The Truth About Chlorinated Chicken
Could a post-Brexit trade deal expose UK consumers to unsafe goods?
As US and UK trade talks struggle to progress, one of the most controversial items on the menu remains whether the UK will have to accept chlorinated American chicken as part of any post-Brexit deal.
“On several occasions I saw supervisors touching chicken with bare hands”, says a reporter who went undercover in a major US poultry processing plant operated by one of America’s biggest poultry producers, Tyson Foods. “The hygiene in the plant, it was just really kind of a… a shocker”. Chlorinated chicken is a generic term which refers to chicken that has been washed in chlorine or other chemicals, in order to destroy harmful bacteria infecting the meat. Tyson Foods do not wash their chicken in chlorine, but use other chemicals. "From what we’ve seen it would appear that the US are working to much lower standards than we’ve got in Britain and in the EU”, says former meat inspector Ron Spellman. Estimates of food-borne illness suggest US rates are up to 10 times higher than in the UK.
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