Spanish trip fridge contents!

Georgebs

Georgebs

Joined
Jan 21, 2019
Posts
30
Likes collected
34
Funster No
58,150
MH
RV Motorhome
Exp
Since 2017
Hi all you seasoned funsters,

Crossing to Spain from Portsmouth mid March. Can any of you friendly travelers kindly inform me if it is possible to take bacon and cheese within my fridge, frozen or otherwise.
Honestly not sure if I can survive the first couple of weeks without, it will take this long to ween me onto the local fare!!
Thankyou and please be kind with your answers.
 
Sort by date Sort by votes
Fingers crossed you should be able to find cured ham/meats that is pretty close to our Bacon in the large supermarkets, cheese also, probably not Cathedral City Cheddar though.
It always fascinated me when travelling abroad, in how in many countries they would have bacon & sausage lookalikes, but they tasted somewhat different.:giggle:
I just put it down to the fact I was away on holiday, all part of the foreign experience.
However I always took some English teabags in my suitcase, as I hate Liptons Teas, especially with that sill string hanging out the cup.o_O
Have fun.
LES
 
Upvote 0
If your worried take canned cheese and spam as a substitute for bacon, job done

Subscribers  do not see these advertisements

 
Upvote 0
On leaving Santander port two weeks ago we were stopped and a Customs official came into the
motorhome. Couldn’t speak English but asked something which we suspected was “do you have any meat or dairy” or could have been “do you have anything thing to declare”. We just said no and he left without looking in the fridge or freezer, thankfully.:giggle: Well you have to have a cup of tea on route don’t you.
BTW passport stamped but nobody looked at the health control form, although it was checked in Portsmouth. Temperature also checked, before leaving ferry, by Brittany ferries staff.
 
Upvote 0
Legally, no you can't. Dairy, meat and most fresh fruits are not allowed. (Not even canned dairy or meat products are allowed, sorry Diabalo.) And some of the elements are less obvious. You can take Marmite as it's vegan, but not Bovril because it contains beef

If you do anyway and get caught as well as having all the illegal food items confiscated and destroyed you could face quite a big fine, and even potentially be prosecuted. You can also end up blacklisted and searched on every future trip. Admittedly the likelihood of prosecution is very small, but it is a risk you take.

Allegedly, the customs of France, Belgium, the Netherlands and Spain have taken on an additional 2000 staff to increase checks of vehicles travelling from the UK to their 'main points of entry'.
 
Upvote 0
20220120_155926.jpg
20220120_155926.jpgMercadona sell this UK cheese and if near Benidorm, Iceland sell British bacon as does EXPATS in Villajoyoisa.
 
Upvote 0
Diabalo said:
If your worried take canned cheese and spam as a substitute for bacon, job done
Click to expand...
I'm pretty sure this is not correct. It is all meat and dairy, even if it only forms a part of the item, and no distinction about fresh or not.

I've not checked about pet food but I thought dog food etc was illegal. It's all about bringing unwanted bugs into the EU not what it actually is, just like most of the rest of the world

Subscribers  do not see these advertisements

 
Upvote 0
We took dry cured bacon, cheese, Tuna in fact everything we normally do in September. The officials aren't interested in what's in the fridge, and rightly so (I think they maybe suffering from a bout of common sense 😏) now if you had a refrigerated trailer full the response maybe different.

Lidl at Albir near Benidorm sell British bacon anyway, just vacuum packed mass produced crap, but you can live on it 😊👍
 
Upvote 0
Mikeco said:
I have a secret compartment under the floor, well it was a secret until I told you so keep it to yourself, so unless they have a milk/chicken/ weetabix sniffer dog we should be okay.
Click to expand...
Even a sniffer dog still in training can find bacon in a motorhome!
Only safe place might be outside on the roof!
 
Upvote 0
Tonks said:
Allegedly, the customs of France, Belgium, the Netherlands and Spain have taken on an additional 2000 staff to increase checks of vehicles travelling from the UK to their 'main points of entry'.
Click to expand...
No 'Allegedly' about it.

Netherlands alone took on 4,000 extra customs/clearance staff just to deal with UK imports/exports.
They started employing new staff within a month of the Brexit vote in 2016 to ensure all the new staff were full trained and in post by the end of 2020.
The Pandemic gave them an extra 18 months to fine tune what was needed.

France did something similar, although their intake included security staff as well.

Spain has also increased it's staff numbers considerably, but not to the same degree as NL and FR.
The UK is lagging behind again, as back in 2016 it was estimated 50,000 extra staff would be needed.
The queues on the M20, and the 20% drop in exports tell you this has not been done.
 
Upvote 0
We came out to Spain mid November. No checks on motorhome contents whatsoever. I accept it is not legal to bring dairy and meat but haven’t met anyone yet who had a check

Subscribers  do not see these advertisements

 
Upvote 0
We arrived in Santander on 29th Dec. No internal checks at all.
 
Upvote 0
Mikeco said:
I have a secret compartment under the floor, well it was a secret until I told you so keep it to yourself, so unless they have a milk/chicken/ weetabix sniffer dog we should be okay.
Click to expand...
And you are winging about someone giving a B.F. discount ....... blimey....... get a life
 
Upvote 0
I know it was largely a joke, but if you do decide to smuggle cheese and bacon. Do so openly in the fridge. If they find contraband in a secret compartment, you'll get rubber gloves, deportation and a Schengen ban as soon as you know it. In the unlikely event they look inside your fridge, you'll get a mild bollocking, confiscation and an "enjoy your stay".

Subscribers  do not see these advertisements

 
Upvote 0
TinaL said:
Fingers crossed you should be able to find cured ham/meats that is pretty close to our Bacon in the large supermarkets, cheese also, probably not Cathedral City Cheddar though.
It always fascinated me when travelling abroad, in how in many countries they would have bacon & sausage lookalikes, but they tasted somewhat different.:giggle:
I just put it down to the fact I was away on holiday, all part of the foreign experience.
However I always took some English teabags in my suitcase, as I hate Liptons Teas, especially with that sill string hanging out the cup.o_O
Have fun.
LES
Click to expand...

Couldn’t agree more… I’ve 1200 tea bags onboard as we are in Europe for at least three months and I can’t live without my tea! 👌
 
Upvote 0
Can anyone please bring us some English cheese and a couple of pounds of best smokey, been in Spain now for 23 years, we are missing it so much (Not) all this European foodstuff is terrible, fresh vegetables and salad picked the previous day, 300 different cheese types, wine to die for...fish by the bucket full....I have to stop now, so Homesick....I do miss a good Pork pie though.....(y):LOL::cool:
 
Upvote 0
since covid started we have been to France twice & the French border police are only concerned in seeing your antigen test results & your vaccination proof so i cant see any difference with your crossing
 
Upvote 0

Join us or log in to post a reply.

To join in you must be a member of MotorhomeFun

Join MotorhomeFun

Join us, it quick and easy!

Join us

Log in

Already a member? Log in here.

Latest journal entries

Back
Top