Border food restrictions?

[disneynovic]

We leave in 12 days, and are driving from just north of Toronto. Does anyone know if there are restrictions on types of food we can bring with us to eat? I understand packaged food is ok, but what about fruit, lunchmeat sandwiches, veggies, lunchables? I want to take a picnic lunch with us, and not sure what could be taken at the border. It will probably be too cold to actually eat a picnic lunch outside, but maybe there will be a place in and around Pittsburg we can stop to eat.

 

[cdnmickeylover]

Here is a link about bringing food into the US

http://www.cbp.gov/xp/cgov/travel/id_visa/arriving_travelers.xml

Basically you can't bring in any fruits, meats and veggies. You are safer to stop at a grocery store on the US side of the border and buy what you want for a picnic (or carnic?? since it might not be warm enough to eat outside of the car).

 

[Jaymie]

We cross all the time and the only problem we've ever had was hot dogs that had beef in them. The border guard actually read all the ingredients on the hot dog package and she said "because there's beef in them, I have to throw them away". And she did and then we were on our way. I even had a friend taking a Mcdonalds hamburg over and they took it away too.

I've had a few loose pieces of fruit with me and never had a problem. But they've also never asked about fruit or veggies when we've crossed. If they ask, I would declare it and if they toss it, oh well.

 

[Timon]

I used to work at the airport and chatted with the US Customs guards all the time. They told me that as long as the fruit has a sticker on it, they tend to let them by.

Just beware, if you have food and don't declare it and they find it, it's a big fine! Once I met a very grumpy passenger who didn't declare his sausage and he told me that he was fined over $400 USD! He told me that he wouldn't make that mistake again

So even if it's just a package of crackers, declare it!!

 

[fallen_angel727]

well I'm from Windsor and travel to michigan and ohio quite often for weekend trips and such. The easiest thing we find is to set aside money for grocries, drinks etc and instead of buying them at home we usually stop at a super walmart or a meijer or something and do our shopping before we leave Detroit. This way we don't worry about boarder crossing problems

 

[rjan67]

I work in the U.S. and travel the border 5x wk. There is no restriction on lunch meat, beef in particular at this time. If your fruit says it is from the U.S. with a sticker or bag that it comes in, it will be fine. That is at the Michigan border. When we travelled to Minnesota this summer, all the border guard asked us is if we had citrus. That was it!