Will Cloned Livestock Increase Food Allergies?

Will cloned livestock increase food allergies?Natural Foods Merchandiser reports that the FDA may soon declare that meat and milk from cloned animals is safe to eat.

Some experts are concerned about ‘the unpredictability of cloning, the higher risk of animal birth defects, and unresolved issues about human allergens.’

Robyn O'Brien of allergykids.com recently explained how genetically modified foods, which have been on the market for over 10 years, may play a role in the extreme increase in food allergies over the past decade:

‘The problem is that proteins and allergens are introduced when you genetically modify a plant, and no human trials were ever done. As these novel allergens and novel proteins were introduced with no human trials done, government agencies around the world in other developed countries simply labeled these ingredients so that a mom could decide if she wanted to expose her child to these new proteins and allergens, which is especially helpful if you have a family with a predisposition to allergies. In the U.S., there was no labeling.

‘So what we're finding is that there's a dramatic correlation between the introduction of genetically engineered soy, which was introduced in 1996, and within that first year, there was a 50% increase seen in soy allergies. And within the first five years of the introduction of genetically engineered soy, there was a doubling of peanut allergy. Studies are showing now that there are allergens in this genetically engineered soy, and they are 41% similar to peanut allergen.’

Some are worried that cloned food, if approved by the FDA, may lead to similar, unpredictable food allergies.

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