LilyLace, it sounds like your unfortunate friend ran into some gung-ho customs agents! I have repeatedly (and I do mean repeatedly, being an incurable chocoholic) been told by customs agents that candy and cookies are allowed. Also, I've travelled several times with a friend who shops more than I do, and when she's gone over the exemption (formerly $400, now $800), she's declared and has just been asked to pay duty, she hasn't been searched. I guess my friends are luckier than yours!

I found this on the U.S. Customs website, in their "Know Before You Go" brochure:

"You may bring bakery items and certain cheeses into the United States."

Could this be the definitive cookie answer?

For other foods (meats, cheeses, fruits & vegs), the brochure isn't too specific, but refers you to a Dep't of Agriculture site that I couldn't open....

Well, your cookies and other baked goods are ok to bring back home. Whether or not you get stopped and have them confiscated is another story and also if you do or don't declare them.
But I'm pretty sure that once you're stopped and checked your name goes into their computer system and you'll be stopped forever. Because my family of 3 including myself were searched in 2002 and every returning trip home to SFO I've been taken aside. This past Feb. only had the one small luggage and the backpack with the pastries. My aunt and I got throug Immigration and the agent marked both of our cards. However, she was told to exit and I was told to go to the hand search line. The agent just looked at my baggage and waved me through without searching. I guess she could tell I didn't have anything to search for as the others who were carrying boxes big enough to hold wide screen TV's filled of whatever, one guy had jars of preserved stuff, etc.
But I'm certain I'll be sent to that line next time I return home. I feel once you're marked you'll always be marked. Stupid system it is.

KT,
I have no doubt that cookies are ok, I really think the agent was just being nasty. As for the meat, well we all know that wasn't right.

I have never been stopped and I travel out of the country at least 3 times a year for the past 15 years. I also never take a chance and mark more than $200 or $300 down on my card.

Francophile: You might be on to something, I work with a woman who holds a dual citizenship (French/Potuguese), and she claims they pick on her everytime in the US. One agent even asked her if she knew she was taking a US job by holding a working VISA!

SuzieC

>..just for my information... we can bring home canned meats, right? (back to the issue of fois gras) <

NO. Meat of any kind is not permitted, no matter how it is packed. (I'm surprised about the sausage getting through.)

HOWEVER: canned fois gras, confit de canard and pate from geese and ducks is not considered to be meat.

Aged cheeses (parmigiano, gruyere) are permitted.

This is what I was told when I called the USDA.

The allowance is now $800 instead of $400 per person.

The $ allowance has increased? Then that means more pastries, chocolates, etc. :)

"The $ allowance has increased? Then that means more pastries, chocolates, etc"

Almost 2 years ago.

Some of the guide books printed since then still have the old numbers.

Keith

Yes, Missypie. My friend was detained for two hours after returning to Philadelphia from Dublin because a dog "smelled" an orange in her bag.

Lilylace, the same thing happened to my friend, Alexandra, when she returned to US from Brazil. Because she is not a US citizen and was travelling without her American husband, Customs agents seized her chocolate and told her they had to "taste" it to make sure that it was chocolate and not drugs. They ended up eating all of it!

It's my understanding that ALL French meat products, including foie gras and other processed meats, have been banned since February 24. In addition to the article below (and others easily found on Google), this has been confirmed in the monthly newsletter I get from the Joie de Vivre catalog, from which you used to be able to purchase foie gras and similar products.

http://www.meatnews.com/index.cfm?fu...mp;artNum=7011

obxgirl and rkkwan: thank you for having replied. Though reading all the other anwers I am still not convinced, I'll try to bring some chocolates for our American friends.

What aren't you convinced of, that customs will seize your chocolates?

StCirq, just last month, I declared a tin of foie gras and specifically told the customs agent that I had it and it was no problem. He didn't even ask to see it and my bags were not inspected.

Iregeo: I think you probably gotlucky, or maybe there's been a recent reversal in the law that I don't know about. I know the French are contesting the ban fairly strongly.

I came through in April with a large bag of dried cèpes. The Ag agent clearly had no idea whether it was allowable or not - he hemmed and hawed a bit and then just waved me through. Have you ever seen that book of regulations they use to determine if something is allowable? It's the size of Rhode Island! I tried to bring a jar of goose fat in a few years ago and had to wait interminably while the agent pored over that book to see if goose fat was listed. It was, and she took it away from me. I just don't think there's really much consistency in the way the regulations are applied.

But anyway, you got your foie gras, and that's what counts!

Not to belabor the point, but it is my understanding that foie gras in glass jars is "tabu", while its canned counterpart is o.k. My friend who lives in France initially told me that, and the point was reinforced by various foie gras merchants. Since it was permitted in the country, I assume that is the law.

When we re-entered the US at Charlotte in mid-April, dried sausage (summer sausage) we had bought in Austria was confiscated. We had loads of chocolate, and checked that we had food. We told them about the chocolate, but honestly forgot the sausage. They put our bags through a machine, then opened the one with sausage and found it. "No meat from Germany," said the inspector. I had thought that a vacuum sealed, dried meat product would be allowable. Wrong.

Vera

aboout cheese from italy its ok as long as its a hard cheese. they do not allow the soft spreadable cheeses especially made fro unpasteurized milk. as long as it has the consistance of cheddar cheese and is well wraped in plastic there has never been a problem.

Hi StCirq! Well, I haven't done the legal research myself, so all I know is what my American friend living in France told me, which was confirmed by two separate merchants: yes on canned, no on glass. Note that the merchants did NOT say anything goes. I guess I know one other thing -- that foie gras I took home was good! I hope others travelling this summer have the good fortune to partake of this wonderful delacacy!

mmmmMMmmmmMMMMM Foie Gras !!!!!

I found this in a 2003 APHIS fact sheet --

Meat and Meat Products

Regulations prohibit you from bringing in fresh, dried, and canned meats and meat products from most foreign countries. If any meat is used in preparing a product, that product is prohibited. Commercially canned meat is allowed if the inspector can determine from the label that the meat was cooked in the can after it was sealed to make it shelf-stable without refrigeration.

Animal disease organisms can live for months in sausage and other meat, including many types of canned hams sold abroad. Foot-and-mouth disease and African swine fever are just two of several dreaded foreign livestock diseases that could cost the U.S. livestock industry billions to eradicate, cause higher food prices, and eliminate export markets.

USDA regulations regarding the importation of meat and meat products can be found in Title 9 of the Code of Federal Regulations, Part 94.



A cursory review (I haven't read it at length) indicates that meats from some, not all countries are prohibited. Also, it does seem to make some exception for some canned meats that are shelf stable without refrigeration.