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The Guardian - UK
The Guardian - UK
Politics
Andrew Wasley

Delays to post-Brexit border checks may have let diseased chicken enter UK

Chickens crowded together at a farm in Poland
Chickens at a farm in Poland. EU data shows that in 2024, tests revealed that at least 138 consignments of exported poultry from Poland contained salmonella. Photograph: Wojtek Radwański/AFP/Getty Images

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.

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