Government trying to soften us up to accept chlorinated chicken

[Tellmetruth4]

www.theguardian.com/world/2019/sep/13/science-on-safety-of-chlorinated-chicken-misunderstood

Link fail dwi.defra.gov.uk/consumers/advice-leaflets/chlorine.pdf

The chlorination itself probably isn't the issue.
American chicken doesn't taste great and it seems to have a good deal of liquid in it when you try cooking it.

However, chlorinated chicken is cheap to produce, and chickens raised for slaughter in American chicken-producing facilities are not subject to the same regulatory oversight as EU chickens are. Standards of hygiene and fowl welfare in production facilities (aka 'farms') can be quite low, and conditions in slaughtering facilities poor. Wages for workers are very low.

This is the issue, frankly. The term 'chlorinated chicken' is emblematic of a production process that costs less than EU and current UK chicken production does.

Therefore UK chicken farmers will have to produce as cheaply as massive American operations or go under.

Our water in the US was chlorinated, there were times in very hot weather where you could see it had a bluish tinge and a faint smell when filling up the bath. It never bothered me. My eczema was under better control there where I showered in chlorinated water daily, It makes me wonder if this was why.
Washing raw fruits and veg and salad was incouraged to be done in a sink of water with a bit of chlorine bleach for safety there too.

Google says that UK water has chlorine in it, although lower than many other nations. USA & UK measure chlorine content in different ways, can someone convert the units?

1 mg/l is the same as 1 ppm.

1 mg/l is the same as 1 ppm.

So... UK water usually has 0.5 ppm or less.

This California water description means the LA water has 0.005 ppm. Much less. Except I'm probably not doing the units right. Is free-chlorine the same as other types of chlorine added? California water comes from surface sources & has a high bacterial load at source, so I think I did the maths wrong.

rinking water in the UK is chlorinated

And that's relevant to this conversation because?

It's not the chlorine people are worried about. It's the standards behind animal welfare.

Does someone want to read & repeat here some highlights about animal welfare standards

Read page 11 of the report onwards - that's quite a good summary (it's page 16 on the PDF)

Chlorinated chicken tastes hideous. In addition, it dries out the meat so US chicken processors will inject a saline solution into the chicken to plump it up, tone down the yellow color from the chlorine and nudge up the weight for higher price.
It’s why we usually make our chicken smothered in BBQ sauce...to hide the taste.

Animal welfare is horrible. The chickens are GM chickens designed to have extra large breasts. They are kept in windowless barns cramped in a large common area usually with dirt floor that is only cleaned between generations. The farmers have to go in and pull out the ones trampled to death every so often. Because they are GM chickens, some are deformed such that their legs can’t hold the weight of their bodies, so they flop around and can’t walk- these die sooner. Some farmers cut off their beaks because in such crowded conditions with nothing to peck, the chickens peck each other and tear off wings, peck our eyes, etc. GM chickens are also modified to be ready for slaughter sooner. So, when they get sold on to say Purdue, purdue sents a collections team to the farmer and they have a chicken vacuum that sucks up the chickens and spits them into containers for shipment. Lots die during this process. They are all covered in feces. At the slaughter house...after killing and plucking they spray them down with chlorine to wash off the feces. Unfortunately, this can also spread salmonella as much as it kills it. So if you look at salmonella poisoning in the states it is no less or better than U.K.
There are lots of documentaries available to see this.

YeOlde the “California water description” values from your screenshot are for Trichloroacetic acid levels (a by product if water chlorination), not free chlorine.

Chlorination of protein MAY lead to the formation of disinfection byproducts which MAY lead to a very slight increase in cancer rates (but the links don’t have solid proof); not chlorinating chicken can lead to much higher rates of food poisoning (regardless of the “welfare” of the chickens prior to slaughter). So it’s trying to decide if you want lower rates of food poisoning (benefits ‘000s) or possible lower rates of cancer (affecting a relative handful in the same population size). USA choose to protect against the immediate danger of food poisoning, the EU have gone for protection from possible long term cancer risks / protection of their broiler chicken industries.

There’s not really a right or a wrong with regards to chlorination of chicken when you look at the science. The EU are fiercely against chlorinated chicken but this is based on maintaining a trade barrier against cheap imports from USA rather than solid science - so it’s politics. USA meat production is very different with widespread use of antibiotic growth promoters, growth hormones etc (they’ve been banned in the Uk for decades). Their welfare standards are far far lower. They are allowed to inject their chicken with “flavouring” (brine) to increase the weight. It really isn’t the same as buying British meat.

Before people start bashing chlorine too much try to remember why we use it: much of the fruit / veg / salad / herbs on Uk supermarket shelves is grown and handled in countries where living conditions, water provision and enteric disease levels are very different to here. Plant products aren’t usually contaminated whilst growing (unless there’s an issue with irrigation water) - contamination is usually through handling. Washing in chlorine drastically reduces pathogenic microorganisms on food.

400000 people die world wide every year from food / water borne disease: 125000 of those are children under 5. That’s 15

This one is by PBS (US equivalent of BBC)
Original Fare - Dirty Birds: A Story of Chickens in America | Original Fare | PBS Food

Can find it on YouTube.
m.youtube.com/watch?v=wm5MdlDeEk0

you say dont eat it but it will bring down the cost of chicken.Put farmers out of business and then we will be forced to eat it*

No one will force you to eat it.

@sheepysheep
“not chlorinating chicken can lead to much higher rates of food poisoning (regardless of the “welfare” of the chickens prior to slaughter). So it’s trying to decide if you want lower rates of food poisoning (benefits ‘000s) or possible lower rates of cancer (affecting a relative handful in the same population size). USA choose to protect against the immediate danger of food poisoning, the EU have gone for protection from possible long term cancer risks / protection of their broiler chicken industries. ”

That’s what the US tells us, but the food poisoning rates from chicken between US and EU are virtually the same. So, there is zero evidence that washing with chlorine is necessary to prevent food poisoning “regardless of the welfare of chickens”.

According to the CDC, there were an annual average 943,185 cases of food poisoning from poultry alone in the US between 1998-2008 which is a per capita per 10,000 rate of 33

The U.K. FSA estimates an annual 244,000 cases of food poisoning from poultry as of 2014 or a per capita per 10,000 rate of 37

@Bookworm4

rather than !

In addition, the Guardian reported the following last year-
“The investigation, by a team of microbiologists from Southampton University and published in the US journal mBio, found that bacilli such as listeria and salmonella remain completely active after chlorine washing. The process merely makes it impossible to culture them in the lab, giving the false impression that the chlorine washing has been effective.

Apart from a few voluntary codes, the American poultry industry is unregulated compared with that in the EU, allowing for flocks to be kept in far greater densities and leading to a much higher incidence of infection. While chicken farmers in the EU manage contamination through higher welfare standards, smaller flock densities and inoculation, chlorine washing is routinely used in the US right at the end of the process, after slaughter, to clean carcasses. This latest study indicates it simply doesn’t work.

This is very concerning. Chlorine-washed chicken, giving the impression of being safe, can cross contaminate the kitchen
Professor William Keevil
Currently, chlorine-washed chicken is barred from entry to the EU on animal welfare grounds and has become a contentious issue for opponents of liberal trade deals with the US post-Brexit.”

You can read the scientific study here
mbio.asm.org/content/9/2/e00540-18.full

@Hedgehogblues
“No one will force you to eat it.”

True, but you will be tricked into eating chlorinated chicken. How? Well the country of origin labelling law in the U.K. is an EU regulation. After Brexit, it’s not enforceable. And the US trade delegation is 100% aware of this and have already made scrapping country of origin labelling as a pre-requisite for a US-U.K. trade deal.
This will ensure the chicken you buy will have no label as whether it is US chlorinated or British farmed. The US chicken will be cheaper than the British....consumers will likely buy the cheaper chicken and British farmers will either have to sink to the US level or go out of business. Win/win for US (Trump is avidly US first). Restaurants will too...you go to KFC do you ask where your chicken came from? Of course not.

There is a reason why the ICE immigration raids are usually at slaughter houses...especially the chicken and pork ones. Because the companies regularly hire illegal immigrants for “minimum wage” on 40hr contracts and then illegally work them for unrecorded overtime hours without pay (so net wage is actually below minimum but it’s all off the books).

I’m not a chemist but surely chlorine (from water or anywhere else) in our diet affects the dietary uptake of iodine? The thyroid needs iodine but much of our diet is deficient and the fluoride or chlorine molecules are (I think) similar in shape so will bind to the thyroid in the absence of sufficient iodine. Thyroid issues/low iodine are linked to obesity and breast cancer

When food prices rocket after Brexit people will be pleased to buy chlorinated chicken plus whatever other GM modified, fructose syrup enriched crap the US will be able to push on us, as long as they are cheap.

True, but you will be tricked into eating chlorinated chicken

You don't HAVE to eat any chicken

The chlorine itself is harmless. The problem is with the filthy conditions the chickens are exposed to.
But even the chicken is a smokescreen to hide the other and far more serious problems with US food.
The growth hormones fed to beef cattle. And worst of all the chemicals fed to pigs but are banned almost everywhere else in the world. Look up ractopamine.

But I want to eat unchlorinated chicken. I don’t want chicken from the US.

@Hedgehogblues
“You don't HAVE to eat any chicken”

Yeah, like that is realistic! And it won’t be just chicken. Get ready for GM corn, corn starch and corn syrup in everything from breads, to sauces, to condiments, to sweets, to cereals, to tinned fruits and veg. Get ready for GM sweet peppers, apples, tomatoes, pears, grapes, watermelon, lettuce, potatoes, etc.
The list is very very long it’s not about just saying, oh well I guess I have to skip chicken for the rest of my life.

But I want to eat unchlorinated chicken. I don’t want chicken from the US

And that's fine but my point was no one is going to be forcing you to eat it

I personally don't give a shit about GM food