Exclusive: Officials admitted in 2023 there were ‘no current border checks’, as salmonella and other illnesses surged

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.