Unsanitary?

Compared with the possibility of empty shelves in UK supermarkets, where the lettuce, tomatoes and bacon should be, failure to do Sanitary and Phytosanitary (SPS) controls on EU imports, sound like 'small beer'. It is, however, worrying the UK is being 'forced' to delay import checks, supposedly 'by six months' (https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2021/mar/11/uk-forced-to-delay-import-checks-on-eu-goods-by-six-months-2022-border-post-not-ready). Exports from the EU were actually subject to controls from the 1st of January 2021. The delay to import checks is a consequence of 30 Border Control Posts (BCP) not being ready, 'due to the Covid-19 pandemic'. SPS checks (requiring documentation and health certficates) were originally due to be introduced from 1st April 2021 (already late). Following pressures from importers/supermarkets, import checks on EU goods are being pushed back to 1st January 2022. Checks on live animals and 'low risk' (who decides this?) plants, will only occur at BCPs in March 2022. This is 15 months after SPS checks on UK food, animal and plant material exported to the EU started! So what! UK customers need their salad and their bacon and eggs! The delay could actually be quite dangerous and costly. Many of the fungal outbreaks decimating trees in the UK, have arrived on imported plants or in the soil surrounding them. The occurence of the Covid-19 pandemic ought to remind us that animal (like Foot and Mouth) and human (like Sars-Cov-2, itself) pathogens can arrive on 'imports'. Worryingly, the extended failure to carry out SPS checks on EU imports, may mean that such checks become superficial on animals and plants, arriving from other parts of the world (so long as they are not destined for re-export to mainland Europe?). Alien invaders (viruses, bacteria, fungi, plants and insects) have caused enormous damage to environments. Many countries take SPS seriously.