The government is set to open British markets to food produced to lower US welfare standards as part of its planned trade deal with Donald Trump.
Downing Street on Thursday refused to stand by an earlier pledge to keep so-called “chlorinated chicken” off UK shelves, in the first sign of the government folding under pressure from American trade negotiators.
Ministers are reportedly considering letting in products like chlorinated chicken and hormone-fed beef into British supermarkets, but applying tariffs to them to protect UK-based farmers from competition.
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The move would represent a significant loosening of the current situation where complying with high European welfare and sanitary standards for food are a requirement across a wide range of foods.
But under the so-called “dual tariff” system being looked at, American agribusiness would be allowed to sell goods in the UK even if they were not complying with the same production standards as British farmers – as long as they pay a tariff.
Some ministers, such as right-winger Liz Truss, want to go further, the Daily Telegraph reports – and gradually reduce these tariffs to zero over 10 years, giving farmers time to adjust to the new normal.
But it is understood that the dual-tariff system is now being favoured by ministers, a move the National Farmers’ Union described as a “step forward” compared to the more radical proposals.
A government source told the newspaper that a dual-tariff approach would give UK producers a “competitive advantage” over the US.
Back in 2017 Michael Gove said there would be no such products allowed into British supermarkets, and as recently as January Theresa Villiers, the environment secretary, told farmers: “We will not be importing chlorinated chicken”.
But since the opening of preliminary talks, ministers have significantly softened their line as the importance of the issue for US negotiations has become more clear.
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At the end of January, Mike Pompeo, the US secretary of state, said the issue was important to US interests.
“We need to be open and honest about competitiveness. We need to make sure we don’t use food safety as a ruse to try and protect a particular industry,” he said.
Speaking in February this year, the new environment secretary George Eustice would say only that the UK had “no plans” to change a ban but would not make further commitments on the issue.
Other ministers have claimed that chlorinated chicken is not a problem and that they would go as far as eating it.
An inquiry by MPs into a possible trade deal was told by experts that the US “has almost no regulations” when it comes to sanitation and food and that allowing competition from US foods would make it “almost impossible for the UK to ever have good new welfare laws”.
NGOs pointed to the chlorine washing of chicken by US farmers as an alternative to keeping facilities clean, the use of growth hormone in animal feed, and the use of 82 different pesticides that are banned in the EU and UK.
1/20 Lady & the Tramp
Who would have guessed one of the most romantic scenes in cinema would involve two dogs eating scraps in an alleyway? And, yet, the iconic spaghetti kiss from Disney’s 1955 animated film has been oft imitated but never surpassed, as the two pups indulge in an Italian delicacy, all soundtracked to Sonny Burke and Peggy Lee’s “Bella Notte”. And, as Tramp proves, there’s no greater act of chivalry than offering your date the last meatball…
Moviestore/Rex
2/20 Babette’s Feast
Gabriel Axel’s Oscar-winning 1987 Danish film is a visual treat for any self-confessed gourmand. The story sees two pious Protestant sisters offer refuge to a French woman fleeing the political tumult in Paris after the collapse of the Second Empire in 1871. They agree to hire her as a housekeeper,
discovering later that she’s the former chef of one of Paris’s best restaurants. When she wins the lottery, she uses the funds to whip a meal to remember for her kindly hosts.
3/20 Hook
All the very best chefs know that a dash of pure imagination is key to creating a true culinary wonder. It’s a lesson well-taught in Steven Spielberg’s 1991 classic, Hook, as a grown-up Peter Pan (Robin Williams) looks on in disbelief as the Lost Boys tuck into what appears to be nothing at all. It’s only when he truly believes that he can see the brightly colour feast laid out before him. And what childish feast would be complete without an old fashioned food fight?
Sony
4/20 Breakfast at Tiffany’s
Sure, the 1961 film’s title may be a little misleading. Its protagonist, Holly Golightly (Audrey Hepburn), in reality only has breakfast outside of Tiffany’s, popping out of a cab in the early morning light to peer into the jewelry shop window, all while enjoying a pastry and some coffee in a paper. The moment has still remained the peak of glamour, decades later, so who cares if it’s all a little white lie?
Keystone Features/Getty Images
5/20 The Godfather
It’s a classic scene that proves to be surprisingly instructional. Francis Ford Coppola’s 1972 film has a full-blown recipe tucked within its elegant drama, as Vito Corleone’s close associate, Peter Clemenza (Richard Castellano), offers his version of the perfect pasta sauce. As he explains: “You start out with a little bit of oil. Then you fry some garlic. Then you throw in some tomatoes, tomato paste, you fry it; you make sure it doesn’t stick. You get it to a boil; you shove in all your sausage and your meatballs. And a little bit of wine, and a little bit of sugar—that’s my trick.”
Rex Features
6/20 Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory
Although the 1971 musical is, as a whole, a sugary delight, it’s hardest to resist the temptation of Willy Wonka’s Fizzy Lifting Drinks, a soda described as so bubbly that it lifts anyone who drinks it right off the ground. It’s no wonder that it was the one stop on the tour that ended up tempting the pure-hearted Charlie Bucket (Peter Ostrum) and his grandfather (Jack Albertson). Now, the real question is: does it come in different flavours?
Getty
7/20 Eat Pray Love
For anyone who considers pizza to be the true love of their life, Ryan Murphy’s 2010 romcom is a perfect cinematic match. It’s hard not to relate to the moment Liz Gilbert (Julia Roberts) bites into a piece of authentic Italian pizza, during the Naples stop on her global adventure of self-discovery, and declares: “I’m in love. I’m in a relationship with my pizza.”
Rex Features
8/20 Beauty & the Beast
Although we might not fully be convinced that the grey stuff is delicious, the “dinner and show” approach to Lumiere (Jerry Orbach)’s hospitality is something we could certainly get used to. In Disney’s 1991 animation, Belle (Paige O’Hara) is presented with a whole cavalcade of sumptuous dishes: including beef ragout, cheese souffle, pie and pudding “en flambe”. And there’s a sage piece of advice to go with it all, too: “If you’re stressed, it’s fine dining we suggest!” Indeed.
Disney
9/20 Steel Magnolias
While there’s been a growing fad of ambitious, unusually themed cakes – you need only look at the success of the TLC reality series Cake Boss – there are few cinematic cakes that quite stick in the memory like Jackson (Dylan McDermott)’s armadillo-shaped groom cake from 1989 comedy-drama Steel Magnolias, a spin on the tradition from the American South of having another cake separate to the main wedding cake. And did we mention that it’s red velvet on the inside?
REX FEATURES
10/20 Marie Antoinette
When it came to director Sofia Coppola conjuring the ultimate image of decadence for her 2006 biopic on the French queen, there was no more perfect treat than Ladurée’s famous macarons. Delicate and pastel-toned, the meringue-based confection has long been the speciality of the French bakery, first established in 1862. A new flavour was even created in honour of the film, with the Marie Antoinette offering a combination of rose and anise flavours.
Columbia Pictures
11/20 The Hundred Foot Journey
Food is often regarded as one of the best ways to understand a culture, and The Hundred-Foot Journey is wonderful for showing the efforts the talented, self-taught novice Hassan (Manish Dayal) goes to in order to comprehend that. During a picnic he reveals he has mastered the five “mother sauces” of French cuisine, and the delicate tasting process that follows demonstrates just how important food is to France.
12/20 Goodfellas
“In prison, dinner was always a big thing.” So much so that the Wise Guys ate better than most people on the outside. “Beyond the Sea” plays in the background as the gangsters prepare their meal: Garlic sliced so thin with a razor blade that it would “liquefy in the pan with just a little oil”, meatballs in a tomato sauce that’s “a little too oniony”, steak cooked medium rare, iced lobsters, prosciutto, salami, cheese, red wine and good Scotch. Maybe crime does pay after all.
13/20 Chocolat
There are few pleasures in life more fulfilling than that of cooking for others. In Chocolat – based on the book by Joanne Harris – a slow-motion scene where dinner party guests tuck into the feast created by expert chocolatier Vianne Rocher (Juliette Binoche) is full of warmth and laughter.
AP
14/20 Pulp Fiction
In a world where people seem more than happy to fork out £15 for some mushy avocado on toast, $5 for a milkshake doesn’t seem too unreasonable. Vincent Vega (John Travolta) takes his boss’ wife Mia (Uma Thurman) out to Jack Rabbit Slim’s for a burger, where she decides she wants the “$5 dollar shake”. “You don’t put bourbon in it or nothing?” a bewildered Vincent asks the waiter. When it arrives, Mia takes a long sip: “Yummy.” “I gotta know what a $5 shake tastes like,” Vincent says. He takes a sip. Then another. “Goddamn, that’s a pretty f***ing good milkshake.”
Miramax/YouTube
15/20 Julie & Julia
Nora Ephron’s feature film based on the intertwining stories of chef Julia Child and Julie Powell, the blogger who rose to fame after documenting her pledge to cook all 524 recipes in Child’s cookbook, is all about the joy one can find in food. It is some of the earlier scenes that capture this best, like when Julia (Meryl Streep) and her husband Paul (Stanley Tucci) arrive in Paris and stop at a French restaurant, where Julia is served a sizzling platter of sole. It looked so mouth-watering in the final edit that Ephron “wanted to call up Martin Scorcese and say, ‘you’ve never shot a fish like that before’”.
Rex
16/20 Ratatouille
Fearsome critic Anton Ego takes a bite of ratatouille and is transported back to his childhood, where it was a favourite comfort food, in the best scene from Pixar’s wonderful animated film. The detail is superb, from the process of Remy the rat preparing the dish to the moment Ego’s pen falls to the ground as he remembers the power of a favourite meal in evoking memories we thought were lost.
YouTube screengrab / Jeugos para ninos / Disney Pixar
17/20 Spinal Tap
“I don’t want this, I want large bread… but I can rise above it, I’m a professional.” The miniature bread catastrophe is a beautiful parody on every self-absorbed rock star to have kicked off over something as ludicrous as the food they’re served backstage. Guitarist Nigel Tufnell sits next to a tray of sandwiches looking baffled as his manager walks over. “Look,” he says, picking up a sandwich. “This, this miniature bread. It’s like… I’ve been working with this now for about half an hour. I can’t figure it out. Let’s say I want a bite, right, you’ve got this…”
“Why do you keep folding it?” Ian asks. Nigel looks down at the broken bits of bread, then tries again: “This. I don’t want this.” He throws the sandwich to the ground, disgusted. “I want large bread!”
Embassy Pictures
18/20 The Help
After all the trauma she has been through – at the hands of her abusive husband and a racist ex-employer – Minny (Octavia Spencer) arrives at her employer Celia Foote to find a beautiful dinner cooked for her as a thank you for everything she has done for Celia and her husband. You see the care that has gone into it as Celia lays everything out on the table, from a “mile high meringue” to the fried chicken Minny taught her how to make. “That table of food gave Minny the strength she needed,” the narration explains. “She took her babies out from under Leroy and never went back.”
AP Photo/Disney DreamWorks II, Dale Robinette
19/20 Five Easy Pieces
Robert Dupea (Jack Nicholson) just wants some toast to go with his omelette, but the waitress is stubbornly sticking to the diner’s “no substitutions” rule. “I’ll make it as easy for you as I can,” goes the famous order. “I’d like an omelette, plain, and a chicken salad sandwich on wheat toast. No mayonnaise, no butter, no lettuce… and hold the chicken.”
Columbia Pictures
20/20 Big Night
It was a scene that helped propel a revolution in American dining. Il Timpano, a dish inspired by the notoriously tricky-to-make Italian meal, is the star of a moment in Big Night where chef brothers Primo (Tony Shalhoub) and Secondo (Stanley Tucci) prepares it as the centrepiece for a feast attended by their rival, Pascal. “Goddamit, I should kill you,” he screams, throwing his fork down after tasting Il Timpano. “This is so f***ing good, I should kill you.”
1/20 Lady & the Tramp
Who would have guessed one of the most romantic scenes in cinema would involve two dogs eating scraps in an alleyway? And, yet, the iconic spaghetti kiss from Disney’s 1955 animated film has been oft imitated but never surpassed, as the two pups indulge in an Italian delicacy, all soundtracked to Sonny Burke and Peggy Lee’s “Bella Notte”. And, as Tramp proves, there’s no greater act of chivalry than offering your date the last meatball…
Moviestore/Rex
2/20 Babette’s Feast
Gabriel Axel’s Oscar-winning 1987 Danish film is a visual treat for any self-confessed gourmand. The story sees two pious Protestant sisters offer refuge to a French woman fleeing the political tumult in Paris after the collapse of the Second Empire in 1871. They agree to hire her as a housekeeper,
discovering later that she’s the former chef of one of Paris’s best restaurants. When she wins the lottery, she uses the funds to whip a meal to remember for her kindly hosts.
3/20 Hook
All the very best chefs know that a dash of pure imagination is key to creating a true culinary wonder. It’s a lesson well-taught in Steven Spielberg’s 1991 classic, Hook, as a grown-up Peter Pan (Robin Williams) looks on in disbelief as the Lost Boys tuck into what appears to be nothing at all. It’s only when he truly believes that he can see the brightly colour feast laid out before him. And what childish feast would be complete without an old fashioned food fight?
Sony
4/20 Breakfast at Tiffany’s
Sure, the 1961 film’s title may be a little misleading. Its protagonist, Holly Golightly (Audrey Hepburn), in reality only has breakfast outside of Tiffany’s, popping out of a cab in the early morning light to peer into the jewelry shop window, all while enjoying a pastry and some coffee in a paper. The moment has still remained the peak of glamour, decades later, so who cares if it’s all a little white lie?
Keystone Features/Getty Images
5/20 The Godfather
It’s a classic scene that proves to be surprisingly instructional. Francis Ford Coppola’s 1972 film has a full-blown recipe tucked within its elegant drama, as Vito Corleone’s close associate, Peter Clemenza (Richard Castellano), offers his version of the perfect pasta sauce. As he explains: “You start out with a little bit of oil. Then you fry some garlic. Then you throw in some tomatoes, tomato paste, you fry it; you make sure it doesn’t stick. You get it to a boil; you shove in all your sausage and your meatballs. And a little bit of wine, and a little bit of sugar—that’s my trick.”
Rex Features
6/20 Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory
Although the 1971 musical is, as a whole, a sugary delight, it’s hardest to resist the temptation of Willy Wonka’s Fizzy Lifting Drinks, a soda described as so bubbly that it lifts anyone who drinks it right off the ground. It’s no wonder that it was the one stop on the tour that ended up tempting the pure-hearted Charlie Bucket (Peter Ostrum) and his grandfather (Jack Albertson). Now, the real question is: does it come in different flavours?
Getty
7/20 Eat Pray Love
For anyone who considers pizza to be the true love of their life, Ryan Murphy’s 2010 romcom is a perfect cinematic match. It’s hard not to relate to the moment Liz Gilbert (Julia Roberts) bites into a piece of authentic Italian pizza, during the Naples stop on her global adventure of self-discovery, and declares: “I’m in love. I’m in a relationship with my pizza.”
Rex Features
8/20 Beauty & the Beast
Although we might not fully be convinced that the grey stuff is delicious, the “dinner and show” approach to Lumiere (Jerry Orbach)’s hospitality is something we could certainly get used to. In Disney’s 1991 animation, Belle (Paige O’Hara) is presented with a whole cavalcade of sumptuous dishes: including beef ragout, cheese souffle, pie and pudding “en flambe”. And there’s a sage piece of advice to go with it all, too: “If you’re stressed, it’s fine dining we suggest!” Indeed.
Disney
9/20 Steel Magnolias
While there’s been a growing fad of ambitious, unusually themed cakes – you need only look at the success of the TLC reality series Cake Boss – there are few cinematic cakes that quite stick in the memory like Jackson (Dylan McDermott)’s armadillo-shaped groom cake from 1989 comedy-drama Steel Magnolias, a spin on the tradition from the American South of having another cake separate to the main wedding cake. And did we mention that it’s red velvet on the inside?
REX FEATURES
10/20 Marie Antoinette
When it came to director Sofia Coppola conjuring the ultimate image of decadence for her 2006 biopic on the French queen, there was no more perfect treat than Ladurée’s famous macarons. Delicate and pastel-toned, the meringue-based confection has long been the speciality of the French bakery, first established in 1862. A new flavour was even created in honour of the film, with the Marie Antoinette offering a combination of rose and anise flavours.
Columbia Pictures
11/20 The Hundred Foot Journey
Food is often regarded as one of the best ways to understand a culture, and The Hundred-Foot Journey is wonderful for showing the efforts the talented, self-taught novice Hassan (Manish Dayal) goes to in order to comprehend that. During a picnic he reveals he has mastered the five “mother sauces” of French cuisine, and the delicate tasting process that follows demonstrates just how important food is to France.
12/20 Goodfellas
“In prison, dinner was always a big thing.” So much so that the Wise Guys ate better than most people on the outside. “Beyond the Sea” plays in the background as the gangsters prepare their meal: Garlic sliced so thin with a razor blade that it would “liquefy in the pan with just a little oil”, meatballs in a tomato sauce that’s “a little too oniony”, steak cooked medium rare, iced lobsters, prosciutto, salami, cheese, red wine and good Scotch. Maybe crime does pay after all.
13/20 Chocolat
There are few pleasures in life more fulfilling than that of cooking for others. In Chocolat – based on the book by Joanne Harris – a slow-motion scene where dinner party guests tuck into the feast created by expert chocolatier Vianne Rocher (Juliette Binoche) is full of warmth and laughter.
AP
14/20 Pulp Fiction
In a world where people seem more than happy to fork out £15 for some mushy avocado on toast, $5 for a milkshake doesn’t seem too unreasonable. Vincent Vega (John Travolta) takes his boss’ wife Mia (Uma Thurman) out to Jack Rabbit Slim’s for a burger, where she decides she wants the “$5 dollar shake”. “You don’t put bourbon in it or nothing?” a bewildered Vincent asks the waiter. When it arrives, Mia takes a long sip: “Yummy.” “I gotta know what a $5 shake tastes like,” Vincent says. He takes a sip. Then another. “Goddamn, that’s a pretty f***ing good milkshake.”
Miramax/YouTube
15/20 Julie & Julia
Nora Ephron’s feature film based on the intertwining stories of chef Julia Child and Julie Powell, the blogger who rose to fame after documenting her pledge to cook all 524 recipes in Child’s cookbook, is all about the joy one can find in food. It is some of the earlier scenes that capture this best, like when Julia (Meryl Streep) and her husband Paul (Stanley Tucci) arrive in Paris and stop at a French restaurant, where Julia is served a sizzling platter of sole. It looked so mouth-watering in the final edit that Ephron “wanted to call up Martin Scorcese and say, ‘you’ve never shot a fish like that before’”.
Rex
16/20 Ratatouille
Fearsome critic Anton Ego takes a bite of ratatouille and is transported back to his childhood, where it was a favourite comfort food, in the best scene from Pixar’s wonderful animated film. The detail is superb, from the process of Remy the rat preparing the dish to the moment Ego’s pen falls to the ground as he remembers the power of a favourite meal in evoking memories we thought were lost.
YouTube screengrab / Jeugos para ninos / Disney Pixar
17/20 Spinal Tap
“I don’t want this, I want large bread… but I can rise above it, I’m a professional.” The miniature bread catastrophe is a beautiful parody on every self-absorbed rock star to have kicked off over something as ludicrous as the food they’re served backstage. Guitarist Nigel Tufnell sits next to a tray of sandwiches looking baffled as his manager walks over. “Look,” he says, picking up a sandwich. “This, this miniature bread. It’s like… I’ve been working with this now for about half an hour. I can’t figure it out. Let’s say I want a bite, right, you’ve got this…”
“Why do you keep folding it?” Ian asks. Nigel looks down at the broken bits of bread, then tries again: “This. I don’t want this.” He throws the sandwich to the ground, disgusted. “I want large bread!”
Embassy Pictures
18/20 The Help
After all the trauma she has been through – at the hands of her abusive husband and a racist ex-employer – Minny (Octavia Spencer) arrives at her employer Celia Foote to find a beautiful dinner cooked for her as a thank you for everything she has done for Celia and her husband. You see the care that has gone into it as Celia lays everything out on the table, from a “mile high meringue” to the fried chicken Minny taught her how to make. “That table of food gave Minny the strength she needed,” the narration explains. “She took her babies out from under Leroy and never went back.”
AP Photo/Disney DreamWorks II, Dale Robinette
19/20 Five Easy Pieces
Robert Dupea (Jack Nicholson) just wants some toast to go with his omelette, but the waitress is stubbornly sticking to the diner’s “no substitutions” rule. “I’ll make it as easy for you as I can,” goes the famous order. “I’d like an omelette, plain, and a chicken salad sandwich on wheat toast. No mayonnaise, no butter, no lettuce… and hold the chicken.”
Columbia Pictures
20/20 Big Night
It was a scene that helped propel a revolution in American dining. Il Timpano, a dish inspired by the notoriously tricky-to-make Italian meal, is the star of a moment in Big Night where chef brothers Primo (Tony Shalhoub) and Secondo (Stanley Tucci) prepares it as the centrepiece for a feast attended by their rival, Pascal. “Goddamit, I should kill you,” he screams, throwing his fork down after tasting Il Timpano. “This is so f***ing good, I should kill you.”
The National Farmers’ Union told the same inquiry that “UK producers are happy producing to the high standards they currently produce to and would like to continue to do that”.
The organisation says trade agreements shouldn’t allow the import of food that would be illegal to produce in the UK and that it wants an independent commission set up to review trade agreements.
Asked whether the promise to keep chlorinated chicken off UK plates remained, the prime minister’s official spokesperson would only say: “The position is that the UK will decide how we set and maintain our own standards and regulations and we have been clear that we will not compromise on our high standards of food safety and animal welfare.
“The UK’s food regulators will continue to provide independent advice to ensure that all food imports comply with those high safety standards.”
A government spokesperson said: “The UK is renowned for its high environmental, food safety and animal welfare standards. We have been clear that in all of our trade negotiations – including with the US in our first round of negotiations – that we will not undermine our high domestic environmental protection, animal welfare and food safety standards by ensuring in any agreement British farmers are always able to compete.”
