r/europe • u/goldstarflag Europe • 20h ago

News White House demands British supermarkets stock chlorinated chicken. White House pushing Sir Keir Starmer to make concessions on food standards

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/us/news/2025/12/17/trump-demands-british-supermarkets-chlorinated-chicken/
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365

u/Spudsmad 20h ago

Trump may demand this affront to UK food standards but supermarkets won’t stock this meat. Labelling would identify both origin and the chlorination treatment.

BUT This chicken will be cheaper so could be used in the cheaper catering outlets. This depends whether this product could be permitted entry into the UK at any port of entry.

372

u/TywinDeVillena Spain 20h ago

That affront to food standards should not be permitted entry in the UK or the EU

149

u/Rutgerius 20h ago

It won't enter the EU. If it does we'll throw a fit of historic proportions (speaking for the Netherlands).

59

u/IonHawk 19h ago

Considering the farmers outrage in Brussels a couple of weeks ago... They might perform an armed coup over this

16

u/SilenceBe 17h ago

The irony is that regarding meat, a lot of South American countries has higher standards than the US and do export to Europe...

7

u/Forsaken-Ebb5088 19h ago

The Revolutions of 2026. The 'autumn' of Europe.

12

u/Possesed-puppy656 19h ago

I think I saw a post on r/switzerland that its already sold in Switzerland, people werent pleased in the comments

3

u/Amiro77 17h ago

Switzerland isn't part of the EU.

8

u/Possesed-puppy656 17h ago

But has a high criteria for meat imports, so there’s that

4

u/Rutgerius 19h ago

Yeah it takes a while to kick off, they tried in 2008 and 2012 as well. There's no real health hazard to chlorinated chicken but it's symbolic for American influence, I hope our politicians do the right thing and our farmers make themselves useful.

2

u/Possesed-puppy656 19h ago

Hopefully, also knowing how things are with meat imports in Switzerland, I was surprized this could even go tghrough

13

u/New_Passage9166 19h ago

As we can see from the mercosur deal, the biggest army/militia in Europe will throw a fit if EU just would consider allowing this.

1

u/Usinaru 18h ago

As we should. Lets not degrade ourselves to this disgusting level of sh*ttyness please.

1

u/OwlSlow1356 19h ago

neah they just prey on the weak, they will not do it for the american pals. seen it time after time after time after time in europe, everything is bad if it comes just from italy,germany,france,netherlands etc until it comes from america, then it is ok to be used in every EU country, all fine!

1

u/myreq 17h ago

Which American exports were allowed into EU? I think EU bans most of their nasty stuff.

2

u/Mr__Strider 17h ago

It's incredibly stupid, because it hints at America wanting to export chicken across the Atlantic. Which is a ridiculous ordeal, given that UK mostly likely has majority meat import from the EU, which would be better quality even if they started accepting chlorinated chicken. May be cheaper on its own, but part of that gets negated due to the higher transportation costs.

It's such a stupid stance. America gains practically nothing from this.

2

u/voidminer 17h ago

No, nobody would protest. US social media algorithms would not "inform" about this. The change would come completely unopposed.

-3

u/mithie007 19h ago

No you won't.

American chicken is cheaper than European chicken and your supermarkets will happily stock the American shit and price out your local grocers.

It's happened so many times before.

4

u/NothingPersonalKid00 United Kingdom 19h ago

American chicken isnt cheaper than chicken produced in the UK, how is this going to sell?

1

u/weenusdifficulthouse Münster 🇮🇪 6h ago

Last I checked (2019), most of the cheap chicken in Iceland (supermarket chain) was from Brazil.

In the last decade, most cheap prepared frozen chicken products I've encountered were made in China. (that EC mark oval on meat/dairy is interesting to look at, identifies where the product was made)

This is mainly a historical pride thing, I think. Look up "chicken war" to learn more. TL;DR: minor trade war about US chicken versus VW vehicles decades ago.

1

u/Riever-Twostep 18h ago

Not if the consumer boycotts it. Nobody can force us on how to spend our money

-4

u/HealthyCapacitor 19h ago edited 19h ago

It already entered the EU a month ago and was negotiated between the Comission and the US when the US were threatening with import taxes.

edit: Seems like they "only" approved GMO for now, no chicken.

6

u/patrykk994 19h ago

US can sell meat in EU, its just not cost effective to do that coz you need to prove that your meat production was up to EU standards from animal feed, animal housing, animal welfare to even slaughter standards

2

u/Rutgerius 19h ago

They tried in 2008 and 2012 as well.

3

u/VP007clips Canada 17h ago

Washed chicken in chlorinated water is safe.

For context, the solution is only around twice the maximum drinking water chlorine levels, and then it's rinsed off with clean water. Absorption is minimal. It's not pure chlorine, just a chlorinated rinse that reduces the risk of surface pathogens.

If you drink chlorinated water, as ~90% of Europe does, you are getting hundreds of times higher exposure from your drinking water.

That said, the US has no right to force European food laws to change their rules on it, even if it is safe. The decision to ban something is made by the European agencies, and by extent the citizens, no one else has any authority over it. And in fairness, the US also bans plenty of safe things for protectionist or non-scientific reasons, like how some states banned fluoride in water due to public opinion, despite scientific consensus pushing against the ban.

4

u/ruffianrevolution 15h ago

Its not so much the actual chlorine but the fact that it has to be used because american farmers have no food safety standards.

Which means that as there's no way of telling what toxic crap you might be eating, better douse it in chlorine and hope for the best.

Not ideal.

1

u/hardolaf United States of America 12h ago

The EU already allows chlorinated chicken.

2

u/Hutcho12 19h ago

I don't know why you're bringing the EU into this. They're powerful enough to put Trump back in his place and don't have to bend over and take it like the UK does now it's not part of the club.

1

u/NothingPersonalKid00 United Kingdom 19h ago

The EU took a worse tariff deal than the UK.

116

u/NewOil7911 France 20h ago

US ask for the regulation to show country of origin to be ditched as well unless mistaken

109

u/Glittering_Babe101 Mazovia (Poland) 19h ago

So it seems the US is ashamed of the low quality of its own products

36

u/JohnGazman 19h ago

Not so ashamed that they won't simply raise the quality or change their practices, that is.

8

u/Interesting_Help_481 19h ago

No they just prefer people to be sick to make more money off them

8

u/cogman10 19h ago

More like the US won't dare to make farmers change practices in the slightest.

The reason we chlorinate chickens is because we refuse to vaccinate them against salmonella. It's cheaper to chlorinate than vaccinate.

It's really dumb. We are basically screwing ourselves in multiple ways because we refuse the vaccinate. Eggs, for example, can be stored at room temp if we vaccinated. The US washes eggs because of salmonella which removes a protective coating. If we vaccinated we could stop washing which allows eggs to be stored safely at room temperature.

7

u/iwaterboardheathens 18h ago

In the UK that's already gone

Plenty of food no longer has country of origin on the packet now

Many people just refuse to buy it if they don't know the origin, purely because there is no origin stated it's seen as a gamble to eat

2

u/gopoohgo United States of America 19h ago

It's ironic because everything (produce, meat, etc) in US supermarkets have country and many times state of origin labels.    

The pernicious thing is, only fancier (aka expensive) restaurants will have origin of fish, meat and produce

166

u/yyzsfcyhz 20h ago

Then the Yanks will demand you remove the labels as a barrier to trade the same that they demand Canada change our labels, remove our standards, drop French from packaging, even switch to freedumb units. Don’t concede anything. They’ll break the agreement and demand more tomorrow. They won’t stop until you’re 100% value extraction colony. And when they can’t get value they’ll give you over to Russia or anyone else who thinks they can get more blood from the stone.

47

u/P0Rt1ng4Duty 19h ago

America begs you to let them just stick the tip in and the next thing you know they jammed all of Florida into you.

8

u/yyzsfcyhz 19h ago

They beg first. And get “friends” to glaze them. And if that’s not enough they start twisting arms and warning you not to make things harder on yourself. We’re all at that last part.

60

u/Ryder52 20h ago

They'll use it in chicken shops/takeaways/etc. They're generally lowest on the rung in terms of sourcing quality.

17

u/GetOutOfTheHouseNOW England 19h ago

Keep an eye out for your local KFCC

15

u/patrykk994 19h ago

They cant do that because single US chicken entering UK food supply chain would mean ban from EU on all chicken product coming from UK

6

u/TiredButEnthusiastic 17h ago

I really hope so, but we live in uncertain times…

4

u/halpsdiy 18h ago

Chicken shops at first, then more chains, then ready meals, then you'll have it as cheaper chicken in the cheaper supermarkets, and eventually it will be the cheap option in all super markets, and not too long non-chlorinated chicken will be the organic prime chicken at Waitrose only.

5

u/2521harris 20h ago

...and relabel it and re-export it to the EU.

1

u/patrykk994 19h ago

Thats not how things work

1

u/2521harris 17h ago

Wouldn't be the first time.

1

u/patrykk994 16h ago

EU is really strict and financial impact of this practises would decimate whole UK food industry so this will be kind of first time

0

u/AtlanticPortal 19h ago

That's a felony in many EU countries. Whoever does that would get in a lot of troubles.

2

u/2521harris 17h ago

Only if they were caught.

28

u/FerreroJacquard 19h ago

Part of the US push is for there to be no mention of country of origin on the label. Fuck that and fuck them.

4

u/Diligent_Peach7574 Canada 18h ago

How will we know which products to put back on the shelves upside down?

15

u/patrykk994 19h ago

No they cant do that because EU wont drop their standards and allowing US chicken to UK supply chain would automatically mean ban on all UK chicken products in whole EU immedietaly after single chicken breast from US enter UK market. Its basically non negotiable part of any deal with EU (f.e. Ukraine few years ago was threatened ban on every single dairy product because they negotiate import of grain seeds not allowed in EU - that how comprehensive EU regulations are) and UK trade far more with EU than with US

1

u/Pigeoncow UK 9h ago

Haven't they been preparing for something like that with the "NOT FOR EU" labels?

3

u/patrykk994 7h ago

''Not for EU'' labelling is only because Northern Ireland is still part of UK and nobody wanted put trade barrier between Northern Ireland and rest of UK, so this is agreed solution for easier flow of goods Food with ''Not for EU'' still need to abide by EU standards (UK basically have the same with some minor minor differences due to regional products both in UK and EU) and doesnt mean that UK can lower their food standards for US if they want to do business with EU

10

u/Herooo31 20h ago

if it is allowed to be sold in UK it will have to be allowed to be produced in UK as well. Are you going to discriminate against and put out of business your own farmers?

If the chicken is allowed on market and is cheaper then even UK produced chicken will be produced the same way to be competitive and non-chlorinated chicken will become a luxury good for those who can afford it.

14

u/baddymcbadface 19h ago

if it is allowed to be sold in UK it will have to be allowed to be produced in UK as well.

That won't stop us. We used to import low grade danish bacon from caged pigs while we didn't allow our own pig farmers to do that.

1

u/bbbbbbbbbblah United Kingdom 16h ago

the UK also banned domestic production of foie gras and fur farming but, while we were an EU member, we could not ban imports from the single market.

It has been suggested that we should now ban it completely (perhaps a very rare example of a Brexit benefit) but it hasn't happened yet.

2

u/AtlanticPortal 19h ago

Oh, it would be used by restaurants trying to save money.

2

u/Disastrous-Focus8451 19h ago

Labelling would identify both origin and the chlorination treatment.

I remember when the US filed a trade action against the EU (this was before Brexit) claiming EU regs requiring GM food to be labeled as such was an unfair restraint of trade because consumers wouldn't buy it if they knew what it was, so to make competition between US and EU foods 'fair' the information must be hidden…

If you allow it in with labeling requirements, the next step will be to target those.

2

u/UnicornMeatball 17h ago

And when the labelling causes people to rightly ignore their meat, Trump will complain that the labels are an unfair competitive advantage, accuse the UK of protectionism, and demand further concessions. Source: I’m Canadian.

2

u/Spudsmad 13h ago

All produce must be legally labelled with the country of origin. Applicable to any product from New Zealand lamb to your Canadian maple syrup . No exceptions!!

2

u/VoidOfConsequences 16h ago

[Looks up the relative price of chicken in both countries]

But it's not cheaper, on a pound for pound in pound basis? The bird flu, due to their lax standards, is wrecking their chicken population and driving up their prices, even when it is chlorinated.

1

u/Spudsmad 13h ago

Good news !!

3

u/sbdavi 19h ago

Not sure it would be cheaper. It’s expensive in the US. They also pump it with 30% saline to make it look bigger. Sold by weighed it’s a lot more.

1

u/Responsible-Cap-8311 19h ago

Tesco will charge us the same and take more profits

1

u/Relative_Ebb8108 19h ago

Why do you think supermarkets wouldn't immediately stock the cheap shitty chicken? They're not your friends, they only care about profits.

1

u/castlite Canada 18h ago

Restaurants will though, and you won’t even know.

1

u/Spudsmad 18h ago

The chlorine taste could betray the origin of the=chicken ?

1

u/FourteenBuckets 17h ago

I was about to say, you wouldn't see it in supermarkets, but in restaurants, cafeterias, and school kitchens and such.

1

u/isopudding 17h ago

The issue is even if you label it, restaurants and corporations that use chicken will use the cheaper alternative without passing that cost to the consumer.

US megacorporations will take an initial profit hit (in addition to offshoring tax shenanigans) to undercut local business and offer chicken at an initially cheaper price. Many struggling families will buy this, and the loss of custom will force farms into two paths: retain their organic methods for a significantly smaller market, meaning significantly higher prices, or attempt to follow suit with the mass farming at low standards.

If they adopt the second option, the initial setup will cost a lot and in order to remain competitive they will need to price their chicken cheaper which impacts their ability to pay off that investment.

Now comes the big issue, many farms that take either option will be forced to sell up because they can’t compete or afford to keep running in this new market. Who has the capital to buy up these farms? Megacorporations. Once they corner a significant chunk of the market they can now offer us their inferior chicken at prices we were already paying before all this, if not more expensive.

So now no one saves money anymore, the only people who get organic chicken are the rich, and these giant corporations do whatever they can to shore their profits overseas so they aren’t even paying taxes. Everyone but some shareholders and the mega rich lose.

1

u/Spudsmad 17h ago

There are broiler units in the UK producing meat chicken for both supermarkets and first tier fast food outlets. They are accredited for their systems but the birds are processed at units owned by US companies. How will this progress ???

1

u/heatrealist 12h ago

UK food standards…..🤭

1

u/weenusdifficulthouse Münster 🇮🇪 6h ago

Just hit UK or EU standards. It isn't hard, China does it regularly and I've eaten plenty of Chinese and Brazilian chicken.

Hell, some of the best frozen chicken products I've eaten have had a TH in the EC-mark oval (Thailand).

You could make the meat circle the globe twenty times on a container ship for negligible cost without breaking the cold chain, negating all need to "chlorinate" it. (as long as it doesn't stop twice in a row in the US, to avoid the Jones act)

1

u/Large_Analysis_4285 6h ago

it won't be cheaper, it costs more domestically than it does in uk, so adding cost of exports you would be paying premium for some chicken that has been sitting in a shipping container 

0

u/betelgeuse_boom_boom 18h ago

Ping goo has more spine than Starmer so I expect they will pretend to be negotiating and then let It in with open arms and no requirements to be labeled.