Chlorine-washed chicken 'may not be essential for a US-UK trade deal'

Chlorine-washed chicken meat and hormone-fed beef may not be essential for a US-UK trade deal, Donald Trump's agriculture secretary has indicated.

- Helena Horton

Speaking to journalists at a press conference in London, Brooke Rollins said the market was moving away from the methods of production, which are illegal in the UK and the EU.

Rollins is visiting to discuss the specifics of the trade deal the US president, Donald Trump, announced last week, which took in agricultural products including ethanol and beef. Yesterday she met the UK's environment secretary, Steve Reed, who reiterated that the government would never accept chlorine chicken or hormone beef.

Asked whether the US would insist on the UK taking chlorine-washed chicken as a condition of any future tariff reductions, she said "only about 5% of our chicken in America is actually treated that way, with the chlorine", adding "we have moved, over the last decade, completely away from the chlorine chicken".