After failing to deal with the matter in parliament, the Authorities is now going through elevated strain to rule out chlorinated chicken from any commerce agreements between the US and the UK.
The sale of hormone-treated beef and chlorinated hen, that are authorized within the US, is at present unlawful within the UK.
Considerations that these norms may be compromised in upcoming commerce agreements are mounting, particularly in view of the UK’s post-Brexit realignment.
However what’s chlorinated hen and is it dangerous for you?
What’s chlorinated hen?
It is simply hen that has been chlorine-treated. A process referred to as Pathogen Discount Therapy (PRT) includes washing a hen in water containing chlorine or different chemical substances after it has been killed and ready.
Why does the US chlorinate its hen and why doesn’t the UK enable it?
The US chlorinates its hen to eliminate harmful micro organism that might make us sick, like salmonella, campylobacter, and E. coli.
The issue is not the chlorine per se, however relatively what it may be hiding. Considerations have been raised by the EU that chlorine washing might conceal unethical and animal-poor manufacturing strategies. Imports of chlorinated hen have been prohibited within the UK and EU since 1997 because of this.
As a substitute, we use a “farm to fork” methodology relatively than chlorine washing. Strict hygienic and animal welfare rules should be adhered to at each stage of manufacturing to decrease the potential of harmful germs rising.
Whereas each the Authorities and the Conservative Occasion have beforehand resisted US calls for that its producers be permitted to promote hen within the UK with much less stringent welfare necessities, Reform UK chief Nigel Farage has advocated importing branded chlorinated hen from the US into the UK.
Talking forward of the Could 1 native elections in England, Mr Farage claimed that British shoppers already accepted chlorine-washed lettuce and eat hen raised in poor circumstances in locations like Thailand.
In an announcement to the Sunday Times, he said: “In case you have a take a look at the hen we’re at present importing from Thailand, you take a look at the circumstances they’ve been reared in, and that each single bag of pre-made salad in each single grocery store has been chlorinated … as soon as these fundamentals have been accepted I’ll have a debate with you.”
When requested how he would cease low-cost American hen producers from undercutting British farmers, he responded, “I wish to promote British farming as being a high-end product. I believe the expansion of farmers’ markets, they’re a way more discerning viewers that desires to know the place their meat comes from. I don’t assume British farmers have something to concern from this long run.”
Is chlorinated hen dangerous for you?
Chlorine-washed hen isn’t poisonous within the amount the common particular person may eat — the European Meals Security Authority even declares that publicity to chlorine residues on hen ‘can be of no security concern’.
And we already eat chlorinated meals; packaged salads in Europe are frequently handled in chlorine, whereas it’s routinely added to UK faucet water.
Chlorine-washing might not even be that efficient. In line with a 2018 University of Southampton study, chlorine can “make foodborne pathogens undetectable”. This implies harmful micro organism can nonetheless exist however are too few in amount for meals security testing to detect.
