MEPs today voted overwhelmingly against allowing US imports of chlorinated chicken into Europe – a practice banned in the EU.
America was seeking to have the ban lifted – but Conservative MEPs - John Bowis MEP, Neil Parish MEP and Robert Sturdy MEP, Conservative Spokesmen on Food Safety, Agriculture and Trade respectively - vehemently opposed this on public health and safety grounds.
The Commission had proposed allowing businesses to use four currently banned anti-microbial substances to decontaminate poultry carcasses following pressure from the US, even though the EU has had a ban on US chlorinated poultry since 1997. American producers use low-concentration chlorine to wash chickens before selling them which flouts EU regulations.
MEPs in Strasbourg today supported Mr Sturdy and Mr Bowis’s resolution by firmly rejecting the Commission’s proposal, and safeguarding the quality of imported poultry from the US.
Speaking after the vote in the European Parliament, John Bowis said:
"The science is still uncertain and I think it would be unacceptable for British consumers to be experimented on for two years while the Commission decides whether there is a health risk. I understand American pressure to sell their chlorinated poultry over here but I would be more impressed if they were first to remove their own barrier to the export of British poultry to America."
Mr Sturdy said: “This has nothing to do with banning American poultry, it is about them meeting our present public health standards which have been set for a reason. There is no room for compromise when it comes to ensuring food standards in the EU remain the highest in the world. This could pose a risk to public health and loss of confidence in the product.
“And I wonder why the British government has failed to support the retention of the ban – the only country out of 27 which abstained during a recent vote on importing American chlorinated chicken. Could it be pressure from supermarkets to provide cheap food, or wanting to keep the Americans happy?
“At the end of the day, common sense – and a desire to maintain our high public health standards – won the day.”
Mr Parish said:
"If we allow US chlorinated chicken into the EU we will have to allow chlorinated chicken to be produced in the EU. It seems crazy that we would want to weaken our own systems of consumer protection just to allow the US to sell us their chicken. The US should be making concessions on this, not us."