MPs warn smuggled meat is driving surge in foodborne illness, call it biggest food safety crisis since 2013

Members of Parliament have warned that large-scale smuggling of meat and dairy into Great Britain is contributing to an increase in foodborne infections and risks sparking a major animal-disease outbreak.

A report from the House of Commons Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (EFRA) Committee said "alarming amounts" of illegal animal products entered the country last year, estimating 235,000 kilograms of potentially dangerous meat and dairy brought in by criminal networks through airports, seaports and passenger vehicles using the Channel Tunnel.

Committee members who visited the Port of Dover described inspections that found meat packaged in plastic bags, wrapped in newspaper, stowed in cardboard boxes and kept in defrosted chest freezers. Port workers told MPs they had encountered extreme examples, including an intact pig discovered inside a suitcase with its legs severed so it could fit. One enforcement officer said hundreds of targeted vehicles drive past ports unchecked because authorities do not have the resources to stop and search them, according to the report.

Alistair Carmichael, Liberal Democrat MP and chair of the EFRA Committee, said the country was "sleepwalking through its biggest food safety crisis since the horse meat scandal." The committee said smuggled products bypass routine checks, are carried in unhygienic conditions and could carry bacteria, viruses or parasites linked to food poisoning.

The report linked the illegal imports to broader public-health trends recorded by the UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA). The agency has reported rises in several foodborne illnesses: listeriosis cases were 13 percent above the five-year average, shiga toxin-producing E. coli (STEC) has shown an uptick since the COVID-19 pandemic, yersinia reports rose from 454 to 660, and cyclospora detections almost doubled from 61 in 2023 to 123 in 2024. Campylobacter laboratory reports increased 27 percent between 2022 and 2024, totalling about 70,300 cases, and early 2025 data show salmonella reports up compared with the first quarters of 2023 and 2024.

The committee cautioned that some of the products being smuggled are among those that most commonly transmit these pathogens, including meat, eggs and poultry. Salmonella, for example, typically infects the gut of farm animals but can cause severe illness in vulnerable groups such as young children, older adults and people with weakened immune systems. In serious cases, infections can require hospital treatment for dehydration or other complications.

The EFRA report raised the additional risk that illegally imported meat could introduce or spread animal diseases. It cited the economic impact of a single recent foot-and-mouth disease case in Germany, which the committee said cost the German economy about one billion euros. Earlier this year British authorities temporarily banned tourists from bringing cured meats and cheeses into the UK from parts of Europe because of a disease outbreak on the continent.

Defra told the committee that it carries out intelligence-led checks at the border. However, MPs said their visits and interviews with port health authority staff revealed limited checks, stretched enforcement capacity and port facilities ill-equipped to seize and safely store large volumes of potentially contaminated products. The committee noted inadequate decontamination capability at some inspection sites and the absence of dedicated handwashing facilities in certain border areas.

To address what it called a crisis, the committee recommended establishing a national taskforce with clear leadership and strategy, strengthening food-crime intelligence networks, creating and enforcing stronger deterrents against criminal enterprises, and giving port health and local authorities the resources and legal powers needed for effective enforcement. The report urged the government to act quickly to reduce risks to public health and to livestock.

The EFRA Committee's findings come amid heightened public-health scrutiny of food safety across Europe and rising rates of several bacterial infections in the UK. The report documents specific seizures and enforcement challenges encountered during port visits and links those operational failures to broader epidemiological trends recorded by the UKHSA.

Defra and other government departments were reported to have briefed the committee that enforcement activity is ongoing, but MPs said this does not match conditions observed in ports. The committee called on ministers to provide a formal response outlining how proposed measures will be implemented and to supply the resources necessary to prevent potentially contaminated products reaching the UK food chain.

The EFRA report and UKHSA data underline the committee's conclusion that tackling illegal imports is both a public-health priority and an animal-health imperative. The committee said that without coordinated national action and improved border capability, the risk remains that contaminated or infected products could find their way into markets, restaurants and household kitchens, contributing to illness among consumers and increasing the chance of costly animal disease outbreaks.