What a surprise - food standards being dropped for US deal

[Baff]

Baff please do some research on the subject, you are digging yourself an even deeper hole.

Check the regulations. Chlorine is added to drinking water in the UK, BUT it is at a miniscule level compared to the Americans lagging chicken carcasses with chlorine.

The same applies to salad in Britain, if you wash salads in tap water the tap water has chlorine in it.

If you wash chicken in tap water the water has chlotine in it.



Since you've doen the research, you will be able to answer these simple questions.

What concentrations of chlorine are you suggesting is on a chicken that is sprayed with it, that isn't on a tomato that was sprayed with it?



Understand this, chlorine gas mixes with water and becomes Hcl.

It evaporates.



Babies swim in swimming pools with far higher concentrations than this.

Rain water is as acidic as this.

Saliva is way more acidic than this.



You stomach is full of strnger acid than this in vastly higher concetrations



It's harmless unless used in the kind of doses seen in chemical warfare in Syria and even then... it's a non lethal weapon.

An irritant.

It contains no toxins.

But you have done your research, So you know all that. Wise guy.





This si all about ideology.

Pro EU/anti US.

Nothing more.

Politics dressed as science.

[Borg Refinery]

Are you happy to eat chlorinated salad from the EU?

Clearly chlorination does disinfect food and it is widely used for this purpose.



EU fiood is also of much lower standard than UK food, and yet you give it a free pass, i'll bet.

Which leads me to believe that food satefy standards aren't your primary concern in this. But are simply being used as an excuse towards an ideological ends,



Feel free to correct me if you also boycot EU profuce.

I personally buy British as a preference, without taking it to extremes, and am happy to eat both EU and US food whenever I travel to those places. For me it is primarily an ideological decision. I bat for my own team.

Eating bats for one's own team? All roads lead to Wuhan.



I recommend this;



https://www.foodnavigator.com/Article/2017/12/18/Post-Brexit-food-controls-should-be-stricter-not-weaker">https://www.foodnavigator.com/Article/2 ... not-weaker">https://www.foodnavigator.com/Article/2017/12/18/Post-Brexit-food-controls-should-be-stricter-not-weaker

Policy experts have sounded a warning if the UK agrees a post-Brexit trade deal with the US, claiming chemical disinfectants used on American poultry pose a risk to consumers and workers.

They said it would be safer if the UK kept European Union standards and future controls should be 'stricter, not weaker'.



The team found US poultry, washed in up to four chemical disinfectants, does not meet EU safety standards. They also discovered the chemicals are used in the US to wash fruit, vegetables and fish.



The EU's 'farm to fork' approach is to require the poultry sector to deliver carcasses and cuts of meat sufficiently clean not to require washing in disinfectant.



The issue of the UK importing chlorine-washed meat was raised by Wilbur Ross, US Commerce Secretary, who said a post-Brexit UK US trade deal would need the UK to abandon EU standards.



Comparison of EU and US standards ​



The warning follows 'chlorinated chicken' concerns raised earlier this year ahead of trade talks between the US and UK. Chlorine is used to control microbiological contamination.



BEUC, the European Consumer Organisation, has previously said chemical washes aim to make up for inadequate hygiene on farms and abattoirs.



Professors Erik Millstone (University of Sussex), Tim Lang (City, University of London) and Terry Marsden (Cardiff University) compared UK and EU standards with those in the US in a briefing paper​​.



According to the authors, animal carcasses are washed with disinfectants because when they arrive at US abattoirs and meat cutting plants they are more contaminated with filth, including excrement, than in the UK's supply chain.



Professor Lang said weakening of UK food hygiene standards cannot be supported.



"This is not what UK consumers have voted for or been consulted on. We were shocked when we found that PRTs are allowed to wash fish, fruit and vegetables, as well as poultry. This might put off UK consumers."​



Keep EU standards​



The paper – published by the Food Research Collaboration, an inter-university network – found too few studies have looked at disinfectant-washed poultry and some have produced data indicating risks.



It cites a 2014 Consumer Reports study that showed 97% of chicken breast meat in the US contains pathogens such as Salmonella and E. coli.



The US poultry trade has four chemicals it calls 'pathogen reduction treatments' (PRTs). They are peroxyacetic acid, chlorine dioxide, acidified sodium chlorite and trisodium phosphate.



Professor Millstone said UK consumers would be safer if EU standards are kept and not if 'US disinfectant-washed-but-still-dirty poultry' is accepted.



"The UK should continue to insist on improving hygiene standards in poultry farms, slaughterhouses and meat-cutting plants and not allow standards to decline, nor try relying on chemical disinfectants to reduce the harm that filthy meat can cause." ​



Professor Marsden said it is one of the food safety concerns consumers need to be aware of as Brexit continues.



"The UK needs to improve its intensive food production and processing standards and not put both animals and consumers at risk."​



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[papasmurf]

Are you happy to eat chlorinated salad from the EU?



Clearly chlorination does disnfect food and it is widely used for this purpose.

 Baff please do some research on the subject, you are digging yourself an even deeper hole.

Check the regulations. Chlorine is added to drinking water in the UK, BUT it is at a miniscule level compared to the Americans lagging chicken carcasses with chlorine.

The same applies to salad in Britain, if you wash salads in tap water the tap water has chlorine in it.

[Baff]

Are you happy to eat chlorinated salad from the EU?

Clearly chlorination does disinfect food and it is widely used for this purpose.



EU food is also of much lower standard than UK food, and yet you give it a free pass, i'll bet.

Which leads me to believe that food satefy standards aren't your primary concern in this. But are simply being used as an excuse towards an ideological ends,



Feel free to correct me if you also boycot EU profuce.

I personally buy British as a preference, without taking it to extremes, and am happy to eat both EU and US food whenever I travel to those places. For me it is primarily an ideological decision. I bat for my own team.

[papasmurf]

Chlorination does not make food unsafe to eat.

I have already posted a link which you obviously did not read, that chlorine washing of chicken carcasses does not kill bugs it only stuns them and tests can't detect them.

I don't want to eat ANY food imported from America due to wide a range of risks that are well below UK standards.

America also uses 80 or so agrichemicals that are banned in the UK and Europe.

[Baff]

EU regulations allow for greater levels of anti biotic use than US regulations.

Both have been significantly lowered in the past 2 years.



UK farmers however operate at under half the levels of either EU or US.

Our produce is compliant with both EU and US markets.





Chlorination does not make food unsafe to eat.

All your EU salads are chlorinated.



If you add water,it becomes HCl.

It washes off in water and contains zero toxins.









P.S. the UK also advises you to cook your chicken to avoid Salmonella.

[BeElBeeBub]

Yes, that is the recent curb of which i spoke.

At that time, the US also curbed their use of anti biotics too.



https://www.thebureauinvestigates.com/stories/2018-12-19/antibiotic-use-falls-on-us-farms-after-ban-on-using-drugs-to-make-livestock-grow-faster">https://www.thebureauinvestigates.com/s ... row-faster">https://www.thebureauinvestigates.com/stories/2018-12-19/antibiotic-use-falls-on-us-farms-after-ban-on-using-drugs-to-make-livestock-grow-faster



Today, US meat has lower levels of anti biotics than EU meat.

that article suggests antibiotic use in the us has dropped by a third.  That would still put it above the UK levels even assuming the UK hadn't refunded over the same time period.



It also points out that some antibiotic classes are bring used more despite the overall trend being down.

[BeElBeeBub]

I'm not keeen on anti-biotics in my food to be quite honest.

The sooner we get rid of EU standards the better.

Under EU regulations, UK antibiotic use in pigs is about half that of the US use, a third of the US use for chickens and about a tenth for cattle. Overall UK use of antibiotics in animals is around 20% that of the US.



It's true that some EU countries have higher uses than the UK.

Roll on chlorinated chicken.



We can also end chlorinated salad in January too. If Chlorination is not your thing.

I suspect you don't understand what the chlorination is for.



US food standards are such that without the biocide wash at the end of the process it would be unsafe to eat. Any failure of that step results in problems. It is legal for chicken that treats positive for salmonella to be sold in the US because they assume the coming process will kill it all. Any failure of the cooking process is then much more serious.



UK standards try to ensure the food is kept safe at multiple points along the process, so if there is a failure of any one measure there are other measures to prevent problems.

Ultimately, label the food and let the consumer make that choice.

one of the standard asks of the USA in trade negs are measures to make it harder to distinguish where the food came from. So you may not know where the chicken/beef/pork came from.

[Baff]

Yes, that is the recent curb of which i spoke.

At that time, the US also curbed their use of anti biotics too.



https://www.thebureauinvestigates.com/stories/2018-12-19/antibiotic-use-falls-on-us-farms-after-ban-on-using-drugs-to-make-livestock-grow-faster">https://www.thebureauinvestigates.com/s ... row-faster">https://www.thebureauinvestigates.com/stories/2018-12-19/antibiotic-use-falls-on-us-farms-after-ban-on-using-drugs-to-make-livestock-grow-faster



Today, US meat has lower levels of anti biotics than EU meat.

[Borg Refinery]

Yes, buy British.



EU antibiotic use, despite recent curbs, is even higher than US use.



Also, if donkey and horse meat could be labelled as such, that would be good.

https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.forbes.com/sites/maisieganzler/2018/11/01/europes-move-on-antibiotic-use-in-livestock-leaves-u-s-in-the-dust-again/amp/">https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.forbes ... again/amp/">https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.forbes.com/sites/maisieganzler/2018/11/01/europes-move-on-antibiotic-use-in-livestock-leaves-u-s-in-the-dust-again/amp/

[johnofgwent]

Why was Gove so vocal about not accepting that we would reduce our standards to allow this chicken a few short years ago?

I don't know.



But the article that provoked this thread contains, towards its end, after a ton of hype from un-named political sources suggesting that we will allow this stuff in because the yanks want that to happen, this comment. which I admit you have to read the article through to the very end to read. And that makes me wonder how many bother....



Asked whether the promise to keep chlorinated chicken off UK plates remained, [size=150]the prime minister's official spokesperson [/size]would only say: "The position is that the UK will decide how we set and maintain our own standards and regulations and we have been clear that we will not compromise on our high standards of food safety and animal welfare.



Now, as long as that wasn't Cummings .....

[Baff]

Yes, buy British.



EU antibiotic use, despite recent curbs, is even higher than US use.



Also, if donkey and horse meat could be labelled as such, that would be good.

[Borg Refinery]

Quite, a very large Stars and Stripes on the packaging so I can avoid it.

I'm not keeen on anti-biotics in my food to be quite honest.

The sooner we get rid of EU standards the better.



Roll on chlorinated chicken.



We can also end chlorinated salad in January too. If Chlorination is not your thing.





Ultimately, label the food and let the consumer make that choice.

Our findings show that in terms of mg of active ingredient of antibiotic per tonne of livestock unit

(PCU):

- use in US pigs is about twice as high as use in UK pigs

- use in US chickens is about 3 times as high as use in UK chickens

- use in US turkeys is about 5 times as high as use in UK turkeys

- use in US cattle use is about 9-16 times as high as use in UK cattle

- use in all food animals in the US is about 5 times as high as use in the UK.

https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&source=web&rct=j&url=http://www.saveourantibiotics.org/media/1791/comparison-of-us-and-uk-farm-antibiotic-use.pdf&ved=2ahUKEwjNl-PIpPDpAhWGI8AKHQdaAqgQFjAOegQICBAB&usg=AOvVaw0pkSqNSXwbU4hvEngayk9u">https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&source= ... hvEngayk9u">https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&source=web&rct=j&url=http://www.saveourantibiotics.org/media/1791/comparison-of-us-and-uk-farm-antibiotic-use.pdf&ved=2ahUKEwjNl-PIpPDpAhWGI8AKHQdaAqgQFjAOegQICBAB&usg=AOvVaw0pkSqNSXwbU4hvEngayk9u

[papasmurf]

I'm not keeen on anti-biotics in my food to be quite honest.







Ultimately, label the food and let the consumer make that choice.

Quite, a very large Stars and Stripes on the packaging so I can avoid it.

[Baff]

I'm not keeen on anti-biotics in my food to be quite honest.

The sooner we get rid of EU standards the better.



Roll on chlorinated chicken.



We can also end chlorinated salad in January too. If Chlorination is not your thing.





Ultimately, label the food and let the consumer make that choice.