American chickens. A thread.

I’ve been working in the US for the past six months, and over that time I’ve talked a LOT about chlorinated chicken. Here are some of the things I’ve learned.

Chlorinated chicken isn’t a thing. At least, not really. Chlorine hasn’t been used by the majority of producers for over a decade. Like the EU, US export markets started getting twitchy over the safety of chlorine, and so the majority of the producers switched to paracetic acid.

(PA is deemed to be much safer for those working in processing plants).

About 10% of US poultry producers use chlorine - but 10% of producers doesn’t mean big volumes. Most chicken is produced by huge integrators, who each rear and process millions of birds. What’s more, of the plants that use chlorine, apparently most use it to clean equipment.

So why is PAA used? Well, it’s about removing pathogens which could cause human health problems. In Europe, birds go into a chiller after slaughter which kills a lot of the bugs. Here in the US, the industry says it finds chilling birds in water is more efficient.

Federal regulations say that when birds exit water chillers, they have to be cleaner than when it goes in, and to achieve that there needs to be some kind of antimicrobial is in the system. “It doesn’t make it worse than EU production, it’s just different,” one poultry exec said.

Why do they need rinsing anyway? Bacteria and pathogens which make us ill are found naturally in chicken guts, so if there are any… spillages… during processing that’s where rinsing them can help.

Until recently, controlling bacteria has been a processor job, but now producers are looking more closely at controlling salmonella etc on farm. Vaccine use is on the up, and they are also looking more closely at hygiene in water lines and litter to reduce pathogen load.

When I asked the US Poultry Council about rates of salmonella, campylobacter and E.coli in US poultry, it said levels are similar to those in Europe. HOWEVER, rates of food-borne illnesses in the US are persistently higher in the US that the EU

Everyone I’ve spoken to has - in the politest of ways - laughed long and loud when I asked if the UK was an interesting export destination to them. “It’s certainly not the most aspiring market,” one exec told me.

Priority markets are those which are interested in lower-cost cuts of chicken, such as quarters and drumsticks - the majority goes to Mexico, Hong Kong and Cuba. Most breast meat (which the UK favours) produced in the US is consumed domestically.

I haven’t actually been around a big poultry farm or processing facility yet (COVID caused my trips to be cancelled) so I can’t comment on the direct differences between UK and US production….

Regardless of what I see though, production standards aren’t just a matter of how the animals are raised though: they also include things like employee rights and environmental standards, and they are an important part of what the UK industry is trying to protect

Despite the UK market not being a priority, US poultry industry wrote to the US government asking for poultry to be included in trade talks. The National Chicken Council said it wants to have the option to diversify and grow its export markets if it wants to.

Those are the things I think are most interesting, but if anyone has any questions let me know and I will try to answer them (or find someone who can).