UK border seizures rise

Ashford Port Health says it has seized and destroyed 208,563.81 kilograms of unsafe food at the United Kingdom border since November 2024. (coldchainnews.com) The checks are being carried out at Sevington in Ashford, Kent, an inland border control post that handles sanitary and phytosanitary inspections for food arriving through the Port of Dover and Eurotunnel. Sevington is run by the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, with Ashford Port Health carrying out food controls there. (gov.uk) Ashford Borough Council says its port health team is the statutory authority for official controls on imported high-risk food and feed, including products of animal origin and high-risk food and feed of non-animal origin. The same team also checks goods entering Great Britain from the European Union through Dover because there is no border control post at the ferry terminal itself. (ashfordporthealth.gov.uk, ashford.gov.uk) The shift behind these seizures started with the United Kingdom’s Border Target Operating Model, the post-Brexit system for import checks. Under that model, documentary and risk-based identity and physical checks on medium-risk animal products, plants, plant products and high-risk food and feed of non-animal origin from the European Union began on 30 April 2024. (gov.uk) Those controls are based on risk categories rather than blanket inspection. The government says the model weighs disease outbreaks, public health risks, non-compliance data and confidence in the exporting country’s standards when deciding what level of checks a consignment faces. (gov.uk) Sevington is open 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, and importers must file a Common Health Entry Document before controlled goods arrive. Ashford Port Health and the Animal and Plant Health Agency can then charge for document, identity and physical inspections. (gov.uk) The tougher enforcement push has unfolded alongside criticism of gaps in the system. On 4 March 2026, the House of Commons Environment, Food and Rural Affairs Committee said Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs data showed 18% of flagged consignments of animal-origin goods in November 2025 were not taken from Dover to Sevington for checks, up from 8% in August 2025. (committees.parliament.uk) That parliamentary warning came after outbreaks in Europe in 2025, including African swine fever, foot and mouth disease and plant disease linked to Xylella bacteria, all cited by the committee as biosecurity risks tied to unchecked imports. (committees.parliament.uk) The seizure total from Ashford does not show every load is being caught, but it does show border officers are finding large volumes of food that fail safety rules after lorries reach the inspection system. At Sevington, the United Kingdom’s post-Brexit border regime is now being measured not just in paperwork, but in tonnes removed from the food chain. (coldchainnews.com, gov.uk)