Could chlorinated chicken be sold in the UK and is it safe to eat? (2025)

Trump demands that the UK should open its doors to chlorinated chicken, but how safe is it?

The UK has long resisted the idea of importing chlorinated chicken from the United States due to health concerns.

But now, President Donald Trump is now making his position clear: if Britain wants relief from trade tariffs, it must allow chorine-washed chicken into its markets.

Trump's warning comes as tensions rise over global tariffs, with the US imposing a 10 per cent levy on all UK exports. He slapped even higher tariffs on other countries, including a 20 per cent tax on EU imports, claiming they were "reciprocal" measures for countries who had "looted" the US economy.

The White House said in a statement: “The UK maintains non-science-based standards that severely restrict US exports of safe, high-quality beef and poultry products.”

The controversial practice of washing chicken in chlorine is banned in the UK due to health and safety regulations.

Reform UK leader Nigel Farage has backed the idea of importing US chlorine-washed chicken as part of a free trade deal with the US, where he said President Trump “would want US agricultural products to be sold in Britain”.

The Prime Minister’s officials have reiterated the UK's commitment to maintaining strict food standards, with one spokesperson stating, "Our position on that is unchanged."

In November, Chancellor Rachel Reeves said the UK would not allow “British farmers to be undercut by different rules and regulations in other countries”.

Is chlorine-washed chicken safe?

Chlorinated chicken refers to poultry that has been washed in water containing chlorine dioxide, which kills harmful bacteria such as salmonella, campylobacter and E.coli.

While chlorine-washing itself is considered safe by the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and the US Department of Agriculture (USDA), critics fear it could lower hygiene standards earlier in the production process. The practice is therefore banned in the EU and UK.

The European Food Safety Authority says that exposure to chlorine residues on chicken "would be of no safety concern," but UK producers instead follow a "farm to fork" approach, which requires sanitary practices to be used all along the production chain so that chlorine washes are not necessary.

Research by US non-profit Consumer Reports even found that 97 per cent of 300 American chicken breasts contained salmonella, E.coli and campylobacter, with half of all tested poultry containing antibiotic-resistant bacteria.

It's not entirely clear whether this causes meat-eaters in the US more harm, but some experts believe you could be far more likely to get food poisoning in the US than the UK.

"In the US, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) have reported that there are approximately 37 million cases of foodborne illness each year. With a population of 327 million, you have an 11.4 in 100 chance per year of getting food poisoning," said Simon Dawson, senior lecturer in food science and technology at Cardiff Metropolitan University.

"In other words, you are over seven times more likely to get food poisoning in the US than the UK," he told the Big Issue.

The last major polling on the topic of chlorinated chicken, conducted in 2020, revealed that 80 per cent of Brits are opposed to allowing imports to the UK, and that the same proportion is against allowing chicken products that have been farmed using hormones.