UK could face gaps on supermarket shelves by summer if Iran war continues

Ministers drawing up contingency plans for ‘reasonable worst-case scenario’ if supply of CO2 is disrupted The UK could face some gaps on supermarket shelves this summer if disruption caused by the Iran war continues, with shortages of carbon dioxide potentially hitting supplies of chicken, pork and fizzy drinks. Government ministers are drawing up contingency plans for a “reasonable worst-case scenario” if the key shipping lane of the strait of Hormuz does not reopen, disrupting supplies of the CO2 required by the food industry. Officials from departments including No 10, the Treasury and the Ministry of Defence have run a planning operation named Exercise Turnstone to rehearse various scenarios of how British industry could be affected by a long closure of the strait. The planning exercise run by the government’s Cobra emergency committee, details of which were first reported by the Times, was based on multiple disruptive events happening at once, including the strait still being closed in June, a lack of a permanent peace deal between the US and Iran, and a mechanical failure at one of the UK’s key CO2 plants. The business secretary said on Thursday that the public should be “rea