British port health authorities are “unlawfully” rejecting containers with goods from China containing dairy products, claim trade experts.
Border officials have been imposing a blanket ban on all goods coming from China to Britain that contain dairy, according to law firm Roythornes – despite the law allowing for exceptions including shelf-stable composite products such as confectionery or those including dairy originating from other countries like New Zealand or even the UK.
The UK has extremely strict regulation around Chinese dairy, with dairy products containing raw milk not allowed into the country after several incidents of contaminated dairy products surfaced in China from 2008 onwards.
Other processed products need to meet robust health and safety standards, including health certificates and having the exporting company be approved by the Chinese competent authority to export dairy products to the UK.
But lawyers representing food businesses claim port health authorities are stopping composite food products containing milk that originates from countries outside China and which fully meet the UK’s requirements in respect of milk and dairy products.
“At the moment FSA, Defra and Port Health are saying there is a blanket ban on any goods from China which contain dairy – so a pretty big issue,” said Roythornes partner Hannah Leese. “That includes composite products where the ‘dairy’ in them is, for example, from New Zealand – as opposed to the milk itself being from China.
“So, any product that comes from China cannot contain dairy, whether the dairy in the product originates from China or not.”
Leese added that, regardless of whether the milk originated in a country approved by the UK, “Port Health’s position is that if that dairy goes into China then it cannot then be exported from China to the UK”.
Roythornes warned authorities were “erroneously” referring to the piece of legislation regulating fresh dairy imports – also known as Decision 2002/994 – to stop imports of processed milk products coming from China, which are “governed by different rules and laws”.
Leese said several food companies had already raised the alert with the law firm, and that she anticipated more businesses “across the world reeling from this decision if and when they become aware of it because anyone who exports milk or dairy products to China, which in turn are used to make composite products in China for export to the UK, cannot now do that according to FSA, Defra, and UK Port Health”.
All composite foods must contain product of animal origin from a country that has what is called an approved residues plan for the monitoring of veterinary medicine and other residues, explained Rebecca Kaya, regulatory specialist at Ashbury.
“At present China does not have a GB approved residues plan for milk production – this has resulted in the rejection of consignments of composite foods at the GB border, she added.
But some of the consignments being rejected at the moment contain milk originating in approved countries, Leese noted.
“In one example I’m dealing with the milk came from the UK, and the UK won’t allow it back in because the composite product is coming from China and they say there is a blanket ban on composite goods containing dairy from China.”
Past incidents of contaminated dairy products in China have caused distrust among British consumers towards imported Chinese dairy products.
Contaminated baby formula scandals in particular have made Chinese headlines several times throughout the years, even going as far as sparking fears of global shortages back in 2013 when fearful Chinese parents rushed to import formula from the UK and other western countries.
Kaya also said that she had been made aware of “consignments of milk chocolate confectionery rejected at the GB border where a month prior it was not stopped”.
Confectionery products are normally exempt from routine border checks because of their shelf-stable properties.
She said the recent border complications were likely due to “a case of eyes turned towards Chinese imports of these types of lower risk food prodcuts now” and “increased awareness and vigilance”.
This also comes amid increased controls on EU dairy and meat products after an outbreak of foot and mouth disease in Germany two weeks ago.
One incident had taken place at a port of entry in the south of England. Traders were given the option of either destroying the rejected goods or shipping them back if the originating country’s authority agreed.
No large monetary losses had been reported yet, according to Kaya.
Suffolk Coastal Port Health Authority (SCPHA), the enforcement authority for safety and hygiene import controls over commercial consignments of food and feed arriving at Felixstowe and Harwich, said in a new statement on Thursday it was ”aware that there are some importers of food and feed products from China which do not appear to appreciate the full extent of the prohibitions imposed by assimilated Commission Decision 2002/994/EC”.
SCPHA reminded importers that simply proving the dairy ingredients in any products brought over from China had been heat-treated was not enough to meet the full requirements of all food and safety laws applying to Chinese imports, saying that was ”as unsustainable as a motorist claiming that, because he was travelling within the speed limit, it was perfectly in order for him to be driving a vehicle with bald tyres”.
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