Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:

To ask His Majesty's Government how much meat has been seized at the UK border by officials in each of the last six months; and whether they expect to completely eradicate the import of illicit produce under their Border Target Operating Model.

The data we have relates to seizures of “products of animal origin, contaminated goods and packaging” (not necessarily just meat) reported to Defra by English PHAs only. Any seizures made by other officials or seizures not reported to Defra are not included here. The data below relates to all EU and Rest of World imports.

There are rules for bringing food or animal products into Great Britain (GB) for personal use, depending on the country that the traveller is coming from. There are restrictions on meat, dairy and other products.

African swine fever (ASF) cases in Europe in 2022 represented new “jumps” in disease distribution towards the United Kingdom. While we consider that the overall risk of entry of ASF virus into the UK from all combined pathways remains at medium, the particular pathway of human-mediated transport of non-commercial, infected products from the EU is considered to be high risk. The Animal and Plant Health Agency (APHA) conducts outbreak risk assessments on ASF in the EU, published here https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/african-swine-fever-in-pigs-and-boars-in-europe and attached to this answer.

As a result, we announced controls restricting the movement of pork and pork products into GB to help safeguard Britain's pigs. Travellers are no longer allowed to bring pork or pork products weighing over two kilograms into GB, unless they are produced to the EU’s commercial standards. The controls, which came into force in September 2022, strengthen the standards for bringing pork and pork products into GB from the EU and EFTA states. This measure helps limit possibly infected pig meat being brought into GB through various means, such as in passengers’ luggage or in vehicles.