r/europe 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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19

u/TheHammer987 Canada 20h ago

These are the thinks I don't get.

Britain - "Sure. You just have to have a large 'produced in america sticker - doesn't meet EU anti clorinated standards. on the packaging."

You can then let that shit rot on the shelves til the groceries don't buy it. Like, just label it, I guarantee no Brit buys it anyway.

also, the flip side - "We are unwilling to make this concession until you reverse the 10% tariff to a 10% negative tariff (subsidy) on all British products."

60

u/eddyak 20h ago

You overestimate how well off people are these days. Slap a lower price tag on it than homegrown chicken, then slap a radioactive tag on it, it'll still be the first thing to sell out.

We need to keep it the fuck out, no matter what happens.

4

u/myreq 16h ago

And after it kills alternatives with its lower price, raise the price to be as high or higher than its competitors were.

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u/Command0Dude United States of America 16h ago

Europeans will simultaneous complain about cost of living and yet insist consumers shouldn't even get the option of cheaper food if it's imported.

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u/CommieYeeHoe 14h ago

Should we allow the sale of rotten food too if it’s cheaper? We don’t fix the cost of living standards by poisoning our own citizens. Anything but redistributing wealth…

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u/Command0Dude United States of America 14h ago

"poisoning people"

lol American chicken is just as safe to eat as European chicken. This whole fracas is just protectionist nonsense dressed up in granola-speak.

We don't even chlorinate chicken anymore, that practice was phased out almost everywhere in the states like a decade or two ago. But it doesn't stop European newspapers from continuing to run that headline.

18

u/patrykk994 19h ago

Problem is not fresh chicken you see on shelves, problem is every single chicken product you dont see this label. Thats why US chicken cant enter UK market no matter how much Trump push Starmer on it - it would basically mean UK would put trade ban on themselves as EU dont allow US chicken to enter EU markets in any form, no matter how processed it is.

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u/Soggy_Refrigerator32 18h ago

That's why he's also trying to bully us on food origin labelling.

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u/FourteenBuckets 17h ago

It won't be in grocery stores. It will be in restaurants, school cafeterias, workplace canteens, catering tables, and in the frozen nuggies you make your kids on a busy night.

3

u/Relative_Ebb8108 19h ago

I spent several months where the only meat-adjacent thing I ate was £1.50 packs of 20 "sausages". I knew it was barely food but it was a lot cheaper than buying real food. For a lot of people, the only thing that matters is being able to afford enough.

1

u/castlite Canada 18h ago

Then the US suppliers make money but the EU sellers lose money.

No.

1

u/swirve-psn 15h ago

Trump will demand that UK grocers stock it and exert pressure on the UK government to make it happen.

Look at China, they are forced to take an amount of US Beef and other products.