Putin Says Chlorine in Chickens Unsafe
Getting another American chicken into Russia just got harder.
Prime Minister Vladimir Putin weighed into the Russian ban on U.S. chicken imports.
"We haven't seen any readiness to meet Russian standards on the part of some of our partners, mainly the companies from the United States," Putin said. "If our foreign suppliers are unable or reluctant to meet our security requirements, we will use other sources."
The Russians banned chickens from countries using chlorine in poultry processing beginning Jan. 1 2010. Putin made the Americans the odd man out saying that Russia was merely joining the European Union in banning, for food safety reasons, chickens from chlorine-using counties.
"One shouldn't look for political background in this case, God forbid," said Russia's former President and one-time KGB agent. "No political background here!"
Putin attended a meeting on Russian poultry production where it was announced that the country would import a total of 780,000 metric tons of poultry in 2010, and then continue to reduce imports in the years ahead.
The American quota would be 600,000 metric tons for 2010, down 20 percent from 2009. Since the ban, however, prices for American poultry in Russia are up about 20 percent.
Putin wants Russia to be poultry self-sufficient by 2015.
Since Russia raised the possibility of banning U.S. chickens for chlorine use in mid 2008, the USA Poultry & Egg Export Council has tried to persuade officials in Moscow by sharing scientific studies. The poultry export market to Russia was valued at $825 million in 2008.
"The U.S. industry is committed to providing safe and healthful products to consumers in the United States as well as those in over 130 countries around the world, including Russia," the USA Poultry and Egg Council said in a letter to Russian officials in late 2009,
The letter said the U.S. Department of Agriculture's Food Safety and Inspection Service (FSIS) recommends the "use of hypochlorus (i.e. active chlorine) solutions as an effective antimicrobial.
"Based on a substantial body of scientific studies, FSIS' best practices recommendations is to use 20-50 ppm of free available chlorine in immersion chilling systems."
Before the prime minister got involved in the issue, many on the American side were optimistic about getting American chickens back into Russia. Now, however, Putin's response to American arguments about the safety and science behind chlorine can pretty much be summer up in one word: "Nyet."
Prime Minister Vladimir Putin weighed into the Russian ban on U.S. chicken imports.
"We haven't seen any readiness to meet Russian standards on the part of some of our partners, mainly the companies from the United States," Putin said. "If our foreign suppliers are unable or reluctant to meet our security requirements, we will use other sources."
The Russians banned chickens from countries using chlorine in poultry processing beginning Jan. 1 2010. Putin made the Americans the odd man out saying that Russia was merely joining the European Union in banning, for food safety reasons, chickens from chlorine-using counties.
"One shouldn't look for political background in this case, God forbid," said Russia's former President and one-time KGB agent. "No political background here!"
Putin attended a meeting on Russian poultry production where it was announced that the country would import a total of 780,000 metric tons of poultry in 2010, and then continue to reduce imports in the years ahead.
The American quota would be 600,000 metric tons for 2010, down 20 percent from 2009. Since the ban, however, prices for American poultry in Russia are up about 20 percent.
Putin wants Russia to be poultry self-sufficient by 2015.
Since Russia raised the possibility of banning U.S. chickens for chlorine use in mid 2008, the USA Poultry & Egg Export Council has tried to persuade officials in Moscow by sharing scientific studies. The poultry export market to Russia was valued at $825 million in 2008.
"The U.S. industry is committed to providing safe and healthful products to consumers in the United States as well as those in over 130 countries around the world, including Russia," the USA Poultry and Egg Council said in a letter to Russian officials in late 2009,
The letter said the U.S. Department of Agriculture's Food Safety and Inspection Service (FSIS) recommends the "use of hypochlorus (i.e. active chlorine) solutions as an effective antimicrobial.
"Based on a substantial body of scientific studies, FSIS' best practices recommendations is to use 20-50 ppm of free available chlorine in immersion chilling systems."
Before the prime minister got involved in the issue, many on the American side were optimistic about getting American chickens back into Russia. Now, however, Putin's response to American arguments about the safety and science behind chlorine can pretty much be summer up in one word: "Nyet."
Discuss
01/16/2010
9:22AM
Every country must maintain the right to author its own purchase specifications for individual products. Even if America uses chlorine in poultry processing, Russia and all other countries must maintain the sovereignty to accept or reject chlorine. We cannot mandate our domestic style of food processing upon any other country. Nor can China mandate that we accept their products which are laced with melamine or any other number of "additives", which America lacks the fortitude to scrutinize for safety at our borders.
This reveals a problem with free trade, if such trade mandates that the entire globe complies with dumbed-down requirements to which some nations object. The customer is always right, even though some customers embrace "scientific justifications" which may not be in full agreement with our definitions.
On February 25, 2006, USDA/FSIS held a conference in Atlanta, Georgia entitled "Advances in Post-Harvest Interventions To Reduce Salmonella in Poultry". At that time, the domestic incidence of Salmonella in chicken carcasses was around 17 percent. And, the agency then announced it would begin posting the percentages by establishment number. The industry responded by implementing additional salmonella intervention steps, which has reduced the incidence down to around 7 percent. I'm not sure of the exact percentages; however, remarkable progress has been made.
The point to make here is that a sizeable percentage of poultry carcasses produced today still carry a Salmonella load on them. And, these same poultry carcasses have been immersed in a liquid which has chlorine in it. (Some refer to the liquid as a pathogen bath. I agree). The statistics reveal that chlorine, although helpful, fails in around 7 percent of poultry carcasses. Frankly, we cannot expect Russia or any other country to acquiesce to our demand to purchase our poultry which has a 7% or higher incidence of pathogens. If other countries demand air-chilled carcasses, although they will cost more per lb, well, America has no business demanding that our foreign trading partners purchase our cheap Salmonella.
In the early 90's, following the collapse of Russia and the Berlin Wall, America developed a haughty hegemony in which we perceived that we were the unchallenged global military, economic, and political power. Little do we realize now, 20 years later, how close we are to becoming a third world country, as we depend on our thinly-spread military to enforce our supremacy, and our marginalized debt-ridden economy to maintain currency value. USDA had best depend on complying with other countries' purchase specifications than to rely on economic saber-rattling, which is developing a tinny sound. John Munsell
01/16/2010
5:24PM
Holy crap! Does it take the scumball Putin to point out that the chicken we eat in the U.S. is crap? Since when is ammonia a food? Major yuck. I don't like Putin at all, but he's right on the chicken front.
01/18/2010
2:58PM
No wonder so many people have cancer in the US. Ever pick up a cucumber or tomato at the grocery store? Who the heck want to eat wax? They are so shiny and slick, they look like fake vegetables! The US is way behind the EU when it comes to upgrading the standards for food and processing methods.
01/18/2010
3:02PM
I would hope that this would bring more awareness to environmental halogen overload. Chlorine, bromine, and fluorine ions and salts have invaded the food supply and leach iodine from the thyroid. The US is sitting on a health time-bomb of sub-clinical and clinical thyroid dysfunction.
It's also a good argument for local food.