Raw meat stuffed into a wheelie bin and carrier bags were found at the Dover port this month, heightening fears of African Swine Fever (ASF) hitting the UK.

Large volumes of raw meat from countries that have reported ASF in their pig herds were seized in a 24-hour operation. 

The checks followed the introduction of new rules making it illegal to bring pork or pork products weighing over 2kg into the country unless they are produced to the EU’s commercial standards. The change was introduced to raise the country's defences against ASF. 

As part of the policing of the new rules, Operation Ouzo, a multi-agency exercise to check the adequacy of existing controls at the border, took place at the port over a weekend in early October.

Inspectors searched 22 vehicles of Romanian, Moldovan, Ukrainian and Polish origin.

They found raw animal products loosely stored in carrier bags and paper tissue without temperature control, refrigeration or labelled identification, and mixed with ready-to-eat products such as cheese, crisps and cake.

In one case, raw, unlabelled and loosely-wrapped pork was found at the bottom of a taped-up wheelie bin, which was filled with other products intended for free circulation within the UK.

Dover MP Natalie Elphicke told the House of Commons: "We need to remember that it is not 22 vehicles a day entering the UK at Dover. There are up to 10,000 vehicle movements across the channel each day.

“It is clear that the risk of maggoty meat, meat of unknown origin, which often means 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 of real concern.”

The Conservative MP said that a new port health facility at Dover had been made "fully ready for border checks" was "unexpectedly mothballed" by the then 'Brexit Opportunities Minister' Jacob Rees-Mogg as he abandoned plans to introduce UK checks on EU imports.

NPA chief policy adviser Rebecca Veale said the NPA was ‘very pleased’ when the government introduced the new restrictions: "The aim of the restrictions is to stop illegal consignments such as this, which in this instance were clearly not safe for human consumption but also poses a significant risk to UK pigs, given they are arriving from countries affected by ASF and with no control or oversight.

“ASF is a notifiable disease which not only would severely compromise the health and welfare of pigs and can potentially devastate businesses up and down the country, it would also have huge implications for our ability to export pigmeat, which is important for carcase balance.

“With disease prevalence in so many EU countries, several human-mediated ‘jumps’ across these countries and the fact that the virus can survive for a long time in infected meat (up to 1,000 days in frozen pork), keeping illegal imports out of the country is an absolute priority.”