Sniffer dogs at Manchester Airport have been quick to spot holidaymakers' cheese and sausages - but they've not turned up any Class A drugs.
Six dogs, costing £1.25m to house and work, were monitored at Britain's third busiest airport for a report by the Independent Chief Inspector of Borders and Immigration.
Each dog had a speciality and was trained to sniff out illegal drugs, tobacco, cash and animal products at the airport, which sees flights arriving from 200 destinations - more than any airport in the UK.
In six months, the dogs managed to find more than 46,000 cigarettes, 60kg of tobacco, 181kg of illegal meat and £28,000 cash.
They discovered some illegal Class B drugs, as well as tablets such as Viagra, but they have disappointed officials by not finding any Class A drugs.
The report said: "Heroin and cocaine were assessed as 'very high' priority within both air passengers and freight.
Yet, according to the data provided by Border Force, the dogs had made no Class A drugs detections in the period November 2014 to June 2015.
"When deployed, the [animal products] dog made multiple accurate detections, but most were of small amounts of cheese or sausages, wrongly brought back by returning British holidaymakers and posing minimal risk to UK public health."
It suggested the dog's talents would be better employed if specific flights, where there was a higher chance of finding banned "bushmeat", were monitored.
The report concluded that it was difficult to measure the deterrent effect of having the specialist dogs, but the seizures themselves were a low return on the money spent on new kennels and the cost of operating the unit.
It recommended a review to see how to best use the dogs, which would include deciding which flights would be targeted. Managers say they are taking a fresh look at the matter.
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