Chicken welfare: Letter to the Editor

Sir, Poultry farming in Britain is a modern agribusiness with the highest standards of welfare. It is important that after leaving the EU, as Alice Thomson (Comment, Mar 6) has argued, we are not forced to accept lower standards, including removing the ban on chlorinated chicken, in order to agree a trade deal that would favour American over British farmers. Washing chicken carcases with chlorine to prevent salmonella and other bacteria may permit poor hygiene in not only the production process but also slaughtering. Chicken has been democratised through mass production, becoming an integral and inexpensive part of American and British diets. Within the past 50 years chicken has become the principal source of meat. Poultry production has been revolutionised by improved strains of birds and controlled environmental systems that have fundamentally transformed the industry.