International Trade Secretary Liz Truss faces challenge to eat a ‘set menu’ of ‘Frankenfood’

Liz Truss has been challenged to eat a ‘set menu’ of cheap American food which her Cabinet critics fear will flood Britain under the terms of a US trade deal she is trying to strike.

The International Trade Secretary, who has been accused of risking the future of our farmers by allowing lower-quality so-called ‘Frankenfood’ into the UK – such as chlorinated chicken and hormone-treated beef – was presented with the foodstuffs by Liberal Democrat leadership contender Layla Moran.

Ms Moran, who says that she opposes the idea of letting America ‘rewrite Britain’s rulebook’, suggested Ms Truss could start her ‘Trumpian feast’ with a platter of meat injected with antibiotics, followed by a main course of either hormone-filled beef or chlorine-washed chicken, genetically modified potatoes and a Yorkshire pudding made with milk full of bovine hormones.

Liz Truss has been challenged to eat a ‘set menu’ of cheap American food which her Cabinet critics fear will flood Britain under the terms of a US trade deal she is trying to strike

Ms Truss could then finish with a genetically modified fruit platter and coffee made with milk polluted with pesticides, she added.

The light-hearted offer by Ms Moran belies an increasingly bitter Cabinet battle over the trade deal, with Ms Truss ranged against what her allies call the ‘protectionists’, such as Environment Secretary George Eustice.

The Mail on Sunday, which launched its Save Our Family Farms campaign three weeks ago, reported last week that Boris Johnson had sided with Mr Eustice by ruling that US foods must be subject to high import tariffs, which would price them out of the UK market.

Ms Truss, a staunch free-marketeer, argued that the duties should be reduced to nothing within a decade.

US negotiators have made clear that opening the door to American agricultural exports is their primary demand in the talks.

The International Trade Secretary, who has been accused of risking the future of our farmers by allowing lower-quality so-called 'Frankenfood' into the UK – such as chlorinated chicken and hormone-treated beef – was presented with the foodstuffs by Liberal Democrat leadership contender Layla Moran

The International Trade Secretary, who has been accused of risking the future of our farmers by allowing lower-quality so-called ‘Frankenfood’ into the UK – such as chlorinated chicken and hormone-treated beef – was presented with the foodstuffs by Liberal Democrat leadership contender Layla Moran

Ms Moran, who says that she opposes the idea of letting America 'rewrite Britain's rulebook', suggested Ms Truss could start her 'Trumpian feast' with a platter of meat injected with antibiotics, followed by a main course of either hormone-filled beef or chlorine-washed chicken, genetically modified potatoes and a Yorkshire pudding made with milk full of bovine hormones

Ms Moran, who says that she opposes the idea of letting America ‘rewrite Britain’s rulebook’, suggested Ms Truss could start her ‘Trumpian feast’ with a platter of meat injected with antibiotics, followed by a main course of either hormone-filled beef or chlorine-washed chicken, genetically modified potatoes and a Yorkshire pudding made with milk full of bovine hormones 

Ms Moran said last night: ‘It’s no surprise that people are concerned about US foods entering our supermarkets.

‘We’re used to world-leading British standards, and I take pride in eating high-quality food grown by our farmers. The Government must at the very least prove this food is safe before forcing it on the public and selling British farmers down the river.

‘I am challenging Liz Truss and her Cabinet colleagues to eat a post-Brexit banquet of sub-standard US foods, a Trumpian feast ranging from chlorinated chicken to hormone-treated beef.’

It is understood that Ms Truss believes the claims are ‘ludicrous scaremongering’ on the grounds that she had never argued for lower import standards and the Government had committed to transferring all existing EU food safety provisions on to the UK statute book.

Nearly one million sign the Mail On Sunday’s petition calling on the Government to protect British food standards from inferior foreign imports  

By Michael Powell for the Mail On Sunday

Almost one million people have now signed a petition calling on the Government to protect British food standards from inferior foreign imports such as chlorine-washed chicken.

The Mail on Sunday’s campaign to keep controversial US food products off our supermarket shelves has given fresh impetus to the plea by the National Farmers’ Union.

Minette Batters, president of the NFU, said: ‘I’m absolutely overwhelmed by the response. It shows the strength of feeling that people have about what is going in to their fridges and ovens.

‘As well as the petition, we are aware of 80,000 emails which have been sent to MPs. It shows it is not just farmers who are worried about this trade deal, it’s people from all walks of life who care about their food, protecting the countryside and standing up for rural Britain.’

Almost one million people have now signed a petition calling on the Government to protect British food standards from inferior foreign imports such as chlorine-washed chicken

Almost one million people have now signed a petition calling on the Government to protect British food standards from inferior foreign imports such as chlorine-washed chicken

The petition demands that the Government ‘ensure that all food eaten in the UK – whether in our homes, schools, hospitals, restaurants or from shops – is produced in a way that matches the high standards of production expected of UK farmers’.

Meanwhile, the boss of the Food Standards Agency (FSA) has issued a thinly veiled warning to Ministers pushing for a US trade deal that she will not allow political pressure to reduce UK standards.

 In a letter to MPs, Heather Hancock said the independent regulator will be ‘putting the interests of the consumer first’ amid a Cabinet row over whether to allow chlorine-washed chicken and hormone-fed beef to be imported from the US.

Ms Hancock, who has headed the FSA since 2016, wrote: ‘As a non-ministerial government department and independent public body, the decisions we make on behalf of consumers are and will continue to be based purely on the latest science and evidence, and not on wider political or other pressures.’

She added: ‘We have developed a new UK process for authorising regulated products, such as additives for food and feed and novel foods. It is this risk analysis that would be applied to any consideration of the rules around chemical washes of meat, for example.’

However, Ms Hancock also wrote that the FSA’s post-Brexit decision-making process will consider animal welfare concerns.

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