Industry insiders raise alarm over unsafe meat coming from Eastern Europe

Warnings over African Swine Fever and other diseases are being raised by industry experts who say that unsafe meat is being allowed into the UK because of a lack of post-Brexit border checks. 

Experts are also warning that British consumers could today be eating meat and fish that is not what it purports to be, “just as horse was passed off as beef in 2013”, stated i. 

Checks to guarantee animal and plant health have been delayed four times since Brexit two years ago and are currently not due to be implemented until the end of 2023. The UK was supposed to introduce its own “sanitary and phytosanitary” (SPS) post Brexit border checks on fresh food in July last year. 

The British Meat Processors Association has said it is particularly worried about imported pork.

“We are concerned about the potential spread of African Swine Fever,” reported David Lindars, the association’s Technical Operations Director. 

“We are hearing anecdotally of white vans arriving from parts of Eastern Europe full of meat being sold in local markets. 

“That meat shouldn’t be coming here. I was talking to the National Food Crime Unit and I asked them can you show me some evidence. At the last meeting two weeks ago we were shown photos from a coordinated stop at a couple of ports. 

“One van had a chest freezer that wasn’t plugged in full of pork with delivery addresses.”
Lindars said the vans are coming from areas where African Swine Fever cases have been detected. Britain is currently free of the disease. 

Officials say it cannot be passed to humans and is not a danger to public health. 

The warning comes a decade after horsemeat scandal shook the country. The scandal saw hundreds of products being pulled from the shelves in 2013 after authorities found “beef” products, such as frozen burgers and low-value spaghetti Bolognese, contained up to 100 per cent horse instead. 

It led to the Government, Food Standards Agency (FSA), and major retailers promising a major overhaul of testing regimes. 

However, Professor Chris Elliott, the food safety expert who led the government commissioned review into the affair, has warned that another “massive food scandal” is “just around the corner.”