October 28, 2014

UK poultry industry raises food safety concerns over TTIP

Members of the UK poultry industry are concerned that negotiations under the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP) between the EU and US could compromise food safety.

The British Poultry Council (BPC) said that the results of its trade survey revealed that 82.5% of its respondents are concerned about the impact TTIP negotiations will have on the poultry industry.

Poultry in the US is dipped in chlorine to kill bacteria, such as campylobacter and salmonella. This practice is banned in the EU, where a more costly "farm to fork" practice is adopted to ensure such bacteria are not present.

Cees Vermeere, secretary general of the Association of Poultry Processors and Poultry Trade in the EU countries (AVEC), explained why the EU practice was preferable: "The EU 'farm to fork' policy may be seen as very sustainable since you try to control and minimise the food safety risks from the beginning of the chain and then also reduce the potential burden from the farm to the environment or neighbourhood.

"As an example, according to the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA), broiler meat may account for 20%-30% of the campylobacteriosis in humans in the EU, while 50%-80% of human campylobacteriosis may be attributed to the chicken reservoir. Therefore, interventions to better control and reduce pathogens need to be taken as early as possible in the value chain."

The BPC survey also showed members believed that rather than focusing on one export market, there was a similar potential to export poultry meat to China, Russia, Africa and other EU countries. Moreover, half of all respondents believed the government needed to focus on trade policy rather than promotion via trade fairs.