Associated Press
EU agency recommends change in chicken meat rules
Associated Press 05.28.08, 5:00 PM ET
BRUSSELS, Belgium - The European Commission on Wednesday recommended that European Union nations allow the sale of poultry meat that has been treated with chemicals to clean it of bacteria.
The change of rules - proposed primarily to accommodate the import of chlorine-treated U.S. chicken, which has been banned since 1997 - needs unanimous support by food security experts from the EU's 27 member states.
But approval is far from certain since France is fiercely opposed to chemical treatment of chicken meat, and several countries have expressed doubts about the need to change the rules. In the EU, poultry is cleaned without the help of chemicals.
The draft guidelines would allow EU farmers to treat it with a chlorine solution, on condition the meat is rinsed with water afterward and is clearly labelled as decontaminated by chemicals. They also would allow the sale of U.S. chicken on the EU market after an 11-year ban on health and food security grounds.
"This is a proposal that puts everybody on the same competitive footing," said European Commission spokesman Johannes Laitenberger.
The proposal was immediately denounced by a key European Parliament committee, which said chlorination of chicken intended for human consumption should not be acceptable within the EU.
Lifting the ban would be "outrageous and unacceptable, and would degrade EU citizens to guinea pigs," said British lawmaker John Bowis of the assembly's environmental committee.
Greenpeace said the European Commission has "buckled up under U.S. pressure and surrendered the EU's high standards on food hygiene."
COPA-COGECA, Europe's biggest farming lobby, also condemned the proposal. It said hygiene measures applied in chicken production in Europe are sufficient and do not need to be enhanced by chemicals.
The chicken ban has long been a sticking point in EU-U.S. trade relations, and Americans have pushed hard for it to be scrapped. Earlier this month, EU Industry Commissioner Guenter Verheugen said a new scientific opinion did not support the ban.
The EU measures have cost American producers an estimated $180 million a year in lost sales.
Comments