Dumb question... Can you take fruit on a plane??

[proud_canadian]

Can you take fresh fruits or vegetables for a snack on a plane? For some reason I think I heard you are not supposed to take produce into another country.

We are coming from Canada.

 

[jsilvers]

Can you take fresh fruits or vegetables for a snack on a plane? For some reason I think I heard you are not supposed to take produce into another country.

We are coming from Canada.

The answer is: It depends.

You don't say where you're starting from in Canada, but for most flights to the U.S., passengers clear customs in Canada, and arrive in the U.S. as domestic passengers. So if U.S. Customs has an issue with a piece of fruit/vegetable, they'll take it away from you even before you get to the plane.

Whether they actually will, however, is hard to tell - the guidelines for what fruit/vegetable is and isn't permitted are vague at best (see, for example, http://www.cbp.gov/xp/cgov/travel/clearing/agri_prod_inus.xml).

Of course, if you're on one of the few flights that doesn't clear customs until arrival in the U.S., you should be free to munch whatever fruit/vegetable you want, so long as you get rid of it before arrival.

 

[Missytara]

Can you take fresh fruits or vegetables for a snack on a plane? For some reason I think I heard you are not supposed to take produce into another country.

We are coming from Canada.

The US does not allow you to bring fruit from some countries, but they do allow it from Canada. You may have to declare it at the airport.

This happens a lot on cruises; people take a few pieces of fruit from breakfast to eat on the plane and it gets confiscated at the customs area. That is because some countries don't enforce the use of pesticides, etc. like we do.

 

[SDSorority]

You're good! Canada is a-ok

 

[clanmcculloch]

Driving from Canada to the US we've had customs tell us that we can't bring in citrus fruit that's not peeled. As long as it's peeled we're fine. Even the border officers say it in a way that makes it clear they just enforce the rules and don't necessarily agree that they make sense, but that's the rule we've encountered. I would think the same rules apply to all Canada to US border crossings whether they're by land or air. We've never had a problem with grapes, bananas, apples, pears or plums which we frequently have in our cooler which border agents have opened and seen.

 

[WalkingintheFog]

I've brought a bag of Nova Scotian apples the last 2 trips, and both times it seemed to be that as long as they could "clearly see" the fruit originated in Canada they were okay with it.

 

[Elmo007]

While it is not another country, you cant leave from Puerto Rico without going through a USDA inspection