Cloned food? Not in our kitchens, chefs say

By Marie-Louise Gumuchian

MILAN (Reuters) - If pizza maker Simone Padoan saw a slab of cloned meat in his local supermarket, the Italian chef says he would be too scared to bring it into his kitchen.

Despite statements by Europe's food agency and the main U.S. health agency that cloned food products are safe to eat, Padoan says he won't be serving them in his pizzeria, but will instead make dough from natural ingredients and serve natural beer.

"I would be afraid to use it. Maybe (milk from cloned cows) is healthier than milk that comes from a cow born naturally ... but all this manipulation scares me," he said.

"At least natural products guarantee a natural aspect -- this is how they are, this is how mother nature made them and I promote them for that."

Cloning has been around for years. Dolly the cloned sheep was born in 1996.

But the move by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration this month to lend its support to meat and milk from cloned animals and their offspring is likely to mean it will soon enter the food supply.

Europe's top food safety agency has also said cloned food products are safe to eat, but has yet to give the green light to marketing cloned food products to consumers.

Chefs at a culinary forum in Milan with Padoan this week said no such products would be appearing in their menus.