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BRITAIN’S ENVIRONMENT minister has refused to rule out chlorinated chicken and hormone-treated beef being imported from the US in a post-Brexit trade deal.
George Eustice also defended the Government’s new immigration system, after businesses raised fears of a shortage of workers.
His predecessor before the recent reshuffle had insisted the controversial products from the States would not be imported amid animal welfare and environmental fears.
But Eustice, while saying there are “no plans” to change the law, did not explicitly rule it out when pressed three times on the subject.
With the Government expected to publish its negotiating position for a free trade deal with Washington within two weeks, he told Sky News’s Sophy Ridge On Sunday that the Government would not “take risks” on standards of welfare.
But he said “lactic acid washes” are now more commonly used in the US than chlorine, which is unlikely to allay fears over animal welfare because concerns centre on treatment before the washes themselves.
“What I’m saying is we won’t make any moves on our standards, we’ve got a clear position in this country that it is illegal to sell chlorine-washed chicken, illegal to sell beef treated with hormones, we have no plans to change those things,” he said.
Consumer group Which? was highly-critical of the comments and demanded that ministers legislate to “ensure current high principles are preserved and reinforced in future trade deals”.
Sue Davies, its head of consumer protection and food policy, said: “It is astonishing that instead of improved food safety and health, chemical washing techniques for chicken and hormone-treated beef are still being left on the negotiating table when the debate has to be firmly focused on the food standards consumers want.”
National Farmers Union president Minette Batters called for the Government to add protections into law to prevent imports “that fails to meet our food safety, animal welfare and environmental standards”.
“If it doesn’t, it will not only fail our farmers but the public too, who quite rightly demand and expect these standards from our own farmers,” she added.
Labour’s shadow environment secretary Luke Pollard called for the Tories to introduce a ban on trade deals lowering welfare and environmental standards.
“Chlorinated chicken being sold in Britain is a genuine risk, unless this backdoor to lower standard US goods imports is closed and a ban is put into law,” he said.
Tim Farron, the Liberal Democrats’ food and rural affairs spokesman, accused the Conservatives of having backed down on their commitment.
“With the Tories’ desperation for a trade deal with Donald Trump, it would appear they are rolling back on their promises,” he said.
Theresa Villiers, who was relegated from leading the environment department to the backbenches in Boris Johnson’s reshuffle, had been explicit in January that the EU laws banning chlorinated chicken and hormone-treated beef would be adopted here.
“There are legal barriers to their import and those are going to stay in place,” she added.
After his major speech setting out his post-Brexit vision, Boris Johnson criticised “hysterical” coverage that described US food as “inferior”.
“I totally understand the concerns about chlorinated chicken because it’s not a hygiene issue it’s an animal welfare issue,” he added.
“And what we will do is use our negotiations to persuade our partners if they want to trade freely with us then they have to accept our approach to animal welfare.”
The Government’s immigration plans set out this week are designed to cut the number of low-skilled migrants entering the UK.
The plans have drawn criticism from businesses for choking off a supply of workers that they need to operate.
Eustice, who used to run a strawberry farm, stressed a seasonal agricultural workers scheme will be an “important part of immigration policy in the future”.
He said there would be a quadrupling of the size of the scheme to 10,000 initially this year, but this still falls short of National Farmers’ Union calls for 70,000.
Eustice said ministers would be working out a “fully fledged” programme for the future.
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Chlorinated chicken is the least of the UK’s issues.
@Brian Farrell: At least they’ll have properly shaped bananas.
Just keep it the feck out of Ireland.
@dB O’Neill:
You and 278 others must not eat bags of salad or listen to the EU
It’s not consuming chlorine itself that the EU is worried about – in fact in 2005 the European Food Safety Authority said that “exposure to chlorite residues arising from treated poultry carcasses would be of no safety concern”. Chlorine-rinsed bagged salads are common in the UK and other countries in the EU.
Chlorinated and acid washed chicken shipped half way a across the world. Tasty.
@Dave.: seriously, can you imagine? Who tf would even want to buy that?
@B Collins: you wouldn’t even know it I’m guessing…
@B Collins: The growing number of people living below the poverty line wouldn’t have any choice.
@Lucille Ball: i agree you ‘ll realise after some years..
@B Collins: I imagine it wouldn’t be “fresh” chicken but would be used in cheap chicken nuggets etc
@B Collins: the UK government in their efforts to prove that they have freedom to source their produce from anywhere! This produce will end up on the tables of the poorest people in uk. “Let them ( not us) eat chlorinated food“ attitude of the uk government will continue to sell the ordinary people out.
As long as it’s labeled, and enforced, let the consumer decide.
@Tony Humphreys: exactly, if people won’t buy it, shops won’t import it, regardless of whether it’s legalised or not
@Tony Humphreys: Many who can’t afford an alternative won’t have a choice, at least their cheapest option now isn’t bleached.
@John Black: One of the US demands is that labelling standards are also lowered. Not just for chicken and beef, but they don’t like the idea that peanut butter jars would say “May contain up to 11 insect bits”
@Tony Humphreys: that’s grand in your supermarket now but they also want to reduce the info on labels so consumers wont be aware. Also you might know in your supermarket but you might not in restaurants
@Tony Humphreys: What a bizarre comment. Should we allow child labour products be sold as well, as long as the consumer can decide? This notion that anything is ok, as long as the consumer can decide is straight out of the US, ironically. Children don’t get to decide what their parents are forced to buy, due to poverty etc. A race to the bottom is being masqueraded as freedom of choice.
@Tony Humphreys: and you think British farmers love their chickens so much they won’t lower their standards to compete with cheap imports?
No wonder people are dying of cancer … we haven’t a clue what we are eating
@Lucille Ball: That’s the whole point of Eu regulation. Don’t worry Bj and friends eating in 5 star restaurants.
Does nobody eat chicken then when they go to America?
@David Wells: There’s a difference between eating something a few times on holiday and having it as a staple part of your diet.
@Francis Devenney: So nobody in America eats chicken either
@David Wells: Have you seen American health stats?
@David Wells: People in America die every yesr from all kinds of cancers and diseases linked to their dietary habits
@D H: and people here don’t???
@David Wells: the reason chicken is chlorinated is to mask poor animal welfare and food handling standards in the US but food poisoning and deaths are much higher there than in the EU. “The US reports higher rates of illness from foodborne illness than in the UK. Annually, 14.7% (48m) of the US population suffer from an illness, versus 1.5% (1m) in the UK. This is nearly ten times the percentage of population…
Salmonella food poisoning is most commonly caused by consumption of contaminated food of animal origin, such as beef, chicken, milk, fish or eggs.”
@David Wells: so do you think it’s a good idea to lower food health and safety standards? Unbelievable!
But then the USA have much more strict rules on the use of sulphites in some meats such as sausages & burgers, deli meats etc.
EU allows up to 450mg/kg in processed meats, such use of sulphites is illegal in USA.
Sulphites less than 10mg/kg can legally avoid labelling. EFSA currently reassessing the safety of sulphite biocides in food due to how ubiquitous they have become.
Suspect labelled & hidden sulphites are causing havoc with our health.
@Gavin Tobin: sulphites are in a wide array of deli meats and hot dogs in America. Also used in fruit preservation.
I still don’t know what a tracker mortgage is.
@Nigel Barlow: lol. Never gets old. I used to work with that tracker mortgage guy a few years before he appeared in the add . If only he knew
Hold on!! Most, of not all chicken in delis around ireland are imported in large bags from Thailand. You’d be surprised how much chicken is being imported to ireland from all over the world.
@Nurse on call: why import chicken or meat of any kind. Is there not enough produced here by our own farmers…
@Nurse on call: you might be surprised to know that Thailand have really high standards for chicken welfare and hygiene. They export most of their chicken to Europe and meet all EU legislation. They also are approved by the main retailers whom have standards well beyond legislation.
@Mark: Chicken from Thailand is substantially cheaper than home produced chicken. It is also lacks texture and taste compared to home produced. The chicken can either arrive in Ireland frozen or chilled. It is a cheap version of we can buy if we choose.
Animal welfare standards in the USA are way behind what we expect and used to in Ireland. The Thai stuff just inferior meat.
70% of uk gdp is financial services. This is excluded from the Eu withdrawal agreement.
@Damian Moylan: No it is not. There is no specific reference to the Financial Services sector in the WA. If they dump everything else, they will get screwed on this by the EU by loosing their financial passport rights. Its going to be an all or nothing.
What about pesticides in French wine?
That’s what they wanted, the right to eat chlorinated chicken and beef. They may have thought Europe controlled them but now the uk population will be subject to the money making cartels. Some “freedom”
@Dave Phelan: stop being ridiculous ,uk already have cheap chickens from the eu ,all been reared in disgusting cruel conditions l seen plenty of these when living in Ireland myself . and the prawns in Irish supermarket come from Thailand ,and the east and lve seen these conditions too .
@Denise Gerrard: you missed the point. Large scale farming methods may be cruel to some but different to wholesale chlorination of products. Please don’t confuse the debate.
Hahaha one of many surprises to come to the English
@Johannes Baader: and to the republic if we dont watch the border…
Yummy and Kraft imitation cheese
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