Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask His Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the effect of chemically washed chicken on human health.

No chemicals are approved for the purpose of washing chicken carcasses in the United Kingdom, and therefore, chicken that has been chemically washed cannot be placed on the UK market. Any changes would require ministerial agreement across the nations of the UK and then an amendment to legislation, which would be subject to parliamentary oversight.

While the UK was a member of the European Union, the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) completed assessments on behalf of member states, including the UK, relating to the effects of chemical washes applied to chicken. The Food Standards Agency (FSA) periodically reviews the available evidence, including scientific literature, for new information that could address previously identified evidence gaps or trigger reviews of previous risk assessments. Although some new research has been published in this area since the previous assessments and has been reviewed since the UK’s exit from the European Union, this has not significantly changed the conclusions drawn by the EFSA with regard to chemical, microbiological, or antimicrobial risk. The FSA has no active work in this area and no current plans to initiate new assessments.