The government is under pressure to stop illegal meat smuggling into the UK amid warnings of a “foot and mouth” level crisis for British farmers.

The amount of meat seized by Border Force officials has doubled in a year, according to data obtained by BBC News.

Data shows more meat is entering the country with fewer vehicles, and experts say this points to an increase in organized crime.

Meat imports classified as illegal often do not undergo checks to verify they are disease-free and comply with UK health standards.

An outbreak of highly contagious African swine fever has been spreading through European pig herds since last summer.

Farmers and MPs have called on the chancellor to fund tighter border controls in next week’s Budget to prevent the disease from entering the UK.

Tom Bradshaw, president of the National Farmers’ Union, told the BBC he was not sure the government would implement the measures it believed were necessary.

“We have a line in the Labor manifesto that food security is national security. There’s a very real risk now that these are just words on a piece of paper rather than meaningful policy,” he said.

Mr Bradshaw said African swine fever could “spread through our pig herd very quickly and have huge consequences”.

“At a time of such geopolitical uncertainty, ensuring we have the capacity to produce the food everyone needs should be a political imperative,” he added.

The large increase in illegal meat is likely to be due to tighter restrictions on the import of pork products, a general increase in meat prices and more organized criminal activity.

While it is understood that red meat constitutes the majority of the seizures, the exact distribution of beef, pork and lamb is unknown.

African swine fever causes very high mortality rates among infected pigs and currently has no effective treatment or vaccine.

Conservative MP Dr. Neil Hudson worked as a veterinary surgeon. Foot and mouth epidemic in 2001He is among those calling for more money to be given to border and health officials.

“If African swine fever enters the country, it would be as catastrophic as foot-and-mouth disease,” he said.

“Veterinarians like me were deployed on the front lines to oversee the culls and I witnessed scenes I would never want to see again in my life.”

He wants the Chancellor to completely revamp the UK’s Animal and Plant Health Agency at a cost of £2.8bn.

“I know it’s a huge amount of money, but you need to spend the money now to prevent disaster in the future,” he added.

The National Audit Office estimates that the foot-and-mouth epidemic in 2001 cost the UK economy £8 billion; This equates to approximately £14.5 billion today.

Home Office figures obtained by the BBC using Freedom of Information laws show the amount of illegal meat seized by Border Force officials rose from almost 35,000kg in 2022/23 to more than 70,000kg in 2023/24.

Figures for the first four months of 2024/25 show that another large increase will be recorded by the end of the financial year.

The actual amount seized is likely to be much higher because Border Force figures do not include some seizures recorded by individual port health authorities in the UK.

The increase in seizures is not thought to be due to increased success in preventing illegal imports.

“If we’re collecting tonnes of meat, you can imagine how much meat comes in that we haven’t collected,” Dr Hudson said.

Additionally, the data shows a general trend towards a decrease in individual seizures, with more than 5,500 in 2015/16 and less than 2,000 in 2023/24; This sparks fears of larger shipments and more organized criminal activity.

“It’s worrying,” Dr Hudson added. “If fewer people are being caught, that indicates organization and we know there are organized gangs.”

It has been learned that officials from the Department of Environment, Food and Rural Affairs have held at least two meetings with representatives from the agricultural sector in recent weeks to discuss this issue.

A new post-Brexit border control system at Dover came into force in April this year, but critics said it left open the possibility of more illegal meat entering the UK.

Instead of checks being carried out in Dover, vehicles were ordered to go to the border checkpoint in Sevington, 35 kilometers away.

Parliament’s Environment Select Committee was established to examine whether the system was working before the general elections to be held at the beginning of this year.

“Now that we have left the European Union, we have the potential to put in place appropriate border controls to ensure that biosecurity is maintained,” Dr Hudson said.

The government announced £3.5 billion in funding for Dover in August but no additional money for smaller ports has been confirmed.

A Labor MP whose constituency has a port told the BBC there was a general concern among colleagues that simply supporting Dover would lead to criminal activity being relocated elsewhere.

A government spokesman said there had never been an outbreak of African Swine Fever in the UK and they were determined to ensure it remained that way.

They said “strict import controls” were in place to manage the risk, including restrictions on personal pork imports last month.

Officials added that the government was working closely with Port Health Authorities and Border Force “to ensure our robust border controls are enforced”.