale of food from animals that had been cloned and their offspring, something expected to be made law later in the year. Campaigners in Britain are urging the Government to enact a similar ban.

Soil Association head of policy Emma Hockridge said cloning raised several worrying issues, including the spread of diseases.

"The use of cloned farm animals fundamentally undermines the freedom of choice of farmers and consumers to avoid these animals and products, because of a lack of transparency in their regulation and tracability.

"At a time when Government is expressing a desire to move towards 'honest labelling' of food, so consumers understand what they are purchasing and know its provenance, cloned animals entering the food chain must be tackled with the utmost urgency."

Peter Stevenson, from Compassion in World Farming, said cloning farm animals could involve "great suffering".

"We call on the coalition Government and the rest of the EU to follow the European Parliament's lead and prohibit the sale of food from cloned animals and their offspring," he said.

DairyCo, which represents the dairy industry in Britain, said it had been in touch with the farmer at the centre of allegations and had been assured the cow's milk would not enter the human or animal food chains, and would not even be used to feed the animal's own calves.

"DairyCo is confident that no milk from the offspring of cloned animals has entered the human food chain."

DairyCo also said that both the European Food Safety Authority and the US Food and Drug Administration had concluded food from cloned animals presented no public health risks.

A Defra spokeswoman said the department was aware of two cattle in Britain bred from clones, as well as a third that is now dead – but admitted there could be others that are unrecorded.

For food produced by cloned animals and the offspring to be legally sold in Britain it would require FSA authorisation. The FSA said that it has received no such applications for authorisation in the past three years.