According to The Guardian newspaper, UK cheeses were "robbed of the chance to compete with the world’s best”

As John Farrand, director of the Guild of Fine Food, which organises the event, explained to the British publication, incidents like this can happen "occasionally", but the company receives an annual license to import cheese and British cheese producers complied with all conditions.

"The reasons are not clear to me, even on Friday we were still fighting to get some clarity and clear instruction on what wasn’t right, but we had no success,” said Farrand, adding that 252 cheeses from 67 manufacturers may have been affected.

It is not known, at the moment, what caused the cheeses not to be cleared through customs, but the person responsible acknowledged that "before Brexit, this would not have happened". "It's a fact," he stressed.

The winner of the event was the buttery sheep's cheese from Queijaria Quinta do Pomar, in the parish of Soalheira, municipality of Fundão.