The UK imports more than a third of its food through four major ports, according to the Cold Chain Federation (CCF), which represents 460 cold‑storage sites and about 100,000 lorries. CCF chief executive Phil Pluck warned that international conflicts, border hold‑ups, fuel shortages, flooding or extreme heat could empty supermarket shelves, and said companies in the cold chain face frequent attempted cyber‑attacks; the continued closure of the Strait of Hormuz is disrupting global fertiliser flows. The federation’s white paper calls for cold stores and transport hubs to be designated critical infrastructure, staff to be given permanent essential‑worker status, and the Cabinet Office to take overall resilience responsibility. A government spokesperson stated that the food sector is already one of the UK’s 13 critical national infrastructure sectors.