Kate Quilton:                      00:03                     As President Trump touches down in the UK, talk of a post-Brexit trade deal with the US is hotting up.

Donald Trump:                  00:10                     The highest level of special. Am I allowed to go higher than that? I'm not sure. But it's the highest level of special.

Theresa May:                     00:17                     We will pursue an ambitious US-UK free trade agreement.

Kate Quilton:                      00:21                     And one of the most controversial items on the menu is whether we will have to accept American chemically-washed chicken.

Protesters:                         00:28                     No trade deal with Trump.

Kate Quilton:                      00:30                     It's been banned in the EU for 22 years, but now the US have made it one of their top priorities for a trade deal with the UK.

Protesters:                         00:39                     No trade deal with Trump.

Kate Quilton:                      00:43                     Tonight, for the first time, Dispatches goes undercover in a major US processing plant to reveal the worrying truth about American chicken.

Ron Spellman:                   00:52                     May appear to be a comparatively innocent and harmless practise. It isn't. It's dangerous.

Kate Quilton:                      00:59                     We’ll reveal shocking hygiene practises and dangerous working conditions.

Debbie B.:                           01:05                     They sort of think of their workers as expendable, and it's very exploitive.

Kate Quilton:                      01:10                     And as US politicians insist on agriculture being part of any future trade deal, Dispatches investigates the American food that could be coming to your plate soon.

Kate Quilton:                      01:31                     I've come to the USA, where intensive farming means that chicken is around a fifth cheaper than in the UK. Chicken is big business here. They produce a phenomenal amount of chicken, more than anyone else on the planet. In the states, they slaughter nine billion chickens a year.

Kate Quilton:                      01:53                     But American chicken has been banned in the European Union for over 20 years. It costs the US economy up to an estimated $300 million a year in potential revenues.

Kate Quilton:                      02:06                     Americans use a controversial process known as chlorine washing, a catchall phrase for chemically washed chicken. It's used by many US poultry producers to try and reduce levels of harmful bacteria on poultry after it's been killed and before it's packed and sent to customers. The bird is washed either in chlorine or another chemical, like parasitic acid, that is supposed to kill bacteria on the meat, a process shown in this informative training video.

Kate Quilton:                      02:40                     I'm in Texas finding out what Americans think of chemically washed chicken.

Restaurant customer:    02:45                     Is it safe to eat? I eat it almost every day. Yes, ma'am. I've been here a long time.

Kate Quilton:                      02:53                     The US argues that chemical washing is perfectly safe, and that the EU is simply protecting the interests of European farmers by keeping out US competition. EU scientists say that chlorine and other chemicals themselves aren't dangerous for consumers, but they're not convinced that there is enough evidence that chemicals remove harmful bacteria effectively.

Kate Quilton:                      03:16                     They are also concerned that an over reliance on chemicals could lead to a lowering of food hygiene standards elsewhere in the supply chain.

Kate Quilton:                      03:24                     So, Billy, you sell a lot of chicken?

Billy:                                       03:26                     We do. We do.

Kate Quilton:                      03:28                     What do you think of your chicken?

Billy:                                       03:29                     Number one, everything's good.

Kate Quilton:                      03:32                     The EU doesn't allow producers to wash chicken in chemicals. Instead, they've put strict rules earlier in the chain that they say helps prevent bacteria infecting and spreading. These steps include strict flop densities and limits on transport time for birds, regulations that aren't in place in America.

Kate Quilton:                      03:52                     Oh, my word. Oh, well, look at this. Cheers.

Billy:                                       03:56                     Dip it. Dip it. Dip it.

Kate Quilton:                      03:56                     Dip it?

Billy:                                       03:56                     Dip it in the gravy, yes.

Kate Quilton:                      03:57                     Dip it in the gravy.

Billy:                                       03:59                     Yes. Made from cream and flour, black pepper, salt.

Kate Quilton:                      04:10                     Wow-ee. That's very tender chicken. Incredibly moist.

Billy:                                       04:16                     That's the way chicken is supposed to taste.

Kate Quilton:                      04:19                     Do you think there's anything wrong with US chicken, Billy?

Billy:                                       04:21                     Not a thing. Superior quality and flavour.

Kate Quilton:                      04:29                     Chemical washing might not affect the taste, but it's a cost effective way of producing large volumes of chicken on a more industrial scale, as it means that you as producers don't have to follow the same initial steps in the supply chain put in place by the EU. And the sheer scale and pace of production has led to some serious concerns about food hygiene and worker safety at US poultry plants.

Kate Quilton:                      04:56                     We are surrounded by chicken farms in this area.

Kate Quilton:                      05:01                     I've come to Centre, a small Texas town with a huge chicken plant.

Kate Quilton:                      05:08                     There we go. That is it. That is the chicken processing plant.

Kate Quilton:                      05:15                     It's one of more than 50 sites in the US operated by America's biggest poultry producer, Tyson Foods.

Kate Quilton:                      05:24                     It's absolutely huge.

Kate Quilton:                      05:27                     Tyson Foods produce one in five of all beef, pork and chicken products in the US. Tyson Foods produce a phenomenal amount of chicken. In just a year, they have in the region of nine billion pounds worth of sales, and that's just chicken. These plants have very, very busy.

Kate Quilton:                      05:51                     This plant has a history of safety problems, and has been fined for a number of serious violations. So we recruited an undercover reporter to apply for a general labour job at the plant to better understand what conditions were like inside the factory.

Kate Quilton:                      06:09                     After a week of training, she was sent to work in the meat packing part of the plant. This is at the end of the processing, after the live birds have been killed, cut up, and washed and chemicals to remove harmful bacteria.

Kate Quilton:                      06:25                     Tyson don't use chlorine to wash their chicken. They use other chemicals also banned by the EU. Her job was to pack the chicken ready to go to customers, a part of the plant where hygiene is absolutely crucial. Poultry processes in both the US and the UK are required to put steps in place to reduce the risk of cross-contamination, and make sure workers stick to them. Our undercover reporter filmed potential hygiene concerns around the factory floor including chicken pieces caught in machinery, chicken pieces and innards covering the floor, flooded floor areas, and water leaking from machinery.

Undercover reporter:    07:10     The hygiene in the plant, it was just really kind of a shocker.

Kate Quilton:                      07:16                     All of these increase the risk of cross-contamination, and appear to go against regulations that the plants must be kept clean.

Undercover reporter:    07:25                     Well, when we first went in for training, we were given instructional video on what the conditions were supposed to be like. The more I worked in the plant, the more I realised those standards weren't exactly being met. On several occasions, I saw supervisors touching chicken with bare hands.

Kate Quilton:                      07:42                     Our undercover reporter was expected to sort and pack huge volumes of chicken.

Undercover reporter:    07:48                     We're processing so much chicken, it was just impossible to keep up with. Just enormous piles of raw chicken.

Kate Quilton:                      07:57                     We showed the footage to Ron Spellman, a former meat inspector and current Assistant Secretary General of the European Food and Meat Inspectors Association.

Kate Quilton:                      08:06                     Would you ever see anything like this in the UK?

Ron Spellman:                   08:09                     No, I don't think so. I can't ever remember seeing production like this in in a UK plant. Normally, it's more spread out on the line, and the packers have got the time to get it into the boxes quickly, and then get it away.

Kate Quilton:                      08:25                     What is the big issue with cross-contamination if meat is piled up like that?

Ron Spellman:                   08:29                     Some of that poultry will be carrying campylobacter without a doubt and some salmonella. The more contact they have with other bits of meat, the more contamination will spread.

Kate Quilton:                      08:44                     Salmonella and campylobacter are common types of bacteria found on poultry which can cause food poisoning. If the chicken isn't cooked properly, or if bacteria spreads due to contamination, salmonella and campylobacter can make you very ill. Estimates of food borne illness suggests US rates up to 10 times higher than in the UK. The US records hundreds of deaths a year due to salmonella. The latest Public Health England statistics record zero deaths.

Ron Spellman:                   09:16                     This practise of stacking the boxes up like that with the bottom of the box on the chicken that's underneath may appear to be a comparatively innocent and harmless practise, isn't as dangerous. You're contaminating the bottom of the box as well, so when that sealed over at the top, you're going to have bits of chicken and whatever is on the chicken is going to be on the bottom of the box.

Kate Quilton:                      09:49                     In the UK, the law is clear that wrapping and packaging operations must be done in a way that avoids spreading dangerous bacteria.

Ron Spellman:                   09:57                     And the floor. Look at the broken areas of the floor. Now you're going to get loads of bacteria breeding in that broken area. And the drain. What on earth is going on with the drain?

Kate Quilton:                      10:11                     Throughout the factory, our reporter found chicken blocking up drains and water pooling around work areas. Our expert told us that with workers walking through these areas, this increases the risk of bacteria in the dirty water splashing onto the product. Something that would be unacceptable in a UK factory.

Ron Spellman:                   10:34                     Look at all the muck, at all the bits of chicken and whatnot in that drain. And they've obviously got a problem with their drains, and who is it who's got their hands down there? You wouldn't like to think that person is then going to start packing chicken.

Undercover reporter:    10:49                     Did you have to go over and get new gloves?

Plant worker:                     10:54                     No, I just washed my hands.

Ron Spellman:                   10:59                     Oh, well, that's just disgraceful. And whether they wash their gloves, their hands with their gloves on or not, it just shouldn't happen.

Kate Quilton:                      11:08                     And our reporter found more examples of Tyson not following their own rules to keep the plant clean and minimise the risk of bacteria spreading around the factory.

Undercover reporter:    11:19                     They're supposed to walk around every five minutes to pick up chicken so nothing stays on the floor any longer than it has to. But really I saw them much fewer than that. Maybe once or twice every four hours.

Kate Quilton:                      11:33                     And some of the attempts we saw to clean up could make the risk of cross-contamination worse.

Ron Spellman:                   11:40                     Now we've got someone with a drop hose, with the hose that's spraying the floor while there was still product about here. Now you're going to spray those bits of meat and an aerosol of that bacteria up into the air while you're still packing. That should not be going on while they're packing.

Kate Quilton:                      12:02                     So that is potentially a campylobacter sprinkler.

Ron Spellman:                   12:05                     Yeah, definitely.

Kate Quilton:                      12:11                     At the end of one shift, our undercover reporter was called to a staff meeting after a shocking accident at the plant.

Supervisor:                         12:20                     On Monday last week, we had an issue with the amputation with an employee, and this week on Monday, we had an issue with glass in the product. We're seeing a trend. What it is that we're seeing a trend of adulterated product. If in the event you are witnessing anyone doing it, if you see anyone doing it, please report it because adulterating product with something that's considered a foreign material, that's a federal offence, okay?

Kate Quilton:                      12:57                     Not only was glass found in the chicken, the amputation the supervisor referred to was a worker who lost three fingers after being asked to operate a machine they hadn't been trained to use. The incident was reported to the Occupational Safety and Health Administration for investigation. A 2017 study found that Tyson Foods reported 70 severe injuries to its workers over a 21 month period, and at this very plant, there are two other recent incidents of workers losing fingers.

Kate Quilton:                      13:29                     Ron, what do you make of this footage?

Ron Spellman:                   13:33                     I'm very surprised. Very surprised. I didn't imagine that they work to such low standards in the US, and such a big factory. It's not as if it's a small plant. From what we've seen, the EU are right that they would appear that the US are working to much lower standards than we've got in Britain and in the EU.

Kate Quilton:                      13:56                     Do you think that these are acceptable standards for British consumers?

Ron Spellman:                   14:00                     Definitely not. No, definitely not. This would be a really, really big step backwards for us.

Kate Quilton:                      14:12                     Our investigation has uncovered some serious issues inside America's biggest poultry processor with not just hygiene concerns but also apparent workplace violations. And safety concerns aren't confined to Tyson Foods. US poultry processes across the industry reported over 270 series injuries to workers between 2016 and 2018. And during our filming, news broke that Tyson were forced to recall over 5000 tonnes of chicken strips due to a separate incident where bits of metal were found in the meat.

Kate Quilton:                      14:55                     If you look at this year alone, there was a recall in January. There was a recall in March. There's a recall in May. There's a recall here, which is an extension of the recall in March, and they're calling back 12 million pounds of chicken. What good does a recall do? How much of this chicken do they actually get back?

Kate Quilton:                      15:17                     Tyson Foods told us that they could not respond in detail without seeing the footage, but that "our plants only operate in the continuous presence of US government inspectors who, along with our own food safety staff, ensure we're producing good food that's safe to eat. Tyson Foods cares deeply about the safety of our employees and consumers. We have a robust quality and safety programme that includes training for new employees, continuous safety education, and daily meetings at our facilities to keep safety top of mind. Employees are encouraged to report any workplace safety concerns to their supervisor, a member of management, or our compliance and ethics hotline."

Kate Quilton:                      16:00                     Coming up, we investigate the shocking level of worker injuries in American food production.

Debbie B.:                           16:06                     The poultry industry has some of the highest numbers of amputations of any industry in the country.

Kate Quilton:                      16:13                     And ask if American chicken is coming to our plate soon.

Kate Quilton:                      17:08                     Dispatches has been undercover in America's largest poultry producer revealing worrying hygiene concerns.

Undercover reporter:    17:17                     The hygiene in the plant, it was just really kind of a shocker.

Kate Quilton:                      17:23                     I've come to Southampton, where scientists have conducted a ground-breaking study on the effectiveness of chlorine washing.

Collum Highmore:            17:30                     What I'm doing here is putting the salmonella onto the chicken.

Kate Quilton:                      17:35                     All chemical washing of meat is banned in the EU, not just chlorine. Part of the reason for the ongoing ban is that scientists from the EU and the World Health Organisation both concluded that there isn't enough evidence that washing chicken with chlorine or other chemicals works effectively in removing harmful bacteria.

Collum Highmore:            17:55                     So several studies have questioned the efficacy of washing fresh produce with chlorine, and we wanted to look a bit deeper to see how much it was actually killing bacteria.

Kate Quilton:                      18:06                     The team initially focused their research on spinach, as chlorine is commonly used in the UK to what fresh produce, like salad leaves and vegetables.

Collum Highmore:            18:15                     We have looked at spinach quite thoroughly, and we've done a few initial experiments with chicken. So what we found was that when you wash your salmonella with your chicken or spinach in chlorine, we found that nothing seems to grow on the Agar plates. However, when you look under the microscope, you find that about 10% of the salmonella is all still alive.

Kate Quilton:                      18:38                     Some people might say if chlorine kills 90% of pathogens, that's only a good thing.

Bill Keevil:                           18:44                     10% survivors doesn't sound a lot, but salmonella, you don't need that many bacteria to form an infectious dose. Even 10% survivors is a risk factor for human infection.

Kate Quilton:                      18:59                     And their study has raised another concern about the chlorine washing process.

Bill Keevil:                           19:03                     If you chlorinate, ironically, then you will miss detecting these dangerous bacteria using the routine tests. If they're not washed in chlorine, you've got a better chance of finding them, and see if there's a problem in the food chain.

Kate Quilton:                      19:20                     What does this all mean for consumers?

Bill Keevil:                           19:22                     Our work is showing in fact you haven't killed them. They go into a dormant state which is still infective, so we're getting a false sense of security.

Kate Quilton:                      19:35                     It's not just about food safety. The dangerous working conditions we found undercover confirms there are other reasons to be concerned about American food. A post-Brexit trade deal could lead to a lowering of standards for workers and animals. In the US, unlike Britain, there are currently no federal regulations to control or safeguard the welfare of poultry used in agriculture, though some states have their own rules.

Kate Quilton:                      20:07                     Chicken in the US is around a fifth cheaper, so how would British producers compete on price without adopting American industrial methods?

Kate Quilton:                      20:16                     Debbie.

Debbie B.:                           20:17                     Hi, nice to meet you here.

Kate Quilton:                      20:19                     You, too.

Debbie B.:                           20:19                     Come on down to my office.

Kate Quilton:                      20:21                     I've come to Washington DC to meet Debbie Berkowitz who campaigns to improve worker safety in the US. Debbie is the former chief of staff of OSHA, America's health and safety regulator.

Debbie B.:                           20:35                     The poultry industry has some of the highest numbers of amputations of any industry in the country. In fact, the Occupational Safety and Health Administration's own research staff were so alarmed about it that they wrote a paper.

Kate Quilton:                      20:51                     A 2017 study found there were over 50 amputations a year in the US poultry industry across the 30 states that record data, compared to four in the UK last year, showing a high amputation rate per worker.

Debbie B.:                           21:06                     There were some things that were very shocking when I was at OSHA that we found that we didn't think really existed in this day and age. And that is we found in the poultry industry that they were not giving workers bathroom breaks when they needed to go to the bathroom, and that's just a very fundamental right. It was a report about three years ago where they interviewed all these workers and found out that workers did not want to have to soil themselves, so they wore diapers on the line.

Kate Quilton:                      21:36                     Nappies? It beggars belief.

Debbie B.:                           21:37                     Right. And I think we were all stunned. They know they can get as much out of a worker as they can. They think of their workers as expendable and it's very exploitive.

Kate Quilton:                      21:51                     Whilst we found no evidence that workers at Tyson or elsewhere are currently wearing nappies, our undercover reporter was told by a colleague that she had been refused a bathroom break, and there is concern in the US that standards might get even worse.

Debbie B.:                           22:06                     The current government is allowing plans to even speed up their lines. So, in one plan, for example, in Ohio, companies, what they produced in six days they're now doing in five with the same amount of workers so that workers are now working much harder.

Kate Quilton:                      22:23                     The US government recently introduced new rules that will allow some poultry processing plants to increase their line speeds. President Trump has received substantial backing from the agriculture industry since running for president.

Donald Trump:                  22:37                     I love the American farmer more than anybody. They have backed me. I love the American farmer.

Debbie B.:                           22:43                     The food industry is an enormous lobby. They have a lot of political power. Under the Trump administration, they are basically just turned the agency over to the industry and doing whatever the industry wants.

Kate Quilton:                      22:58                     The US government's Food Safety and Inspection Service told us that it successfully carries out its mission to protect public health by strictly enforcing safeguards. "FSIS is responsible for conducting inspections of each animal, carcass and parts, setting appropriate food safety standards, verifying those safety standards through inspection, and maintaining a strong enforcement programme. The US views anti-microbial washes as an important tool in protecting public health and reducing foodborne illnesses. A variety of such washes have been proven effective at reducing salmonella and campylobacter in meat. Producers use all tools available to ensure the best food safety outcomes for consumers."

Kate Quilton:                      23:42                     "Unfounded allegations from former OSHA are not credible contributions to this dialogue."

Kate Quilton:                      23:50                     So just how likely is it that American chicken will be coming to British plates soon? Environment Secretary Michael Gove has repeatedly said there won't be a lowering of British food standards after Brexit.

Michael Gove:                   24:02                     And we will enter into trade or any other agreements that undercut or undermine the high standards on which British agriculture's reputation so importantly depends.

Kate Quilton:                      24:15                     But given the importance of agriculture to the US, would it even be possible for the UK to take American produce off the table in any potential trade deal? Dr Thomas Wright works for a Washington based think tank who have been closely monitoring President Trump's approach to Brexit.

Thomas Wright:                24:33                     President Trump believes that the worse the relationship between the UK and the EU, the more opportunity there is for the United States. He has an effective predatory policy towards Brexit.

Kate Quilton:                      24:46                     The trade deal would include a range of industries, but top of the priority list is agriculture. How important is agriculture to Trump?

Thomas Wright:                24:55                     I think it's incredibly important. He sees himself as the champion of the farmers, and the US has always tried to get agriculture onto the agenda in trade talks with the EU. They think they can at tell London that it's a take it or leave it thing. If they want to have a deal, then they have to accept the US position on agriculture.

Kate Quilton:                      25:20                     With millions spent on lobbying by the US poultry industry, there's no sign of American chicken slipping down the trade priority list.

Kate Quilton:                      25:30                     The debate around chlorinated chicken is about much more than just chicken. It's about food standards. It's about workers' rights. It's about animal welfare, and I suppose after Brexit, we have to ask ourselves, do we want high standards or do we want cheaper food?