cross-posted from: https://feddit.uk/post/26864906
Britain must allow US chlorine-washed chicken into UK markets if it wants relief from sweeping tariffs, Donald Trump has indicated.
It comes after the UK failed to avoid tariffs imposed on the global economy, with the US president slapping a 10 per cent levies on all British exports to the United States.
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In a statement published alongside the tariff announcement, the White House said: “The UK maintains non-science-based standards that severely restrict US exports of safe, high-quality beef and poultry products.”
It suggested that Britain’s ban on chlorinated chicken was among a range of “non-tariff barriers” that limit the US’s ability to trade.
The UK has long ruled out allowing imports of chlorine-washed chicken from the US due to health concerns, with Downing Street on Thursday reiterating its manifesto commitment to high food standards.
Asked whether the UK could allow imports of chlorine washed chicken in order to appease the US, the prime minister’s officials spokesperson said: “Our position on that is unchanged. You’ve got the manifesto commitment on food standards, which obviously remains.”
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The last major polling done on the issue, conducted in 2020, revealed that 80 per cent of Britons are opposed to allowing imports to the UK, and the same proportion is also against allowing chicken products that have been farmed using hormones.
There is also growing pressure from the farming industry to rule out concessions on the issue, amid fears it could undercut British farmers and drive down food standards.
Nigel Farage admitted he would allow American chlorine-washed chicken to be sold in the UK as part of a free trade deal with the US.
Wait…does that mean Americans are currently consuming chicken thats been washed in chlorine?! How the FUCK is that up to scientific and health standards??
It’s up to the American standards, for what that’s worth. The chlorine washing makes the meat safe, because the process results in unsafe meat, causing danger to workers (and [speculation]possibly undue suffering for the birds). The EU processes result in meat that doesn’t need to be chlorine washed because the process ensures it is safe.
So the problem with chlorine washing is not in the end product but in the process that creates it. It’s the EU concern for worker safety that makes chlorine washed chicken problematic.
I’m not defending the USA here and I oppose imports of chlorinated chicken. Just want to ensure the ire is projected in the appropriate direction. If God forbid that idiot Farage gets some power and we end up with chlorinated chicken then it should be clearly labelled as such so that the British consumer can make an informed FUCK OFF.
The UK can’t allow the import of chlorinated chicken because then that would shut down our chicken trading, at least, and probably a lot more, with the EU, which is a bigger market than the American one, by about 30%. Fart’s team obviously knows this.
Honestly, not much.
Most of our tap water has a touch of chlorine to kill off microorganisms. No need to jerk that knee.
The difference is that the chlorine disperses throughout the water and genuinely kills the bacteria, whereas the chlorine wash for chicken only sanitises the surface of the diseased chicken’s skin and any needle pushed through it. It does nothing to the meat and merely hides bacteria from detection.
America doesn’t have animal welfare rules anything like like the UK and EU have, and their chickens are usually kept in cramped conditions and bathe in their own filth all day long. It’s not very uncommon for their bellies to be actually rotting.
Chlorine washes the evidence away.
Honestly, given all the cramped factory farms and wide spread disease in poultry factories, it’s probably good we chlorine them up. Not to say I’d expect another country with better production methods to want to buy our shitty meat though
The chlorine only sanitises the outside and any needle that passes through it.
It’s not as much of a thing in the US today, but even the European Commission has found that it’s not a problem unless you’re eating 5% of your bodyweight in chlorinated chicken every day. It’s mostly protectionism for European poultry farmers under the guise of safety.
Sources: European Commission. (2003, April). The evaluation of antimicrobial treatments for poultry carcasses.
European Commission. (2008, April). Environmental impact and effect on antimicrobial resistance of four substances used for the removal of microbial surface contamination of poultry carcasses
European Food Safety Authority. (2015). Risks for public health related to the presence of chlorate in food.
The problem with chlorine washed chicken is NOT the chlorine, it’s the diseased underside of battery chickens who spend all day wading in their own filth and with endemic salmonella which passes tests for disease and bacteria because the chlorine sanitises the outermost layer and any needle that passes through it without killing the source of the problem at all. Americans get food poisoning FAR more often than Europeans, and the disgusting conditions the animals are kept in is a big part of the problem.
Yeah, that’s what many Americans don’t understand - chickens in the UK (and EU for that matter) live much much better lives (mostly free range, unless it’s an avian flu pandemic time). And the chlorine ban ensures that.
Haven’t you heard? It rinses away all the covid from the internal organs. If it works for people it’s definitely good enough for chickens.
Do you drink tap water?
First thing I did after moving to the US for a few months was buying a water filter.
It’s not the chlorine that’s the problem, it’s the disease it masks from testing.
Tap water isn’t chlorinated in most of Europe as well