After more than seven years of discussion, the Food and Drug Administration proposed regulations Thursday that would allow the commercial use of genetically engineered animals. Such animals are genetically altered — either their genes are changed or genes from another animal are added — for a specific purpose. The FDA states that such animals either produce drugs; serve as models for human disease; produce industrial or consumer products, such as fiber; or have improved food-use qualities, such as being more nutritious. The proposed regulations would require FDA review of each application to ensure that any food sold for human consumption would be safe and that the animal’s health would not be damaged in the process. Engineered animals have been much more controversial, and the term “Frankenstein animals” has been bandied about by the European news media and People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals, among others. The rules wouldn’t require the labeling of meat or milk from engineered animals, something the advocacy group Consumers Union finds “incomprehensible.

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