How a cheese ban drove a new wedge between the UK and EU
European consumers face higher prices when going to the supermarket.
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Relations between the UK and the European Union are arguably at their best since the Brexit vote in 2016 but there is an ongoing standoff between the neighbors over a ban on continental cheese and meat imports.
In April, Britain banned people from bringing all dairy products and various meats from the EU into the country for personal consumption, saying the ban was necessary to prevent the possible spread of FMD among British livestock after outbreaks in Europe earlier this year.
British holidaymakers traveling to the continent have been warned not to bring home foods such as cheese, chorizo, Serrano ham or sandwiches containing these ingredients. a wide range of prohibited productseven if they are sealed or purchased from duty-free shops at airports. The ban also covers cakes, biscuits and chocolate that contain high levels of unprocessed dairy products or fresh cream.
Those caught with banned substances were told they must surrender them at the border or have them confiscated and destroyed. The government said anyone who violates the restriction could face a fine of £5,000 (about $6,700).
The UK has said the British ban does not apply to commercial food imports because they are subject to stricter biosafety requirements such as heat treatment and veterinary health certificates.
Cheese shops in Paris, and particularly those around the Gare du Nord, where Eurostar trains travel to and from the UK, say the restrictions are affecting sales to a vital customer base.
“Tourists are very important, especially the British,” Alexandre Vilaca, founder and director of Fromagerie Ferdinand in Paris, told CNBC, noting that he chose the Gare du Nord neighborhood for international visitors when he opened his cheese shop eight years ago.
“Over the past few years it has been very important to have British customers. We vacuum-packaged the cheese so they could easily travel to the UK, and we started to have regular customers who would pass by our shop to bring gifts for their family and friends… But a few months ago customers told me they were forbidden from bringing cheese home,” he said.
“And this has had a huge impact on our sales to our customers in the UK,” he added.
A cheesemonger working in a cheese shop in Paris, France, in 2022.
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Vilaca said the ban was largely absurd, given that French authorities were “very, very strict” on hygiene controls and regular checks on cheese producers, their products and distribution. He stated that the British cheese producers Vilaca works with were also disturbed by the ban.
“We’re proud when our customers take home souvenirs, maybe some wine, some cheese, a little bit of France in their bags, so to speak. So we don’t understand [the ban]”We’re pretty sorry, and it’s bad news because it’s not good for business.”
Why is it prohibited?
Temporary bans on continental food products entering or leaving the UK (or vice versa) are nothing new, and it’s worth noting that, following Brexit, the EU introduced a permanent ban on Britons bringing animal and dairy products into the bloc for personal consumption for the same reasons, namely to prevent the spread of disease.
Foot and Mouth Disease, or Foot and Mouth Disease, is a serious concern for a close-knit continent like the EU, as it can spread very quickly, especially given the region’s interconnected agricultural market and multiple routes of transmission.
FMD does not pose a risk to humans but is highly contagious to cattle, sheep and pigs; The disease can spread rapidly among animals and lead to devastating consequences.
Outbreaks of foot-and-mouth disease were confirmed in Germany, Hungary and Slovakia earlier this year, but were brought under control after the countries quickly implemented animal health control measures, including culling livestock at affected holdings and establishing containment and surveillance zones.
Not taking any chances: Cars pass through the disinfection checkpoint established at the border crossing between Hungary and Slovakia in Medvedov, Slovakia, on March 28, 2025. The country declared a state of emergency following multiple cases of foot and mouth disease in the region, including a new outbreak detected in Hungary near the Slovak border near Bratislava.
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These emergency measures were lifted after the fall of Germany. Declared free of foot and mouth disease There were no new outbreaks in April and in Hungary and Slovakia since April.
In late July the UK government’s Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) he said in a review “While the influx of FMD into Europe at the beginning of the year was undoubtedly worrying, there have been no further reports since April to suggest the situation in Hungary and Slovakia is under control.”
While the report’s authors said in July that the risk of FMD spreading to the UK was considered a ‘low (rare but may occur)’ risk, the report warned that FMD could remain undetected for several months.
The UK government told CNBC that, despite FMD outbreaks in Europe being brought under control, the ongoing ban on personal imports of cheese and many meats is aimed at protecting British farmers and UK food security.
“Earlier this year, following a wave of foot and mouth cases, we took immediate action to ban personal imports of meat and dairy products from Europe. We are also investing £1bn. [$1.3 billion] “We are operating from a new National Biosafety Center to strengthen our world-leading facilities and protect our farmers, food supplies and the economy,” a spokesperson for Defra told CNBC.
“We will do whatever it takes to protect our farmers from animal diseases,” the spokesman added.
But it has been almost six months since the ban and questions are being asked about whether ongoing restrictions are excessive and whether they are no longer necessary.
Defra stressed that it was not alone in imposing the current restrictions and that the EU was doing what it has done for several years since Brexit as standard practice.
When asked when the ban could be lifted given that FMD cases are being controlled on the continent, Defra said the government’s “FMD response is under ongoing review” and that it would “maintain restrictions in England as personal imports of affected products pose biosecurity risks to Great Britain.”
hard lessons
The UK and EU have learned the hard way what a FMD outbreak can cause.
Cows from the Breier Cattle Farm are seen on a farm near Budapest on March 11, 2025. Hungary detected its first outbreak of foot-and-mouth disease in more than 50 years on March 7, 2025, on a cattle farm near the Slovak border. The country’s food safety agency has implemented extremely strict measures to prevent further spread of the disease, including banning the movement of susceptible species.
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The outbreak, which first emerged in the UK in 2001 before spreading across the continent, had a devastating impact on the British farming community, with more than six million animals having to be destroyed, and is estimated to have cost the UK’s public and private sectors a total of £8bn.
4 million animals died in the EU and it is estimated that the cost of the epidemic to member states will be high 2.7 billion euros in terms of elimination measures and compensation to farmers.
The last outbreak in the UK was in 2007 affected eight farms but it was Estimated to cost £147 million due to large-scale animal movement bans in general.
