Don't look for much food from cloned animals or their offspring at your neighborhood supermarket or restaurant any time soon.
Despite the Food and Drug Administration's declaration that such meat and milk are safe to eat, it is going to take years for ranchers to produce and raise the animals.
Even then, many of the nation's biggest grocers say they are dead set against selling it.
"Our intention is not to accept cloned products from our suppliers," said Meghan Glynn, a spokeswoman for Kroger Co., the Cincinnati-based owner of Ralphs, Food4Less and several other chains.
Pleasanton, Calif.-based Safeway Inc., the owner of Safeway and Vons, said it favored continuing a voluntary ban on the use of cloned animals for food.
And California Pizza Kitchen, the 229-restaurant chain based in Los Angeles, said it had "no plans to provide our guests with cloned products."
The only problem is that they probably won't know if they've received such products. In its decision, the FDA did not require products derived from clones to be labeled because agency scientists found no difference between them and meat and milk produced the conventional way.
The industry has devised a method to track cloned animals. But it will make little difference in the marketplace because most animals meant for consumption will not be the clones, but their offspring, which will not tracked. The clones themselves are too precious to slaughter.
Some consumers are keeping an open mind.
"I just don't know enough about the science," said Sarah Lafare of Newport Beach. "I would need to know more."
Some restaurants are not ruling out the use of products from the offspring of clones, when they become available.
"We concur with the National Restaurant Assn.'s conclusion, which is one of support for this technology as long as the FDA has determined it to be safe," said Stacy Roughan, a spokeswoman for Glendale-based IHOP Corp., the parent company to the Applebee's and IHOP restaurant chains.
But retailers using products from cloned animals risk a consumer backlash.
"Cloning is a lightning rod . . . it has a science-fiction stigma," said Dennis Krause, a food and agribusiness analyst and senior vice president at GE Corporate Lending. Restaurants, supermarkets and other food providers that offer cloned milk and meat can expect a "visceral and emotional reaction" from consumers, he said.
