Holidaymakers arriving in Spain from the UK have been warned about bringing certain food items into the country under post-Brexit rules.
The European Commission states that people arriving into the EU from non-EU countries - which now includes the UK - cannot take meat, milk or products containing them.
This means that it is illegal to bring in items such as cheese and ham sandwiches from the UK into Spain and other countries within the European Union.
The Commission’s website states that anyone found to be in possession of these goods ‘may be liable for costs or penalties’.
“Personal goods containing meat, milk or their products brought into the EU continue to present a real threat to animal health throughout the Union”, the European Commission writes.
“It is known, for example, that dangerous pathogens that cause animal diseases, such as Foot and Mouth Disease and classical swine fever can reside in meat, milk or their products.
“Therefore, pathogens could be introduced into the EU if personal goods containing meat, milk or their products are sent by post of carried in the baggage of travellers arriving from countries outside the EU, where such pathogens may be circulating.”
There are some exemptions to the rules, however.
This particularly applies to powdered infant milk, infant food and special foods or special pet feed required for medical reasons.
They must weigh less than two kilograms, do not require refrigeration before opening and the packaging must be unbroken, unless in current use.
Travellers are also allowed to bring in up to 20 kilograms of fish products, or the weight of one fish if this is higher.
People arriving in from the UK to the EU can bring a string of other animal products - such as honey and snails, if they weigh two kilograms or over.
Millions of people from the UK are expected to jet off to Europe to catch up on missed holidays over the past two years due to the Covid pandemic.
HM Passport Office has already been swamped with travellers seeking to renew their important travel documents before the summer holidays.
The body said that it processed through one million applications for passports in March alone, which is a monthly record.
More than nine million applications are expected to be submitted to the Passport Office over the course of 2022.
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