Kemi Badenoch has said she would not eat chlorine-washed chicken imported from the US and said that UK food standards must not be diluted to get a trade deal with the US.
The Tory leader was speaking amid speculation in The Daily Telegraph that a trade deal with Britain can be finalised within three weeks.
US President Donald Trump has repeatedly raised the concerns that the European Union will not allow US farmed goods to be imported, raising the possibility that food might be part of any deal.
UK trading standards also mean that some US food, such as chicken washed in chlorine and hormone-injected beef, cannot be imported to the UK.
Kemi Badenoch says she 'wouldn't eat chlorinated chicken'
GB News
Asked by GB News Political Editor Christopher Hope if she would eat chlorine-washed chicken, Badenoch said: "No, I wouldn't eat it.
"But we have standards in this country that are in law. We didn't change our laws for any other trade deals.
"If we change the law for the US, we'd have to change it for every other trade deal which we signed. So I do no think that that's something that Keir Starmer should be doing."
She added: "A good trade deal is one that brings mutual benefits to both countries.
"There are many areas that we can do this around financial services, legal services, steel for example, let's start working in the areas that are going to build national resilience and security."
