First reported by the Financial Times (FT), UK Ministers are to delay the post-Brexit food import checks on fresh farm produce from the EU indefinitely.

This will be the fifth time delays have been announced to the post-Brexit border controls.

The intention is said to be to give the Government more time to prepare for checks ahead of the controls being enforced.

Reports say that there are concerns of increased costs of food imports to consumers as a result of the delays, risking further food inflation.

The Cold Chain Federation (CCF) has welcomed the delay, stating that some EU producers were not aware of the new requirements.

CCF chief executive Shane Brennan said: “Government has made the right decision to postpone. UK food retailers, hospitality businesses and consumers were in line for major disruption because many EU food producing businesses supplying into the UK are not ready for the new requirements. We recently asked Ministers to push back the export health certificate requirement to give Government time to ramp up communications to EU businesses. The decision to postpone also means that there should be a fully staffed border inspection team on the ground by the time the new requirements come into force, able to provide support and advice for these EU importers.

“Meeting the new sanitary requirement will still increase costs for the EU food producers supplying into the UK, and we should expect these costs to be passed onto UK retailers and consumers but this change in the implementation timetable could make an important difference towards reducing that impact.”