Food Supply On The Brink: Ministers Warned UK Must Act Now
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Ministers have been accused of complacency over the resilience of the UK’s food supply chain, as the cold storage and logistics sector warned that disruption from fuel shortages, cyber attacks, extreme weather and border delays could threaten vital food flows into the country.
According to a report by Joanna Partridge in The Guardian, the Cold Chain Federation (CCF), which represents businesses involved in storing and transporting temperature-sensitive food and pharmaceutical products, has urged the government to make the security of the UK food system an “immediate national priority”.
Phil Pluck, chief executive of the CCF, said: “The potential for a major food crisis is as great now as it ever was. We are at the mercy of so many different factors now, which are becoming increasingly dangerous to food supply in this country.”
The warning comes amid growing concern over the vulnerability of the UK’s food network. Britain imports more than a third of its food, with much of it entering through just four ports. The CCF said international conflicts, disruption at UK borders, fuel shortages, cyber attacks, flooding and extreme heat could all have serious consequences for supermarket shelves and foodservice supply.
The continued closure of the Strait of Hormuz has also interrupted global flows of fertiliser, which is essential to around half of global food production, adding further pressure to international food security.
The cold chain underpins much of the UK’s everyday food supply, including meat, vegetables, fish, dairy products, bread, fruit and ready meals. It is also critical for medicines, vaccines, blood and plasma products.
These products are chilled or frozen before being transported from 460 cold-storage sites by around 100,000 lorries, moving through the supply chain from growers and manufacturers to retailers, hospitality businesses and public institutions including schools, hospitals and care homes.
Tom Southall, deputy chief executive of the CCF, said Britain’s food system had not been significantly tested since the Second World War, when about half of the country’s cold stores were publicly owned.
He said: “This alludes to an element of complacency about how and where we store our food in the UK.”
The CCF has accused the government of failing to take sufficient action to improve food supply resilience, arguing that cold stores and food transport hubs should be formally designated as critical national infrastructure, rather than relying on the broader classification of the food sector as a whole.
Pluck said: “We are recognised as critical national infrastructure by Russian cybercriminals, not by the UK government.”
He warned that cold chain companies had faced frequent attempted cyber attacks in recent months.
The federation said more targeted recognition of cold stores and food transport hubs would help ensure power supplies are maintained in the event of major outages. It is also calling for staff at the UK’s large cold stores and transport hubs to be given permanent essential-worker status, following the temporary designation used during the pandemic.
The CCF’s white paper further calls for the Cabinet Office to take overall responsibility for cold-chain resilience and security.
Recent years have already shown how quickly disruption can affect UK food availability. In February 2023, shortages of tomatoes, cucumbers and peppers followed poor weather in Europe and north Africa, while UK and Dutch glasshouses reduced production because of high energy costs. Several UK supermarkets temporarily rationed some fresh produce lines in response.
A government spokesperson said: “The food sector is one of the UK’s 13 critical national infrastructure sectors, and the cold chain is important to food supply to increase adaptability to disruptions that can occur.
“We have committed to maintaining domestic food production; we are investing billions in the development of new technology to increase yields, develop climate-resilient crops and help farmers produce more food.”
But the CCF’s warning highlights a growing concern for the fresh produce and wider food sectors: that the UK’s food system is increasingly exposed to shocks from climate, conflict, infrastructure failure and digital threats — and that resilience can no longer be treated as a background policy issue.
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