Port officials at Dover seized illegal products including rotting meat
(Picture: Dover Port Authority)Port officials at Dover seized illegal products including maggot-ridden meat in a series of raids.
The 24-hour crackdown earlier this month targed eatern European food lorries entering the UK.
They searched 22 vehicles from Romanian, Moldovan, Ukraine and Poland with illegal meat imports found in 21.
Inspectors discovered raw animal products stashed in carrier bags and tissue without temperature control, refrigeration or labels.
The items were not separated from products such as cheese, crisps and cake.
Other foods were found in holdalls, cardboard boxes or cool boxes, to be sold at markets and independent stores across Britain.
In one case raw, unlabelled, loosely-wrapped pork had been placed in the bottom of a taped-up wheelie bin filled with other products intended for free circulation in the UK.
The details were revealed by Natalie Elphicke, the Conservative MP for Dover, in a debate in Westminster Hall on Tuesday.
She said: “We need to remember that it is not 22 vehicles a day that enter the UK at Dover, but up to 10,000 vehicle movements across the Channel a day.
“It’s clear that the risk of maggoty meat, meat of unknown origin — often horse or other illegal meat — rotting meat due to the lack of temperature controls as well as fresh blood dripping on to other products is a real concern.
“It’s not just meat: pesticides on eastern European flax seeds have been found exceeding the maximum level for UK food safety. In other words they are dangerous to human life.
“None of this food meets EU requirements and shouldn’t be coming in. It is illegal for the UK market. It highlights why it is wrong to outsource our food and biosecurity controls to the EU.”
“Some drivers said the meat had been home slaughtered. The inspection began after concerns that African swine fever was being spread in imports of illegal meat from eastern Europe.”
