Don't let Americans put hormones and pesticides in our dinner, warns Jamie Oliver as he launches latest food offensive
- TV chef opposes 'dangerous' trade deal between EU and U.S.
- Says Translantic Trade and Investment Partnership could lower standards
- Agreement could let in food additives the U.S. allow but which the EU bans
- Such substance include pig growth hormones and chicken feed with arsenic
Crusade: Oliver, pictured with a chicken, will campaign against a trade deal
Jamie Oliver is planning a campaign to stop British food standards being lowered to allow American food imports pumped full of pesticides and hormones into the UK.
The TV chef hopes to intervene to stop a trade agreement between the European United and U.S. aimed at removing trade barriers between member states.
Mr Oliver, 39, claims the 'dangerous' Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP) deal could undo 'decades of work' by getting round bans imposed by the EU on putting growth hormones and pesticides in meat.
The same restrictions do not exist in America - and at present if U.S. companies want to export food to the EU they must ensure it meets the higher standards.
Speaking to The Times, Mr Oliver said: '[The deal] has the capacity to be very negative to British public health and British companies and British farmers.
'We don't have hormones in our meat, that's banned. But not over there. We don't have hundreds of poisons and pesticides that have been proven to be carcinogenic. They do. Their laws, their set-up, their safety regulations are nowhere near ours.'
He said he has tried to lobby Hillary Clinton, the former U.S. Secretary of State, on the issue, but wasn't able to show her a video message he recorded on the subject.
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Attempts: Mr Oliver, 39, tried to put his points to Hillary Clinton when she visited the UK, but was unsuccessful
Fears: It has been claimed the deal could let in banned growth hormones which the U.S. allows (file photo)
Substances that the EU have banned but which are permitted in the U.S. include pig growth hormone ractopamine and milk hormone BST.
The agreement could also open the EU to chickens containing arsenic, poultry that has been chemically washed, and pesticides used on fruit and vegetables.
A report from the Center for Food Safety, a U.S. lobby group, raised fears that the negotiations will 'dismantle many food safety regulations that corporations view as impediments to trade and profitmaking' and criticised the 'shroud of secrecy' under which negotiations are being conducted.
Mr Oliver has previously launched food campaigns in the UK, notably on the standard of school dinners.
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