Britain facing surge of salmonella cases because of Brexit, union warns

Britain is facing a surge in salmonella cases due to a lack of post-Brexit quality checks on food, a union has warned.

The National Farmers Union said the UK was seeing recurring cases of salmonella because meat, poultry and eggs have not been checked properly since leaving the EU.

It comes as the Food Standards Agency (FSA) said it was investigating a recent rise in cases of salmonella food poisoning linked to poultry from Poland.

“A number of the cases have involved the consumption of eggs produced in Poland and used in meals in restaurants and cafes,” said Tina Potter, head of incidents at the FSA.

More than 200 human cases of salmonellosis linked to poultry products such as eggs and meat were reported this year.

“We have not been monitoring imports because the EU would have been doing it previously. We have been left for three years without those checks and balances in place,” NFU president Minette Batters told The Independent.

“We are now seeing these recurring incidents of salmonella because these products are not being checked how they would have been before leaving the EU.”

In September, the government delayed for a fifth time plans for the imposition of post-Brexit checks and charges on food imported from the European Union.

The checks are now set to be introduced at the end of April 2024, which the NFU hopes will help correct an unfair market advantage given to EU exporters.

The NFU urged the government to resolve the issue and said British farmers were facing additional costs, challenges to competition and excess paperwork which EU exporters are not subject to.

The government said its strategy, known as the target operating model (TOM), would “better protect the UK against biosecurity threats”.

The regime would include “bringing in controls on imports from the EU for the first time and using Brexit freedoms to simplify import controls on goods from across the globe”.

The FSA said it was in talks with Polish and EU officials to ensure “all necessary steps” are taken to improve the safety of poultry and eggs imported from Poland.

Salmonella is a common type of bacteria found in raw meat, undercooked poultry, eggs and unpasteurised milk that can cause food poisoning.

The bug can cause stomach pain, vomiting and diarrhoea and can be spread from person to person, leading to severe fever and dehydration in some cases.

A Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs spokesperson told The Independent: “Controls are already in place for the import of high-risk products from the EU and goods from the rest of the world.

“The Border Target Operating Model will protect the UK’s biosecurity and ensure our trading partners have confidence in our approach to imported products of animal origin, plants and plant products.

“The model will improve the mechanisms we already have in place for non-EU food imports – recognised and applied across the world as the key building blocks for sanitary and phytosanitary (SPS) controls.

“Under the Border Target Operating Model, all commodities under SPS import control – regardless of their source – will be assessed for the risk that they carry to UK biosecurity, including to public health, and categorised accordingly.”