Illegal meat imported as fruit and veg
23 February 2001
Illegal meat imported as fruit and veg
By FWi staff
ILLEGALLY imported meat could be the source of the foot-and-mouth outbreak, reports the BBC Radio 4 Farming Today programme.
It reports that unscrupulous importers label meat as fruit or vegetables in an attempt to avoid border checks at air and sea ports.
EU regulations say no products from one member state have to be tested before entering another because standards should be uniform.
Mike Young of the Association of Port Health Authorities said a shortage of funds limits what ports can test.
“There has certainly been evidence recently that there is illegally imported meat for on sale in London,” he said.
Mr Young explained that meat controls were enforced at border inspection posts when importers gave prior notification of the arrival of meat.
When imported meat was not declared, port health authorities had to revert to using other imported-food controls.
Products could come in simply described as fruit and vegetables, with no statutory requirement for importers to notify of the arrival of foodstuffs.
“We do not have the power to charge for any inspection services and therefore is difficult to find the resources to carry out that enforcement,” said Mr Young.
He said importers tried to bring in meat labelled as vegetables “presumably to escape the tight controls on products of animal origins”.
Scraps of meat carrying the virus eaten by pigs could be a way that foot-and-mouth disease was introduced in Britain.
Professor Mac Johnston of the Royal Veterinary College, also speaking on the programme, said there was little doubt that meat which did not meet EU standards was coming into the country.
Airline food waste and people who had been in contact with foot-and-mouth disease overseas were other possible sources of the disease, he said.