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

latimes.com

31–40 of 219 posts

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

#31
post #13

> 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 proce…

>It's vinegar, essentially.

Lol. Sure, lets all just drink hydrogen peroxide. It's water, essentially.

Peroxides and carboxylic acids(vinegar is an example) are very different things...

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

#32

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.

Isn't the real concern how safe the final product is though?

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

#33
post #22

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

To quote the article: > 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. If you're fine with using vinegar elsewhere in food, you should be fine with this.

I'm fine with vinegar in my salad dressing, but I'm not OK with the chef using it to clean his hands in the place of soap+water.

Sanitized poop is still poop. I'd rather the poop not be there at all, as much as possible.

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

#34

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.

BUT....what if it isn't clean? One worker can infect a whole host of chickens and there is no mitigation that will stop it before it is consumed except for the hope that it is cooked properly. Besides, the "chemical washing" is not chlorine anymore it is just vinegar (What many people put on chicken to eat anyway). So ideally you would have clean farms, clean processing and clean storage and then the consumer would properly cook it...but if one of these does not happen ideally, another cheap way to prevent killing people is to use vinegar to reduce possible sickness even further. The only reason why I can think that this would be apposed is to protect poultry producers in Europe.

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

#37
post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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?

I think they're saying that poor people shouldn't be coerced by a subsidy system to eat food that has to be chemically treated to remove pathogens, and which causes animal suffering which most people would reject if it weren't kept hidden.

There are plenty of ways for poor people to eat healthy diets without harming animals. It's a perverse incentive of the system that grows vast quantities of poor-quality corn and soybeans, cycles them through animals (wasting 90% of the calories in the process), and then feeds people the animals. A system that focused more on feeding people grains and pulses would produce more food for less money.

The US in particular is wedded to the notion that meat is essential and primary food, and it set up its entire agriculture industry to making that cheap. It does so at a cost of hidden subsidies, poor-quality and disease-ridden meat, and a lot of animal suffering. You don't have to be a PETA nutjob to object to factory farming.

A fairer and less abusive system would, indeed, mean that higher-quality meat is available primarily to rich people. But it's a strawman to say that it means that poor people shouldn't eat. They can eat very well as vegetarians, vegans, or even just people who eat meat occasionally rather than three times a day, every single day.

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

#39
post #13

> 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 proce…

==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.==

Why aren't they just using vinegar if it's the same thing?

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

#40
post #25
post #13

> 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 proce…

I don't understand the logic. If the end result is unequivocally good, why do the steps along the way matter beyond the "eww" factor?

> If the end result is unequivocally good...

I think they'd argue "cleanliness" is not the only aspect of what "good" is. The chickens' diets and living conditions affect the quality of the chicken. To say nothing of the animal cruelty angle...

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