Rising Crisis: Government Urged to Address Illegal Meat Imports
The government is under pressure to stop illegal meat being smuggled into the UK, amid warnings of a “foot-and-mouth” level crisis for British farmers.
The amount of meat seized by Border Force officials has doubled in a year, according to data obtained by BBC News.
The data suggests more meat is entering the country in fewer vehicles, which experts say indicates a rise in organised crime.
Meat imports classed as illegal have often not gone through checks to confirm they are disease-free and conform to UK health standards.
An outbreak of the highly contagious African swine fever has been spreading across Europe’s pig herds since last summer.
Farmers and MPs have called on the chancellor to fund more stringent border controls in next week’s Budget to prevent the disease from entering the UK.
The President of the National Farmers’ Union, Tom Bradshaw, told the BBC that he was not confident the government would introduce the measures he believed were necessary.
“We’ve got a line in the Labour manifesto that food security is national security. Now at the moment there’s a very real risk that they are just words on a piece of paper rather than meaningful policy,” he said.