Imported food coming into the UK through Brexit border posts is being sent back to Europe to be tested due to a lack of laboratory capacity in Britain, food bodies have said.
The SPS Certification Working group, which represents 30 trade bodies covering £100bn worth of the UK’s food supply, has written to the government warning that members are being advised that some samples of imported foods are being sent to countries such as Germany to be tested before they can be released at the border.
It has said that the lack of lab facilities was causing extra costs, longer delays and a shorter shelf-life for food coming into the UK.
The letter, which was sent to the new environment secretary Steve Reed last week, comes three months after the government introduced new post-Brexit checks on animal and plant products coming into Britain.
The checks at border control posts situated near UK ports, which were brought in on 30 April, aim to enhance Britain’s biosecurity and stop the introduction of diseases into the UK from the continent.
In some cases, these checks require samples of food being taken to be tested in labs for microbial or chemical analysis, or to check the authenticity of a product.
However, the UK is now facing a shortage in laboratory capabilities and is more reliant on international partners for help with sample testing.
In a separate circular put out this month, Robin May, the Food Standard Agency’s chief scientific adviser, said he had concerns about the UK’s diminishing official laboratory capability.
The SPS Working Group letter states that in some cases samples are being sent to UK laboratories and then forwarded on to facilities in Europe, without knowledge or consent of the originating food business.
The body added: “This requires raising an export health certificate to export the sample to the EU laboratory, representing additional cost, delay, loss of shelf life, and viability of the use of the foodstuff, as particularly if short shelf life, results can also be too late to be of any practical value.”