Brexit: 'No health problems' with chlorinated chicken, government's chief scientific adviser says

‘The issue is about production processes and animal welfare,’ says Sir Ian King on potential UK-US trade deal

There is no evidence chlorinated chicken is harmful to health and no scientific reason it should be banned in any post-Brexit trade deal with the US, according to a senior government scientist.

The prospect of chlorine-washed poultry flooding into the UK if the government is forced to accept American food standards has proved highly controversial.

Sir Ian Boyd, chief scientific adviser at the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra), said he had no concerns about sterilising chicken carcasses with the chemical to kill off bacteria.

“From a health perspective there really isn’t a problem with chlorinated chicken,” he told Sky News.

“The issue is about production processes and animal welfare, and that is a values-based choice that people need to make.”

Food safety experts have criticised welfare standards in the US, pointing out that the birds are often raised in the kind of crowded conditions that increase the risk of disease.

Concerns have also been raised about genetic modification. Feeding hormones to cattle is widespread practise among American beef farmers.

But Sir Ian said he was satisfied hormone-treated beef was also safe.

“The chances are that most of it will have been metabolised when it comes into the meat you would eat,” said the Defra adviser. “The chances of it having any biological effect on us is almost infinitesimally small.”

The European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) opposes chlorine-washed poultry because it enables farmers to lower their welfare standards, since they can use a chemical bath to kill off any harmful pathogens after animals are slaughtered.

Earlier this month Zippy Duvall, the head of the American Farm Bureau, said fears over the practices are not “science-based”.

“There is no scientific basis that says that washing poultry with a chlorine wash, just to be safe of whatever pathogens might be on that chicken as it was prepared for the market, should be taken away,” said Mr Duvall.

Earlier this year then international trade secretary Liam Fox said the UK could accept chlorinated chicken in a post-Brexit trade agreement, sparking a wider debate about food safety standards and what the UK should be prepared to accept in any deal stuck with Washington.

A government spokesperson said: “Any future deal with the US must work for UK consumers, farmers and companies.

“We have been clear on numerous occasions that we will not compromise on our high food or animal welfare standards as part of any trade deals.”