Tesco CEO Dave Lewis has said the retailer “won’t give up our standards” as the grocer analyses how new trade deals the UK could strike post-Brexit might affect food standards in the country.
Speaking at the Financial Times Future of Retail conference today (18 September), Lewis said consumers had shown no interest in the UK lowering food standards to cut food prices after the country’s planned departure from the EU.
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“When people talk about let’s go back to genetically modified foods or chlorinated chicken, if you have that conversation with UK customers, then they reject it. As a retailer we will have to respect what people want,” Lewis said, as reported by the FT.
Supporters of Brexit argue the ability for the UK to strike trade deals independently will lower food prices in the country. Others are concerned an agreement with, say, the US may necessitate the UK having to accept imports of products such as chlorine-washed chicken.
The practice in parts of the US supply chain to wash poultry in chlorine has been held up by some UK food advocates as an example of the lower food standards in America that may have to be accepted in the event of a trade deal between the two countries.
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The controversy over the practice, banned by the EU, is less about the washing itself and more about whether its use indicates low hygiene standards elsewhere in the chain. US poultry industry professionals have defended the practice.
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By GlobalDataLast month, the head of the American Farm Bureau insisted the UK must accept US food standards in any trade deal, arguing fears over quality are not based on science.
Asked at the FT conference if Tesco would consider buying chicken from the US if the UK struck a trade deal after Brexit, Lewis said: “There is no US sourcing of chicken on my mind. Whatever the trade deals are we, like other retailers, will look at them, but what we won’t do is give up our standards as we look at those opportunities.”
