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U.S. wants the EU to accept chemical-washed chicken as part of trade deal

latimes.com

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Re: U.S. wants the EU to accept chemical-washed chicken as part of trade deal

#11

Post by wbazant »

brummm wrote: post #2

I really hope the EU will not allow this kind of US meat into the EU market...

Well, it's a poverty food, and buying and eating meat seems already pretty gross to me, so people who choose to eat this kind of stuff are probably quite desperate and their choices aren't great. I'm sad for the extra animals that will end up living in even worse conditions (EU laws are a bit more generous when it comes to cage sizes etc. ) but I can totally understand that some people will genuinely prefer the US chlorinated chicken to their local mystery flesh products.

Re: U.S. wants the EU to accept chemical-washed chicken as part of trade deal

#12

Post by moksly »

brummm wrote: post #2

I really hope the EU will not allow this kind of US meat into the EU market...

If they do, I hope they make sure that it has to be labelled on the food.

They do that with a lot of things, and then it’s really easy not to buy it.

Re: U.S. wants the EU to accept chemical-washed chicken as part of trade deal

#13

Post by mxscho »

> Perdue on Monday defended [...] the technique to disinfect poultry [...], arguing that U.S. farmers now use a chemical called peracetic acid rather than chlorine: "Peracetic acid ... is a great pathogen reduction treatment. You know what it is? It's vinegar, essentially. To say that's unsafe or not to be used, we don't think there's a basis for that in sound science."

I always thought the EU doesn't want this procedure because it effectively allows farmers to take a short cut and cover up bad practices used earlier in the chain. Under this premise, this quote just argues against a straw man for an otherwise meaningless counterargument.

Re: U.S. wants the EU to accept chemical-washed chicken as part of trade deal

#14

Post by advisedwang »

tschellenbach wrote: post #9

What's the health impact of the chemical-washed chickens?

One objection is that it allows the initial chicken production to be dirtier as you can then just disinfect later even. In the EU, the entire processing needs to be clean.

Re: U.S. wants the EU to accept chemical-washed chicken as part of trade deal

#15

Post by reaperducer »

tschellenbach wrote: post #9

What's the health impact of the chemical-washed chickens?

An excellent question. If anyone can link to some authoritative information on this, I'd be interested in reading it, too.

All I got from a Google search is yoga mom blogs. I'd like to see what a .gov health agency has to say about it.

Re: U.S. wants the EU to accept chemical-washed chicken as part of trade deal

#16

Post by reaperducer »

wbazant wrote: post #11
brummm wrote: post #2

I really hope the EU will not allow this kind of US meat into the EU market...

Well, it's a poverty food, and buying and eating meat seems already pretty gross to me, so people who choose to eat this kind of stuff are probably quite desperate and their choices aren't great. I'm sad for the extra animals that will end up living in even worse conditions (EU laws are a bit more generous when it comes to cage sizes etc. ) but I can totally understand that some people will genuinely prefer the US ch…

Well, it's a poverty food

I'm not sure what this means. Are you trying to say that poor people shouldn't be allowed to eat?

Re: U.S. wants the EU to accept chemical-washed chicken as part of trade deal

#17

Post by sadmann1 »

wbazant wrote: post #11
brummm wrote: post #2

I really hope the EU will not allow this kind of US meat into the EU market...

Well, it's a poverty food, and buying and eating meat seems already pretty gross to me, so people who choose to eat this kind of stuff are probably quite desperate and their choices aren't great. I'm sad for the extra animals that will end up living in even worse conditions (EU laws are a bit more generous when it comes to cage sizes etc. ) but I can totally understand that some people will genuinely prefer the US ch…

I'm afraid you're assuming way too much

Re: U.S. wants the EU to accept chemical-washed chicken as part of trade deal

#18

Post by C14L »

Look, the "Chlorhühnchen" are back!

In Germany, this was the favorite scare topic of the press in articles about the TTIP negotiations.

So I doubt that they will be able to include that in any new treaty without causing a major freak-out here in Germany.

Re: U.S. wants the EU to accept chemical-washed chicken as part of trade deal

#20

Post by mrec »

advisedwang wrote: post #14
tschellenbach wrote: post #9

What's the health impact of the chemical-washed chickens?

One objection is that it allows the initial chicken production to be dirtier as you can then just disinfect later even. In the EU, the entire processing needs to be clean.

Yes, from what I've seen this is the primary objection (aside from realpolitik considerations i.e. wanting to keep agricultural prices high).

Salad has routinely been chlorine-washed in Europe for years, and nobody complains about that.

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