Is diseased meat entering the UK?

Illegal and potentially unsafe meat is making its way into the UK, according to reports.

Meat entering the UK without an export health certificate (EHC) does not meet the country’s required traceability standards, and could be diseased and pose a high risk to human health.

Poor checks at the border was the gateway to potentially unsafe meat making it into the UK, head of the Dover Port Health Authority Lucy Manzano told the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (EFRA) Select Committee, after a significant amount of illegal meat was seized at the border.

However, the UK Government stated it would not waver in its duty to support biosecurity to ensure the territory’s safe food supply.

“We are also unequivocal that importing illegal meat products is unacceptable and suspected products are routinely checked at the border to ensure they don’t reach our shores,” a Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (DEFRA) spokesperson said.

Since April 2024, physical border checks for high-risk goods have taken place under the post-Brexit Border Target Operating Model (BTOM), which replaces the EU regulations.

What is illegal meat?To be legal, an export health certificate (EHC) must be certified by a veterinarian at the country of export. Illegal meat is meat which has not been certified in this way, meaning there is no tracability of the meat and its safety can’t be confirmed. 

How does the BTOM regulate import checks? The BTOM covers imports to the island of Great Britain (rather than the UK, which includes Northern Ireland). This means that goods coming from the EU into Great Britain must be checked under its auspices.

Under the BTOM, each product is classified either high, medium or low risk. Chilled and frozen meat products are classified as medium risk, and meat that can be stored at ambient temperatures (e.g. cured meat) is classified low risk.

Under the BTOM, not only high risk but medium risk products require an EHC, which is signed by an official veterinarian.

Also read → How the BTOM worksUnder BTOM, explains Anna Doherty, senior trade and customs specialist at the Chartered Institute of Export & International Trade, goods arriving via Dover and Eurotunnel are not checked at the border, but must be taken 22 miles to be checked at Sevington, which is designated the Border Control Post for Dover, Eurotunnel and short straits (the trade route across the English channel).

Goods that are required to meet sanitary or phytosanitary (SPS) checks must be driven 22 miles to Sevington to do so. Dover Port Health Authority may do spot checks, however, and it has seized nearly 100 tonnes of illegal meat in 2024 from such spot checks, compared with 56 tonnes in 2023.

Sevington’s Border Control Post is overseen by Ashford Port Health Authority, rather than Dover.

Manzano criticised the system which meant that most products were not checked for the 22-mile distance between Dover and Sevington.

Who would be liable for diseased meat entering the UK?If diseased meat did enter the UK, as some reports have suggested it has done in the past, the main liability would likely be with DEFRA and the Border Force, according to Doherty.

“One of the key aims of DEFRA is to look after the biosecurity of the UK. They work in tandem with Border Force to make sure all imports of meat have the correct paperwork to ensue biosecurity, so if this has not been done then criticism can certainly be aimed at DEFRA and Border Force,” she explains.

However, the importer, or the agent acting on their behalf, also bears some responsibility.

They are responsible for the pre-notification, and ensuring that the right information is available at the time of import.

They will thus be liable for penalties and fines if goods are wrongfully declared, or if export paperwork has knowingly been mis-filed.

Diseased meat in the UKAn investigation by the Bureau of Investigative Journalism has found that UK Health Chiefs were privately admitting in 2023 that diseased meat had already made its way into the UK, which has been linked to a series of salmonella outbreaks. However, this was before the BTOM came into force.