British cheese banned in China

As a direct consequence of a visit Chinese officials made to a British dairy farm, China decided to place a temporary ban on all cheese imports from the UK. However, the farm in question does not export any dairy products to China.

After visiting an unnamed dairy farm in the UK, Chinese officials declared themselves dissatisfied with the product maintenance, storage, raw milk transport temperatures and air sanitation.

The ban synchronizes with a new Chinese food safety regulation law which came into effect at the beginning of May.

UK Farming Minister George Eustice is now taking immediate measures to lift the ban: ‘Food inspectors will now visit all factories exporting cheese to China to demonstrate their high standards, so these restrictions can be lifted as soon as possible.’

Eustice is also defending the British dairy industry, saying that: ‘British cheese is the best in the world and produced to the highest safety and quality standards, so it is disappointing that China have put a temporary block on cheese imports.’

However, officials are not concerned with the problem and are confident that the high quality of British dairy products will be soon acknowledged by China and that the ban will be lifted immediately.

Even tough the UK exports, annually, over 11 tones of cheese to China, this represents less than 1% of the total amount of cheese the UK exports outside the European Union.