Imports not safety checked

VAST AMOUNTS of food, some it classified as high risk, has entered Britain via Dover and the Channel Tunnel without the safety checks required by law, The Guardian reports.

Hundreds of thousands of tonnes have crossed the Channel over the past 12 years without proper checks.

It was the Food Standards Agency that discovered the lack of safety checks.

Out of an estimated 100,000 food consignments in containers arriving via Dover over two years only 10 had been sampled for safety, the FSA found.

The problem has not been dealt with in a satisfactory way, according to The Guardian.

Up to 3,000 lorry-loads of food pass into Britain unchecked each month.

The FSA has repeatedly warned Dover district council that it is putting the public at risk by not policing the import of food via both the port and the Channel Tunnel.

It may wrest control over public health from the local authority if things do not improve.

An audit of all the major ports in Britain showed that Dover “was the worst in Britain”, according to the agency.

Linda Golightly, chief environment health officer for Dover, told The Guardian that the local authority fully accepted its food safety checks at the port had been inadequate.

“Most of the food that comes through Dover comes from other European countries and is not of a high risk category,” she said.

“We do not believe we have put the public in danger, but we are fully cooperating with the agency implementing all their proposals.

“We are grateful for the funding of a full-time officer to assist in this process,” Ms Golightly told the paper.