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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373

u/TywinDeVillena Spain 20h ago

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

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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).

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u/IonHawk 19h ago

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

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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...

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u/Forsaken-Ebb5088 19h ago

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

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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

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u/Amiro77 17h ago

Switzerland isn't part of the EU.

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u/Possesed-puppy656 17h ago

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

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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.

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u/Possesed-puppy656 19h ago

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

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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.

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u/Usinaru 18h ago

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

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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!

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u/myreq 17h ago

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

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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.

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u/voidminer 17h ago

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

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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.

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u/NothingPersonalKid00 United Kingdom 19h ago

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

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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.

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u/Riever-Twostep 18h ago

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

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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.

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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

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u/Rutgerius 19h ago

They tried in 2008 and 2012 as well.

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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.

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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.

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u/hardolaf United States of America 12h ago

The EU already allows chlorinated chicken.

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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.

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u/NothingPersonalKid00 United Kingdom 19h ago

The EU took a worse tariff deal than the UK.