Sun 1 Nov 2020 12.50 EST
Lisa O'Carroll

The government has finally vowed not to allow chlorinated chicken or hormone-fed beef on British supermarket shelves, defying demands from the US that animal welfare standards be lowered as part of a future trade deal.

Truss and Eustice also gave the clearest commitment yet to ban US meat from animals not raised to British standards. “Chlorinated chicken and hormone-injected beef are already banned in the UK, and we will not negotiate to remove that ban in a trade deal,” they said.

Donald Trump’s ambassador to the UK, Woody Johnson, dismissed fears over chlorine washes earlier this year, saying they were the “most effective and economical way to fight food-borne illness”.


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What is chlorinated chicken?

In the US, farmers are allowed to use chlorine washes and other disinfectants to remove harmful bacteria that may have infected chickens during rearing and slaughter. The EU banned the practice in 1997, leading to a long-running dispute over imports of chicken from the US.

The US poultry sector has argued the ban in the EU is not based on science, but the EU is concerned that chlorine may compensate or mask poorer hygiene and animal welfare standards earlier in the food chain....

- same link as above -