NATO’s recent drills were designed to intimidate potential adversaries, but there was a fiercer enemy working behind the scenes: bacon. Norwegian authorities panicked after a foreign soldier brought in pork from his home country.

There’s always someone who doesn’t follow the rules. While the 50,000 soldiers from 31 NATO and partner countries apparently knew they weren’t supposed to bring foreign meat products into Norway, one person did it anyway.

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When the cheekiness of the foreign soldier was realized, Norwegian authorities went into freak-out mode over the possibility of the meat having African swine fever, as the epidemic is currently raging in the soldier’s country. They deployed a team of veterinarians and specialists from the Norwegian Food Safety Authority who worked around-the-clock to ensure that Norway didn’t become affected, Dagbladet reported.

Their mission involved thorough inspections of soldiers’ luggage, confiscating food containers and hand luggage which were found to carry a potential health and safety threat, such as those containing milk and egg products from other nations.

The tests ultimately determined that Norway was safe from African swine fever, Colonel Per Leines Lausund told the newspaper, while declining to release the guilty soldier’s nationality. It was a lucky escape, since the colonel said that any outbreak could cost Norway NOK 2 billion ($240 million).

Eastern Europe witnessed several outbreaks of African swine fever over the summer, and Belgium had confirmed eight cases as of late September. China has also been hit hard, with the disease being reported on more than 50 farms across the country.

So while the old phrase ‘bring home the bacon’ is still widely used and relevant, bringing the bacon to NATO war games seems to be an entirely different story.

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