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Rat hairs, hormones and chlorine – why food standards matter in trade deals

09/09/2019 //  by Michelle Berridale Johnson//  Leave a Comment

Bludgeoned by Brexit as we currently are, I thought you might be interested in this interview with Dr Charlie Clutterbuck (Bittersweet Brexit) on Geoff Tansey’s blog.

‘A trade deal around food with the USA’, he says,‘is not just about chlorinated chicken, hormone drenched beef, or even ractomine-fed pigs – the chemicals used in USA to clean, to grow and to keep creatures lean. The USA is ‘more macho’ about these matters than we in the UK are.

They allow more white blood cells (a signal of infection) in milk with ours. But the one that seems to stick in people’s memory (or is that throat?) is allowing ‘rat hairs’ in peanut butter. The US Food and Drink Administration (FDA) says you can have 5 per jar along with 150 insect parts; you can also happily find 5 whole insects in every half kilo of frozen fruit.

They call these sorts of contaminations ‘unavoidable defects[i] Yet we seem to avoid these defects quite well. The FDA says these “Food Defect Action Levels” are set on the premise that they pose ‘no inherent hazard to health’. Yet, there are nearly 400 deaths a year in America from Salmonella, whereas we’ve not had one for many years.[ii]

Eighty per cent of UK people say they do not want to drop these standards. Yet this may be another price to pay for a ‘No Deal’ – or rather a ‘Trump Deal’ – Brexit.’

He then goes on to talk about how those standards are established and the whole issue of overproduction of food world wide. Many millions may go hungry, but this is not because we cannot grow enough food to feed them, but because it is too expensive for them to buy. ‘Dependence on food’ is a powerful tool. Read on….


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Category: Big Business, Environmental Issues, Food, Food/Health Policy, PoliticsTag: 400 deaths a year in America from Salmonella, BitterSweet Brexit, Chlorinated chicken, Dr Charlie Clutterbuck, Food Defect Action Levels, Geoff Tansey, Insect parts in frozen fruit, Rat Hairs in peanut butter, trade deals with the USA

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