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Can we bring specialty food in checked luggage?

Can we bring specialty food in checked luggage?

Old Jan 18th 2013, 2:47 pm
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Default Can we bring specialty food in checked luggage?

Our family is due to fly to US on 28th Jan. I love cooking and I do have a lot of specialty food that you can't buy from supermarket. When we had the home survey, we've been told that food are definitely not allowed through custom. And we do came across a case at Chicago airport where a dog sniffed some dried apple in a lady's handbag and she was fined on the spot. But on the check list of leaving UK here, people are advised to take on the food that you can't buy in the US. I tried to check on the airline regulations, food are not on the prohibited items list. So can I ask other people who have done the same journey, have you all brought some food through in checked luggage? If so, do you need to declare them at custom? Thanks!
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Old Jan 18th 2013, 2:52 pm
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Default Re: Can we bring specialty food in checked luggage?

Fresh foods are definitely not allowed. For other food items it may depend on the type of food and the type of packaging. We've had no trouble with spices and seasonings in hermetically sealed packaging, but have sometimes been relieved of things in jars.

It makes no difference whether the items are in carry-on or checked luggage.

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Old Jan 18th 2013, 3:10 pm
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Default Re: Can we bring specialty food in checked luggage?

No meat products of any sort. Full stop, no exceptions - so watch out for animal fats in any baked or processes foods.
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Old Jan 18th 2013, 3:40 pm
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Default Re: Can we bring specialty food in checked luggage?

After a 2 week UK visit over Thanksgiving, we took the opportunity to buy Xmas goodies from M&S, including the biggest Xmas pudding they sold.

Flying from Cardiff to Houston via Amsterdam, we didn't want to add the pudding bulk to the already at the weight limit suitcases (which were actually over when we checked in - guess my parents' bathroom scales are a bit out), so my wife had it in her backpack.

Going through Cardiff security/x-ray no prob, but at AMS, we were told that it was going to be confiscated because "pudding means it's liquid". We argued with them, got supervisors etc to come over, they examined the picture on the box, looked at the ingredients etc, and eventually decided to let us keep it . . . and very nice it was too!

The brandy butter didn't make it through Cardiff security because it was in a glass jar :-(
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Old Jan 18th 2013, 4:11 pm
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Default Re: Can we bring specialty food in checked luggage?

Originally Posted by jeffreyhy
Fresh foods are definitely not allowed. For other food items it may depend on the type of food and the type of packaging. We've had no trouble with spices and seasonings in hermetically sealed packaging, but have sometimes been relieved of things in jars.

It makes no difference whether the items are in carry-on or checked luggage.

Regards, JEff
Not true...some fresh food is allowed. I have brought packs of Cheshire Cheese into the US and declared it on the customs forums. I have brought all sorts of foodstuff back from the UK. The only problem I have encountered is tea bags. The customs officer looks at the list of declared items and says 'tea...your bags will have to go through x-ray'.

Anything containing beef products is banned due to mad cow disease...as is soft cheeses.

The OP should look on the government website...there is a list of prohibited foods. Google is your friend.

Originally Posted by Pulaski
No meat products of any sort. Full stop, no exceptions - so watch out for animal fats in any baked or processes foods.
Not strictly true.

Edit: This should help the OP https://help.cbp.gov/app/answers/det...r-personal-use

Last edited by Jerseygirl; Jan 18th 2013 at 4:22 pm.
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Old Jan 18th 2013, 6:03 pm
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Default Re: Can we bring specialty food in checked luggage?

Originally Posted by Jerseygirl
....... Not strictly true. ......
I'll concede that point as bring technically correct, BUT if you read what is prohibited completely and what is prohibited when brought from the UK, and it'd be challenge to find a meat, or product containing meat, that would be permitted to be brought from the UK.

Addendum: Sorry, you can bring in canned pork and ham, ..... though I'm not sure why you'd want to.

Last edited by Pulaski; Jan 18th 2013 at 6:11 pm.
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Old Jan 18th 2013, 6:33 pm
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Default Re: Can we bring specialty food in checked luggage?

My son brought in a Christmas pudding (landed at Boston.) Very nice it was too. Also lots of tea for me, it was all loose tea not those bloody tea bag thingies that seem to be so popular now. In the past he's brought in Mr. Kipling cakes and Tesco deep dish bramley apple pies etc. etc.

I did bring some tinned ox tongue in from England once and I was selected for going through my checked and carry before they admitted me at YOW. The guy looked at the tin and let it through. Driving into the US a couple of hours later, I think I must have forgotten to mention it to the border guards ..

What are the early symptoms of nvCJD anyway?
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Old Jan 18th 2013, 6:36 pm
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Default Re: Can we bring specialty food in checked luggage?

Check the box on the customs form that asks if you're carrying food. The immigration inspector (the first one you meet) should spot that and ask you what food you have. If he/she feels anything you declare may be problematic, then they'll annotate your customs form and you'll be asked to open your bags and show the food you've brought when you go through customs after you've collected your checked bags. (This is NOT the same as a secondary immigration inspection). If the customs and agriculture inspector finds something that isn't allowed into the US, he/she will confiscate it. You won't be fined because you declared the item.

Interestingly I passed through the US pre-clearance at Dublin last weekend, and whilst I had ticked the food box, the immigration inspector didn't ask me about food (just tea, biccies and chocolates) at all. Your bags (checked and unchecked) are X-rayed by US customs at DUB so I guess if they'd spotted something they didn't like they'd've pulled it then.
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Old Jan 18th 2013, 6:42 pm
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Default Re: Can we bring specialty food in checked luggage?

I regularly bring tea, biccies, candy, wine, and Scotch (the booze purchased in duty-free) in my carry-on, and wine, honey, and preserves in my checked baggage, from South America, Europe, and the UK. The only time I got in trouble was when I declared sausages after a trip to Germany and got sent to have my stuff examined in Customs at IAH. I honestly had no idea I wasn't supposed to have them, and they were confiscated, but I was not otherwise in trouble and I got to keep everything else.
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Old Jan 18th 2013, 9:02 pm
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Default Re: Can we bring specialty food in checked luggage?

Thanks for all the help here. I am from China and I do have some dried food such as mushrooms (I know about no meat) and cooking spices which I not sure I can find them in OK. The only problem is, most of the labels are in Chinese so I might have difficulty convincing the custom officer. But will certainly try!
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Old Jan 18th 2013, 10:21 pm
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Default Re: Can we bring specialty food in checked luggage?

Originally Posted by shullen
Thanks for all the help here. I am from China and I do have some dried food such as mushrooms (I know about no meat) and cooking spices which I not sure I can find them in OK. The only problem is, most of the labels are in Chinese so I might have difficulty convincing the custom officer. But will certainly try!
Oddly, my husband and I were going down to the Chinese supermarket (Jusgo) here in Houston. If it can be imported from China, these people have got it. I don't know about Oklahoma but I know that you will be likely to find your spices available in the US by mail-order if not in an actual shop. Hell, if I could read Chinese (I'm a mostly illiterate American) I'd offer to find and send them to you myself, Houston being the huge immigrant port that it is. One of my co-workers immigrated from Shanghai a couple months ago and I can ask him. He does bring tea to the US when he visits.
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Old Jan 19th 2013, 3:02 am
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Default Re: Can we bring specialty food in checked luggage?

Originally Posted by Jerseygirl
Anything containing beef products is banned due to mad cow disease...
oooooops

I inadvertently broke the rules with a couple of small tins of corned beef (long story) last year. It originated from Brazil though, don't think they have BSE do they?

I've never declared any food on my form, if asked I have volunteered about the Jaffa cakes and cadburys products that are inevitably in my suitcase, but the officials have always dismissed those with a wave of their hands.

I'd better make some corned beef hash quick in case I get raided......

Thanks for the link, will stick to the Jaffa cakes and chocs in the future...
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Old Jan 19th 2013, 5:23 am
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Default Re: Can we bring specialty food in checked luggage?

Originally Posted by robin1234
Driving into the US a couple of hours later, I think I must have forgotten to mention it to the border guards ..

What are the early symptoms of nvCJD anyway?
Memory loss
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Old Jan 19th 2013, 6:17 am
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Default Re: Can we bring specialty food in checked luggage?

Originally Posted by Speedwell
Hell, if I could read Chinese (I'm a mostly illiterate American) I'd offer to find and send them to you myself, Houston being the huge immigrant port that it is. One of my co-workers immigrated from Shanghai a couple months ago and I can ask him. He does bring tea to the US when he visits.
Thanks! Our container has just gone through the port in Houston so it must be big!

I live in Manchester, UK. What I find is that Chinese supermarket here sells Cantonese make and style of cooking mostly. It might be different in the US. We'll fly through Washington which I guess will be the first check. So since so many people here have successfully bring food over, I'll risk it by not listening to the moving adviser.
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Old Jan 19th 2013, 1:05 pm
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Default Re: Can we bring specialty food in checked luggage?

Originally Posted by Pulaski
No meat products of any sort. Full stop, no exceptions - so watch out for animal fats in any baked or processes foods.
Though chances of success would depend on the airport...it seems from reading the forums, Oxo cubes get stung in Florida a lot more than if flying into the Midwest.

Don't know how my mother was able to bring in Bovril into Boston, shame as I hate the stuff and asked for Marmite on her last trip

But anyway, things still sealed up and new usually aren't a problem, it's anything that's open.

As for Chinese food stuffs, don't know where you're heading, but there's a fairly large Korean grocery chain on the east coast at least called H-Mart and the one I've been too which is one of the smaller ones, was half Chinese/Japanese with a good Brit section too. They had everything, including imported Japanese AC units, fridges and toilet seats.
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