Food from cloned animals is under fire in Europe with the European Commission (EC) calling in October for a temporary commercial suspension. John Dalli, European commissioner for health and consumer policy, describes the proposal as “a realistic and feasible solution to respond to the present welfare concerns.” A formal proposal for a five-year ban on the technology will be presented in the first half of 2011. Although sweeping, the proposed exclusion may not carry much weight in practice, because farmers mostly use cloning technology for their prized breeding stock, not to raise animals for food. EU breeders would be forbidden under the proposed ban to clone their best head of cattle in member states. Cloned embryos and semen of clones, however, could still be imported following a proposed traceability scheme. The offspring of clones, sired conventionally, would not be bound by these restrictions, EC spokesperson Frédéric Vincent points out, and consequently their meat and milk would not be banned. This decision avoids unleashing trade wars with the US but is likely to be opposed by the European Parliament. A public outcry followed a document release in August by the British Food Standards Agency that three bulls descending from embryos cloned in the US from an undisclosed company entered the food chain in the UK and Belgium. According to Vincent these occurrences are legal under current regulations, but probably uncommon.