PARIS, Dec. 5 (UPI) -- Europeans are finding a proposed trade deal with Americans unpalatable because they fear they'll be subjected to U.S. "Frankenfood."

If passed, the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP) would be a historic link between the U.S. and the European Union and a market merger of some 800 million consumers. Import duties would be slashed and things like food-safety standards modified to be more commerce friendly.


And that's what Europeans find hard to swallow. America allows far more chemicals and genetic modifications in food that are banned in Europe.

"Hormone-boosted beef. Chlorine-washed chicken. Genetically altered vegetables. This is what they want for us," French organic farmer Jean Cabaret tells the Washington Post. "In France, food is about pleasure, about taste. But in the United States, they put anything in their mouths. No, this must be stopped."

A European opposition group says it has collected more than one million signatures on a web petition against trade negotiations with the U.S.

Trade supporters have been taken aback by the opposition.

Europeans also fear that a pedal-to-the-metal American capitalism will storm through Europe, putting corporate interests above all.

French food writer Camille Labro warns that introducing mass-produced American food into French culture will be the "death of taste," perhaps in more ways than one.