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The United States has far stricter labeling standards than the EU. That's why US products appear to have more ingredients, they are required to say what their ingredients are mad from, even on identical products.

Many things that are well known memes are completely false. Not everything in the EU is better regulated. Everyone always complains about chlorinated chicken, not realizing that <5% of US chicken is washed that way as chicken now uses vinegar washes, and those that did were at concentrations deemed safe by the FDA.

> The United States has far stricter labeling standards than the EU

Source for that? All I can find says EU have stricter labeling standards except for forum comments such as yours here.

Edit: > Many things that are well known memes are completely false

To me it looks like "USA shows more additives due to harsher labeling standards" is just a meme, everything I've seen says Europe has stricter requirements on what you need to say about additives. So USA having much more additives listed comes from American products having more additives in them, not everything is better in USA.

https://www.tilleydistribution.com/insights/food-regulations...

   The European approach to food additives is visible. The EFSA assigns a 3- or 4-digit code to every food additive, and that number must be included on food labels if it’s used in a product. The EFSA believes this system makes it easier for consumers to look up and memorize specific additives.

   In the US, those same additives are required to be printed out in full.
That's not stricter, it's just different names.
It is stricter.

https://www.daymarksafety.com/news/some-fundamental-differen...

   EU labels are not required to list as much information about nutrients in a product as compared to US food labels. Plus, they often omit such items as saturated fat, fiber, and sugar.
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> Everyone always complains about chlorinated chicken, not realizing that <5% of US chicken is washed that way as chicken now uses vinegar washes, and those that did were at concentrations deemed safe by the FDA.

So, the issue with chlorinated chicken washing is not that the chlorine is unsafe, as such. There are two concerns. The first is cross-contamination. The second is that there is some evidence that it is essentially a cheat; it defeats common tests for salmonella but does not actually reliably destroy the salmonella. So, if you allow chlorine washing, then you can pass the tests while not fixing supply chain problems.

Reference on most American chicken now being washed with _vinegar_? As far as I know that’s fairly uncontroversial ineffective.

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On the other hand, US tap water is absolutely drenched in chlorine. Awful stuff.
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I fear you have been vinegar brain washed. Like this talking point was dilled into you