Chlorinated Chicken

CHLORINATED CHICKEN

A comment to one of the questions in the Guardian Sunday Quick Crossword on 12 July 2026 discussed ‘chlorinated chicken’ a term I had never come across. My first reaction was, ‘is this something about the secret process of KFC?’

But no. Although KFC and much of the chicken produced in the USA may be chlorinated, that was not the point of the comment. In the EU, chlorinated chicken is banned, so the EU does not purchase USA produced chicken.

The National Public Radio, NPR, which is lucky to be around in the USA after Donald Trump tried to eliminate it, along with the other independent public broadcasters PBS and CPB, with his Executive Order 14290, discusses this food practice. Executive Order 14290 is really a prime example of how autocrats take over the media. In turn a component of how they try to abolish all opposition for their propaganda purposes. Trump alleging biased news and suggesting that public funding for news programming was, ‘not only outdated and unnecessary but corrosive to the appearance of journalistic independence.’ In turn an example of deliberate use of a logical fallacy typical of dictators, and common among politicians in general, saying the right thing in the wrong context. Of course everyone prefers independent journalism. Then to link it to only those critical of the government without proof is illogical. But it works against those with no critical thinking skills.

Luckily, before the executive order was issued, District of Columbia Judge Randolph Moss ruled in March 2026 in favour of CPB in a lawsuit they brought against the Trump administration and the Federal Emergency Management Agency FEMA, (who were halting their public alert and warning system). Judge Moss said, ‘It is difficult to conceive of clearer evidence that a government action is targeted at viewpoints that the president does not like and seeks to squelch.’

However, I am off track.

According to Will Stone writing for NPR on 15 April 2025, ‘Europeans disparage U.S. poultry as “chlorinated chicken,” or “Chlorhünchen” in the German press, and see it as possibly unsafe. The phrase refers to the use of chlorine in poultry processing plants after the birds have been slaughtered, in order to cut down on harmful bacteria that are frequent sources of food-borne illness like Salmonella and Campylobacter. Rinsing poultry in chlorine was a common practice in the U.S. when the European Union first passed a ban in 1997 that prohibited chlorine and other so-called “pathogen reduction treatments.” Fears of chlorinated chicken coming from overseas animated debates during Brexit – and continue to grab headlines.’

 

Chlorinated chicken is also banned in the UK. Now separated, asininely, from the EU. The charitable Soil Association in the UK says, ‘there are worries that the UK will be pressured into accepting chlorinated chicken as part of a UK-USA trade deal.’

They say, ‘Rather than chlorine washing, UK producers use a farm-to-fork approach. This approach requires sanitary practices to be used all along the production chain to ensure that food sold to consumers is safe. The higher hygiene and animal welfare standards used when following this approach work to help combat the spread of bacteria, meaning chlorine washes are not necessary. The consumption of chlorine itself is not an issue. In fact, the European Food Safety Authority said exposure to chlorine residues is of no safety concern.’

This is interesting. If it is not a fear of chlorine, then what is the problem? U.S. regulators say chicken washed with antimicrobial rinses such as chlorine dioxide, acidified sodium chlorite, trisodium phosphate and peroxyacids are safe to eat. The Soil Association adds that, ‘European businesses commonly use it to wash salad. This is a common argument around chlorine, but it misses the point.’ NPR says the same thing, ‘European authorities have analysed the use of chemical washes and found they pose no risk to human health at the concentrations used in poultry processing.’ We swim in chlorinated pools. We bleach our laundry with it. We swamp our hair with it to become blonde.

Yet according to applied poultry microbiologist Dianna Bourassa at Auburn University, ‘that’s not the issue. The vast majority of chicken processing in the United States is not chilled in chlorine and hasn’t been for quite a few years.’ The U.S. based National Chicken Council says, ‘less than 5% of poultry processing facilities still use chlorine in rinses and sprays.’ Bourassa goes on to explain that, ‘nowadays the industry mostly uses organic acids to reduce cross contamination, primarily peracetic or peroxyacetic acid which s essentially a mixture of vinegar and hydrogen peroxide.’

Moving away from chlorine has let the U.S. export poultry to other countries that prohibit chlorine, but the U.K. and European Union are still off limits because they don’t allow any chemical treatment of their poultry.

It all sounds counterproductive. But there is a logic. NPR quotes Sarah Sorscher, a director of regulatory affairs at the Centre for Science in the Public Interest: ‘European regulators are seeing the antimicrobial washes as a band-aid to cover up what’s really a lack of adequate hygiene.’

Responding to the question, ‘is poultry in the U.S. more likely to make you sick?’ Byron D. Chaves, a food microbiologist at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln says, ‘it is challenging to accurately compare rates. Fundamentally the regulations are very different. Europe relies on “pre-harvesting interventions” to reduce pathogens when the animal is still alive, including vaccination and different types of additives that are used in feed. Whereas the U.S. tends to focus on chemicals and other strategies to kill pathogens once the animal has been slaughtered.’

The EU cites data that its “integrated” approach to food safety dropped cases of Salmonella by nearly 50% over five years when it was implemented in the early 2000s, says NPR. But Chaves says the prevalence of infection is very high in both Europe and the U.S. And research finds neither region’s approach is entirely effective at eliminating the risk.

Sorscher argues, ‘American producers should heed their European counterparts and try to emulate their “farm to fork” approach, not lobby to have those countries change their standards to accommodate the U.S.’

Therein lies the issue I believe.

It is not just about making the food safe. It is about making the food safe through ethical breeding and rearing practices.

That brings to mind the Tasmanian anti battery hen activist, Pam Clarke. Known as ‘the chook woman’. Those of you who have read my memoire will see the explanation of ‘chook’ being the Australian vernacular for chicken. It is also an an example of a government lying about policy to get elected.

The University of Tasmania history site describes Clarke beginning, ‘in 1978 to campaign against conditions in battery farms, after her children came home upset after a school excursion. Hens were debeaked, kept in tiny cages and never saw daylight. Clarke thought once the authorities knew of the situation, it would stop. She protested to parliament, rang a bell to interrupt speakers, danced with a two-metre high hen, Battery Bertha, on the steps of Parliament House, and tried physically to free battery hens from farms. Her protests caused her to be charged more than fifty times, and she spent eight days in eight stints in Risdon Gaol. In the late 1980s the Labor Party supported her, but when in power decided that banning battery-hen egg production was unconstitutional. In 1997 Clarke stopped protesting owing to exhaustion and fear, but in 2000 and 2002 she joined midnight raids on egg farms. Battery farms remain legal, but many Tasmanians buy free-range eggs.’

So if battery eggs are still legal in Australia, hinting at the status of husbandry for the animals’ welfare, what about processed poultry?

‘Across Australia, almost every chicken you can buy — including organic and free-range — is processed using chlorine.’ That is according to ethical food processor Hand Sourced. Not exactly a shock. Even in organic processing, ‘birds receive a final chlorine spray for 3-4 seconds, typically at 20 parts per million (ppm). This is followed by air chilling. The majority of Conventional and Free Range processing methods involve a step called “Spin Chilling”. In this step, the birds are tumbled in a chlorinated ice slurry bath to rapidly reduce the core temperature of the poultry. During submersion in this Spin Chill bath, the birds can absorb a percentage of chlorinated water (approved by government legislation). By quickly reducing core temperature this way, mass production operations can begin portioning immediately’

Interestingly, the extra cleaning in the kitchen ahead of cooking a chicken is dangerous. Spreading any contaminants in the food around the table and sink. That is because in the bag with the chicken is an amount of water, which is residual from the processing and with it any bacteria not killed by the chlorine, since it does not kill 100% anyway, plus some serum and any flesh that leaches out.

My position is clear. I love animals. But I love eating chicken. I never eat red meat and eat very little chicken. Not that that’s an excuse. But I do eat it. So I don’t care if my chicken is chlorine washed or not, as long as the life of the animal beforehand is totally ethical and moral. I cannot imagine a worse sight than that of caged animals with no life, no purpose except to grow until large enough to slaughter. Then in the processing stages, I want the methods to be sterile and hygiene such that chlorine is actually not needed. Then I want to totally cook the meat at around 180degrees C which is better at killing anything than anything.