The British government has ruled out any trade deal with the United Sates that would put chlorinated chicken or hormone beef on British supermarket shelves.
London’s Telegraph newspaper said the UK Chancellor (finance minister) Rachel Reeves had insisted there would be no compromise on food standards as Britain pursued a trade agreement with the Trump administration.
Speaking at the International Monetary Fund meetings in Washington, she said: “We’ve got important standards in the UK, including for our food and farming sector. And so those issues are not on the table for these trade discussions with the US. The US respect that, they understand that.”
The newspaper had earlier reported that US President Donald Trump had told UK prime minister Sir Keir Starmer that Britain must accept chlorinated US chicken if it wants lower US tariffs.
The US president had claimed that UK restrictions on chlorine-washed poultry and hormone-treated beef were flawed, it said. Anti-microbial washes are banned in the UK.
The US argues that washing meat in chemicals reduces the risk from pathogens such as salmonella, while Europeans more typically say higher hygiene standards throughout the meat processing are preferable to cleaning up cuts with a chlorine rinse.
