Donald Trump’s Agriculture Secretary appeared to soften her stance on getting the UK to accept chlorine-washed chicken and hormone-treated beef. Brooke Rollins last week said US agriculture was being treated “unfairly” by countries, such as the UK, and that she wanted the UK to accept all meat from the US.

Speaking at a press conference in London on Tuesday, she told reporters the US market is beginning to shift away from hormone-treated beef, and that chlorine-washed chicken has almost entirely been removed from the US supply chain. She said: “Our agriculture producers, our cattle producers etc, obviously are constantly watching what the markets look like, and if the markets are calling for a specific type, or they have more opportunity somewhere, then I think that we potentially do see some movement in the market.”

When pressed on whether she would urge the UK to accept chlorinated chicken in lieu of lower tariffs on other products, Ms Rollins said: “Only about 5% of our chicken in America is actually treated that way, with the chlorine. So we have moved, over the last decade, completely away from the ‘chlorine chicken’. I think that’s really important to dispel, and I’m very grateful to do that."

Chlorinated chicken is banned in both the UK and the EU because of animal welfare and its potential to mask poor hygiene standards.

Concerns surrounding hormone-treated beef involve potential human health risks and animal welfare issues.

The US and UK agreed a trade deal last Thursday which included new quotas on beef.

But the UK government has insisted hormone-treated beef and chlorinated chicken will remain illegal.

Ms Rollins said: “One thing I’ve taken from a lot of the discussions yesterday [when she met Environment Secretary] and today is that the more our two countries, and those who are aligned with our values, are regulatory aligned, meaning that we don’t have all these different systems and structures – I think that that is going to go a tremendously long way to supporting the agriculture industry.”

Pork, poultry, seafood and rice are at the top of the list for further negotiations despite not being included in last week’s US-UK trade deal.