The Global Diversity Trust (GCDT) has announced a global search to locate and protect the wild relatives of home cooking foods such as wheat, rice and beans.

This has been conducted in order to defend the food supplies and strengthen future security against the potential threats of climate change. The scheme is the largest to ever be undertaken with wild relatives of main food crops.

Cary Fowler, executive director of the GCDT, said: "Climate change means we need to go back to the wild to find those relatives of our crops that can thrive in the climates of the future."

The representative added that the world needs to ensure that modern crops will be able to adjust to new, tougher and more demanding circumstances.

Meanwhile, the Food Standards Authority has said that there are no food safety grounds to enable businesses to regulate food products from the descendants of cloned animals.