George Lyon, Liberal Democrat MEP for Scotland, has met with EU Health Commissioner Dalli to discuss the way forward after a summer of stories regarding cloned animal products.

George Lyon MEPMr Lyon made it clear to the Commissioner that the case involving Highland farmer Steven Innes was an unfortunate example of what can happen when rules governing the food chain are interpreted in many different ways.

Commenting after the meeting, Mr Lyon said:

"It was a good, productive meeting with the Commissioner in which I aired a number of concerns that have been voiced to me by the industry.

"The case of the Innes farm during the summer has thrown up a number of questions, not least of which is why the UK Food Standards Agency continues to insist that cloned animal products are novel foods when many other countries in Europe take the opposite view.

"The Commissioner reiterated his view that the offspring of cloned animals are to be considered conventional foods with no special authorisation needed and that there are no food safety issues.

"I asked Commissioner Dalli whether his officials were working with the UK FSA to try and resolve the different approaches and he confirmed they were.

"It is in the interests of both consumers and farmers that there is a common approach across Europe on this issue. Anything else simply leads to confusion, as we saw this summer."