Warnings over chlorinated chicken

Consumer groups have hit out at Trade Secretary Liam Fox’s claim that accepting chlorinated chicken in a post-brexit trade deal with the US would not harm food standards.

Watchdog Which? said that one of the reasons why food-borne disease rates are so much higher in the US is because the practice is often used as a “desperate attempt to make up for widespread safety problems in food production – leaving bacteria like salmonella to run rampant”.

Dr Fox said the controversy about washing poultry in chlorine was purely an “animal welfare” issue. “There’s been no argument about food safety,” he said.

Caroline Norm and, from Which? said :“Li am Fox is wrong to suggest chlorinated chicken is not a food safety and standards issue.”