UK health bosses privately admitted that a lack of border inspections in the wake of Brexit had left British consumers exposed to diseased meat, an investigation has found.
The Bureau of Investigative Journalism has previously uncovered a host of failings in the government’s handling of outbreaks of drug-resistant salmonella, particularly that linked to supermarket chicken from Poland. Illnesses connected to the outbreaks – which also affected eggs – peaked at different points between 2020 and 2024, while border checks that were supposed to be in place post-Brexit were being repeatedly delayed.
A set of documents seen by TBIJ now reveal that in a series of high-level meetings in late 2023, food safety and health bosses admitted that the UK’s borders could have been allowing infected meat to enter the country unchecked.
Minutes from the meetings attended by the UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA), the Food Standards Agency (FSA) and its devolved partners acknowledge there were “no current border controls in place”, and that paperwork and physical checks on imported goods were not due to start until the following year.
“This could change,” officials noted. “However, [the] FSA have decided that they can’t wait for border controls to come in as a control measure.”
“We didn’t do any checks on EU imports at our border control posts for three years,” Helen Buckingham, a trade policy expert, told TBIJ. She pointed to a recent report published by the National Audit Office that was highly critical of the UK’s post-Brexit border controls. She added: “Delays on introducing a new regime of incoming checks for EU goods [were seen as being] risky for the UK in public and animal health terms, because our borders were weak.”
Salmonella is a bacteria found in the guts of poultry and other livestock. It is one of the most common causes of food poisoning and is often spread through eating or having contact with undercooked meat, poultry and eggs. Salmonella poisoning can be life-threatening, particularly in infants and elderly people. It causes diarrhoea, vomiting, stomach cramps and a high temperature.
There have been growing concerns about UK consumers’ exposure to the public health risks of contaminated food in recent years. Last year, hospital admissions for salmonella infections reached an all-time high. Rates for E coli, campylobacter and other foodborne illnesses, also reached record highs in the previous two years and led to a spike in hospital admissions.
In the EU, authorities issued an alert in 2023 linking more than 330 human salmonella cases to infected poultry that affected a number of member countries. Among those made sick were young children and babies, with victims identified in Denmark, France, Ireland, Italy, the Netherlands, the UK and Austria, where one person died. Many of the contaminated food samples originated from Poland.
In 2023, UK authorities had become so concerned about the human impacts of ongoing salmonella cases linked to Polish poultry products that the FSA and the UK’s chief veterinary officer wrote to the Polish veterinary inspectorate in 2023 demanding further action, noting at least 2,680 human infections and several deaths associated with contaminated products.
The post-Brexit inspections phased in last year did represent a more stringent system than was previously in place, said Buckingham. “Pre-Brexit, we didn’t check EU products of animal origin because […] the principle of ‘free circulation of goods’ applied between member states.”
But although checks on some UK meat and poultry imports – typically between 1% and 30% – are now being carried out, concerns have been raised that funding cuts to inspection staff at some ports could mean large volumes of substandard meat coming into the UK, as reported in the Grocer.
Tim Lang, professor emeritus of food policy at City St George’s, University of London, said: “Food flows depend on trust. And that depends on believing that systems are in place to protect us from known harm. Five years from Brexit, we see not fewer, but persistence of problems. We’ve put up borders but haven’t invested in the inspection.”
Polish chicken has been a particular concern, as TBIJ reporting has highlighted. EU data shows that in 2024, tests revealed that at least 138 consignments of exported poultry from Poland contained salmonella, including variants that can be highly harmful to human health. The UK was among the affected countries. The figures were only slightly down from 2023, when there had been 149 recorded cases of contaminated products.
The internal UKHSA records reveal that a ban on Polish poultry products was among the measures considered by the FSA, but there were concerns about its potential impact on the meat industry. No ban was subsequently implemented.
Although FSA interventions brought about a reduction in reported cases, rates were still “outside of the tolerance that the FSA board can accept of salmonella entering the UK from the EU”, according to the documents.
Officials were also worried that the salmonella contamination had become more widespread, involving multiple producers from Poland and a greater number of food products, the documents show. While attention had initially focused on breaded chicken and other highly processed products, testing had revealed that fresh chicken and raw pet food was also implicated.
Anjali Juneja, director of UK and international affairs at the FSA, said it has been working with the Polish authorities on measures to enhance the safety and compliance of imported poultry meat and eggs. These include increased testing and other interventions at the farm and manufacturer level.
“We continue to actively monitor the situation, including through in-country audits of Polish food safety controls and of poultry producers exporting to the UK. If we see any information of concern, we will take the necessary action,” Juneja said. She added that the FSA welcomed the enhanced border checks implemented last year, which had become “a crucial part of our food safety system” that she said helped uphold the UK’s high standards.
TBIJ’s revelations come as Parliament’s Environment, Food and Rural Affairs Select Committee prepares to launch an inquiry into animal and plant health next Tuesday. Imported animal products will be a central focus of an initial evidence gathering session that will assess the effectiveness of import controls on food hygiene and public health.
The British Poultry Council has previously called for every consignment of Polish poultry to be checked at UK borders. Its chief executive, Richard Griffiths, told TBIJ: “We expect our trading partners to meet their responsibilities with regard to safe food. If they cannot, and their own authorities cannot enforce the appropriate controls, then we want our own regulators to have the powers and resources to stop unsafe meat entering the country.”
A Defra spokesperson said: “This government will never waver in its duty to support the UK’s biosecurity and preserve our food supply.”
The Polish veterinary inspectorate told TBIJ that food safety alerts relating to poultry from Poland had decreased from 2020 to 2024, demonstrating that it had been taking appropriate and effective action. It said that a thorough investigation was undertaken whenever a salmonella case was detected and, in the event, it would withdraw the food in question, as well as taking measures to minimise recurrence. And it said antibiotics were used on farm animals only when prescribed by a vet.
Kath Dalmeny, chief executive of Sustain, the food and farming alliance, said the latest findings exposed “just how vital it is for the government to uphold high food standards in international trade deals, especially for high-risk foods such as Polish chicken”.
“They must also ensure there are enough vets and food hygiene inspectors to check that British and imported meat is fit to eat – health protection roles that have been in worrying decline for several years,” she added.
