Eurostar passengers travelling to the UK are encountering a stark contradiction at Brussels Midi station: duty-free shops beyond passport control actively promote banned pork products, despite stringent UK restrictions imposing fines up to £5,000 for transporting such items, according to Politico.
Travellers clearing UK passport control face shelves stocked with Belgian cured sausages and Bruges smoked ham, products explicitly prohibited under British biosecurity rules introduced in April to prevent foot-and-mouth disease spread. Alarmingly, no visible warnings about the restrictions appear near these displays, and the sales occur just five metres from UK Border Force officials checking travel documents.
Katie Jarvis, senior policy officer at Britain’s National Pig Association, condemned the situation.
It is alarming to see suggestions that pork is being sold at a point of entry into the UK, despite it being illegal to bring pork and other animals products from the EU into the country due to ongoing foot-and-mouth disease prevention measures.
She urged the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) to bolster communication and enforcement, noting the rules “have not been received and understood.”
Enforcement remains patchy, with Border Force conducting only sporadic bag checks at London’s St. Pancras station. Most passengers face minimal detection risk unless openly carrying purchased products.
The April ban, prohibiting personal imports of cheese, cured meats, milk, and raw meats from the EU, followed foot-and-mouth detections in Hungary, Slovakia, and Germany earlier this year. Deputy Chief Veterinary Officer Dr. Jorge Martin-Almagro emphasised the controls are “critical to limit the risk of foot-and-mouth disease incursion.” However, enforcement capabilities are critically underfunded.
This vulnerability resurrects traumatic memories of the UK’s 2001 epidemic, which necessitated the slaughter of six million animals and cost the economy £8 billion. The outbreak originated from illegally imported infected meat in animal feed, devastating rural communities and triggering nationwide countryside closures.
Eurostar confirms it emails travellers about the restrictions, while a UK government spokesperson reiterated it will “do whatever it takes to protect British farmers from foot and mouth disease.” Yet frontline officials report smugglers exploiting the ban.
