{"id":321436,"date":"2025-12-17T18:59:21","date_gmt":"2025-12-17T18:59:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/321436\/"},"modified":"2025-12-17T18:59:21","modified_gmt":"2025-12-17T18:59:21","slug":"have-we-learned-nothing-from-covid-illegal-pangolin-meat-seized-in-deptford","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/321436\/","title":{"rendered":"Have we learned NOTHING from Covid? Illegal pangolin meat seized in Deptford"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"author-section byline-plain\">By <a href=\"https:\/\/www.dailymail.co.uk\/profile-2341\/noor-qurashi.html\" class=\"author\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">NOOR QURASHI, NEWS REPORTER<\/a> <\/p>\n<p class=\"byline-section\"> Published:  15:18 EST, 11 December 2025   |  Updated:  16:45 EST, 11 December 2025   <\/p>\n<p class=\"mol-para-with-font\">Police have arrested a 57-year-old man after 38kg of illegal bushmeat &#8211; including pangolins, cane rats and porcupines &#8211; was seized from a freezer.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mol-para-with-font\">Officials from the Food Standards Agency (FSA) found the wild animals at a site in Deptford, south east <a style=\"font-weight: bold;\" target=\"_self\" href=\"https:\/\/www.dailymail.co.uk\/news\/london\/index.html\" id=\"mol-993986a0-d6c9-11f0-8758-b1726d1c9dd8\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">London<\/a> on December 5.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mol-para-with-font\">The watchdog said the operation targeted illegally imported meat products which posed potential food safety risks to customers.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mol-para-with-font\">It pointed to a danger the imported products could carry diseases and contaminants due to bypassing safety and hygiene checks.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mol-para-with-font\">Some of the species &#8211; which come from tropical regions &#8211; such as pangolins, are also said to be critically endangered, with all commercial trade on them prohibited internationally.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mol-para-with-font\">The\u00a0FSA said inquiries are ongoing.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mol-para-with-font\">Simon Ashwin, senior investigator at the organisation&#8217;s National Food Crime Unit (NFCU), added: &#8216;This operation forms part of the NFCU&#8217;s ongoing work to disrupt the illegal meat trade and prevent unsafe products from reaching the public.<\/p>\n<p>   <img decoding=\"async\" id=\"i-b8624294362f5586\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/104652629-15375457-image-m-2_1765482358779.jpg\" height=\"613\" width=\"634\" alt=\"Officials from the Food Standards Agency (FSA) found the wild animals at a site in Deptford, south east London on December 5. Pictured is one of the frozen Pangolins retrieved\" class=\"blkBorder img-share\" style=\"max-width:100%\" loading=\"lazy\" \/>   <\/p>\n<p class=\"imageCaption\">Officials from the Food Standards Agency (FSA) found the wild animals at a site in Deptford, south east London on December 5. Pictured is one of the frozen Pangolins retrieved<\/p>\n<p>   <img decoding=\"async\" id=\"i-77fd464f1fb20e28\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/104652631-15375457-image-m-4_1765482378476.jpg\" height=\"308\" width=\"634\" alt=\"Police arrested a 57-year-old man after 38kg of illegal bushmeat - including pangolins, cane rats and porcupines - was seized from a freezer. Pictured is a frozen cane rat retrieved\" class=\"blkBorder img-share\" style=\"max-width:100%\" loading=\"lazy\" \/>   <\/p>\n<p class=\"imageCaption\">Police arrested a 57-year-old man after 38kg of illegal bushmeat &#8211; including pangolins, cane rats and porcupines &#8211; was seized from a freezer. Pictured is a frozen cane rat retrieved<\/p>\n<p class=\"mol-para-with-font\">&#8216;The FSA advises consumers not to buy or eat illegally imported meat, including bushmeat, as it may pose serious health risks.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mol-para-with-font\">&#8216;If you have concerns about products being sold, contact your local authority.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mol-para-with-font\">&#8216;We remain vigilant to the threat of illegal meat entering the food chain and will continue to take action to protect the public.&#8217;<\/p>\n<p>                    Share or comment on this article:<br \/>\n                        Have we learned NOTHING from Covid? Illegal pangolin meat seized in Deptford<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"By NOOR QURASHI, NEWS REPORTER Published: 15:18 EST, 11 December 2025 | Updated: 16:45 EST, 11 December 2025&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":321437,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[22],"tags":[97,1397,50,90,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-321436","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-environment","tag-dailymail","tag-environment","tag-news","tag-science","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/321436","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=321436"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/321436\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/321437"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=321436"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=321436"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=321436"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}