Taking Food to Europe in your Fridge

Social media is not a good source much better to check with the appropriate authorities.

From the European Commission on food safety:   LINK here

Legislation
The current rules are laid down in Commission Delegated Regulation (EU) 2019/2122Search for available translations of the preceding linkEN•••, which repeals and replaces the previously applicable Commission Regulation (EC) No 206/2009. This Regulation clearly explains to the general public the rules concerning the introduction of animal products into the EU. Namely:

Travellers are not allowed to bring in meat, milk or their products, unless they are coming with less than 10 kilograms of these products from the Faeroe Islands or Greenland

You won’t be to keep your fridge running on the ferry, as you surmise gas cylinders have to be turned off. It would however if we were allowed to take anything stay cold enough. When we get round to going, I intend to cross with the fridge empty and switched off and shop at the end of the first day of travelling, by which time the fridge should have cooled down nicely.

You must switch your gas off for the ferry and your fridge will then stop working.

Meat and meat products, milk and milk products are not accepted in the EU - if you happen to be the one of the few who are searched by French customs officers then those products may be confiscated. 

If you would like to say where you are landing in France I can suggest shops which will be open.

I don't imagine the regulations will change any time soon so we have to make the best of what we have. I suppose one advantage of an overnight crossing is that you have plenty of time to eat onboard the ferry and be ready for the first day in Europe. Also being in a motorhome you probably have an easier opportunity to pull into the first supermarket you see which might be a bit more difficult with a caravan in tow? Follow Steve's link which will give you the information you need and you may find there is more you can take than you imagine outside of the specific groups of products mentioned.

David

The user and all related content has been Deleted User

The pragmatic response to this is to say that as far as my personal experience of travelling a few times recently to France, there are absolutely no customs checks of caravan fridges. My advice would be to carry on as usual . I certainly am. I would be very interested to hear of anyone who has been searched, no one I have spoken to has.

I think the much publicised confiscation of a ham sandwich when the regulations came into force was actually in the Netherlands. They even had a handy TV news crew to hand to film and report on it!!! So perhaps the French are not so bothered?

David

I usually take a freezer with home made goodies in the boot of the car. Next year I'm tempted to cross with an empty fridge incase I am checked and the freezer under cover in the boot.

 

Colin

Apart from the inconvenience of taking something for the fist night, particularly if crossing on a Sunday, we don’t see it as a problem. We go to France to enjoy their food and drink. It’s one of the main reasons we go.

The user and all related content has been Deleted User

I was not in my motorhome, but in my car when I was hailed down by motorbike riding Douane just outside Rennes, on my way to the ferry at St Malo. This was pre-Brexit, in 2019.

They specifically asked to look in my cool box which was crammed with food stuffs including cheese, butter, milk and several vacuum packs of meat. At the time, according to my understanding, this was not a problem, as the current rules are post-Brexit, and certainly the two men who made a perfunctory search of the contents did not seem to be even remotely concerned. They told me they were looking for tobacco, of which I had none!

Anyway my point is - sometimes they do search and I am not at all sure I would use the word pragmatic to describe flouting these rules. It is hardly sensible or realistic.  

As a matter of interest my neighbour who regularly travels to Belgium, as she has family there, insists that the rules about meat and dairy products has always been in place and not just since Brexit - if anyone knows the facts about this I shall be glad to hear them. Possibly Belgium had its own rules.

Someone will ask: why did I return with all that food? Because after a long time away I hate it when the first thing you have to do on return is a supermarket shop. I prefer to do it before I travel. But now, I can't!