WASHINGTON - Meat and milk from cloned animals may not appear in supermarkets for years despite being deemed by the government as safe to eat. But don't be surprised if "clone-free" labels appear sooner. Ben & Jerry's, for one, wants consumers to know that its ice cream comes from regular cows and not clones. The Ben & Jerry's label already says its farmers don't use bovine growth hormone.

"We want to make sure people are confident with what's in our pints," company spokesman Rob Michalak said. "We haven't yet landed on exactly how we want to express that publicly."

For food that does come from clones, the Food and Drug Administration is unlikely to require labels, officials said.

The FDA gave preliminary approval Thursday to meat and milk from cloned animals or their offspring. Federal scientists found virtually no difference between food from clones and food from conventional livestock.

The government believes "meat and milk from cattle, swine and goat clones is as safe to eat as the food we eat every day," said Stephen F. Sundlof, director of the FDA Center for Veterinary Medicine. Meat and milk from the offspring of clones is also safe, the agency concluded.

Officials said they did not have enough information to decide whether food from sheep clones is safe.

If food from clones is indistinguishable, FDA doesn't have the authority to require labels, Sundlof said.

Companies trying to distance themselves from cloning must be careful with their wording, he added.

"If the statement implies that that particular product might be safer than another product, FDA would not allow that," Sundlof said. "But there may be room for providing a contextual statement that is truthful and not misleading."

A dairy industry group said it's too early to use clone-free labels. The FDA is at least a year away from finalizing approval of food from clones.

"It really may be somewhat premature to be talking about a label when FDA said meat and milk won't be in the food supply in the foreseeable future," said Susan Ruland, spokeswoman for the International Dairy Foods Association.

She added that cloning is new and, so far, rarely used, while growth hormones have been in widespread use for more than a decade.

With members such as Kraft and Dannon, the association represents an industry worried about consumer reaction to cloning.

Surveys have shown most are uncomfortable with the idea of cloned livestock. Industry research shows overall sales could drop 15 percent once clones are allowed in the food supply.

"You hear a lot from the technology companies this week that this is a great technology ¡ª we're not hearing that yet from the people who would actually use it and the people who would sell the product," Ruland said.

For now, farmers and cloning companies are abiding by a voluntary ban on meat and milk from clones. The FDA said the informal ban would remain until its decision is final.

Critics want the final decision to include labels for food from clones.

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