A ban on cheese imports from the UK has been put in place by authorities in China, following an inspection at a UK dairy.
The food inspectors reportedly complained about maintenance, raw milk transport temperatures, chemical storage and air sanitisation.
Currently the UK annually exports only 11.5 tonnes of cheese to China, representing less than 1% of the total exported outside the EU.
But it has turned out that the unnamed dairy inspected does not supply any cheese to China.
The Chinese officials were in the UK ahead of new safety laws coming into force this month on the Chinese mainland.
Under this new inspection regime, overseas suppliers may be subject to checks.
The Chinese inspectors are said now to be working with the UK's Food Standards Agency (FSA). The FSA is set to carry out its own compliance checks, with the temporary suspension is expected to be lifted once the issue has been resolved.
In 2008, most countries stopped importing dairy products from China after six babies died and 300,000 left ill from infant formula tainted with the industrial chemical melamine.
