The British Meat Processors Association and the British Poultry Council are demanding urgent action from ministers to protect food supplies as the festive favourite is put at risk

New restrictions on administering drugs to healthy animals come into force across EU to tackle critical overuse, but UK fails to follow suit.

Export health certificates on food from the EU will now only be needed from July 1 next year - instead of October 1 under previous plans - after a crisis of lost lorry drivers and empty shelves.

The sector relies on labour from the EU that is no longer available, producer Paul Kelly of KellyBronze said.

Firms will have to pass on extra costs of red tape, warns Fresh Produce Consortium.

The UK faces shortages of British-produced meat as problems with recruitment continue, the industry has warned.

The British Poultry Council’s chief executive has warned that an ongoing lack of reciprocity in UK-EU trade risks “normalising unfair trade with our largest and most important trading partner”.

A shortage of chicken, which forced restaurants like Nando's and KFC to close or change their menu, is being blamed on Brexit.

The comments came after Nando's announced that 45 of its restaurants would temporarily shut due to supply chain disruptions and KFC said some of its products would not be available.

Britain's turkey farmers will do their best to ensure Christmas "is as normal as it can be" but shortages are likely, an industry representative has warned.

Chicken supply chain shortages, that have caused problems for both KFC and Nando's in the last week, is the result of Brexit, says the boss of the British Poultry Council.

Richard Griffiths, chief executive of the British Poultry Council, said the ban on so-called 'low skilled' workers has been a hammer blow to the supply chain - and therefore to chicken-lovers everywhere.

Many Brits will be forced to go without a Christmas turkey this year because of Brexit labour shortages, MPs were told this afternoon.

Brexit is making the current record outbreak of avian influenza (AI) far more difficult to deal with according to the British Poultry Council (BPC).

At this point, asymmetry of UK-EU trade dynamics verges dangerously on the edge of being normalised. Food import checks have been postponed four times over the past two years, symbolic not only of the unlevel playing field that continues to penalise British poultry meat exporters but adding to inflating production costs as a reminder that Brexit is Unfinished Business.

New Brexit checks introduced in January are continuing to restrict trade between the UK and EU, according to new figures from the Office of National Statistics.

For the past two years now, British poultry businesses that trade with the EU have faced a double standard.