Perhaps the most iconic image of the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP) negotiations is the infamous chlorine chicken.

Derided as scaremongering and a myth by EU and US negotiators, but hoisted aloft by opponents to the EU-US trade deal – the chlorine-washed chicken has been ubiquitous.

Apparently Americans can’t get enough of poultry scrubbed raw with chlorine. Then again, some Europeans eat snails, Marmite and raw beef. But not at the same time, obviously.

The very fact that high-ranking officials on both sides of the Atlantic repeatedly refer to chlorine chicken speaks to the spotless poultry’s mysterious hold on the public imagination.

But no-one has actually seen a chlorine chicken anywhere in Europe – until last weekend.

Even the chlorine chicken had joined the #StopTTIP demo in Brussels! pic.twitter.com/WuOKHSbwya — Ariadna Rodrigo (@AriRodrigo) April 18, 2015

That’s right. A chlorine chicken protesting against TTIP in Brussels last Saturday, ahead of this week’s trade talks in Washington.

Still if Heard in Europe’s innards were being posthumously power-washed by chemicals, we’d probably protest as well.

Have YOU eaten chlorine chicken? What did it taste like? Chicken? Email us at heardineurope@euractiv.com and let us know.

First chicken photo courtesy of Ian Southwell and Flickr. Published under Creative Commons licence.

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Author : Heard in Europe