Food across the border

[Bertie9396]

Hi all. We are leaving next Friday morning for our drive down to Orlando!

Since we are leaving very early DD will likely sleep in the car most of the way until we get to the border around 8 a.m. I would like to pack her little school lunch bag with things like yogurt, grapes, granola bars, juice etc for her to eat in case she gets hungry and we aren't quite ready to stop. I also was hoping to bring some sandwiches for our lunch that day as well in a small, soft cooler with drinks, chips, etc.

Will this be a problem going across the border? I had heard from someone who heard from someone that this wasn't permitted. I'm not talking about a case of fruit or anything. Just enough to save something to eat easy on the road if we want.

TIA for you help!

 

[dsneygirl]

Pre-packaged food is usually not a problem. Fruit and meat you could be asked to abandon.

 

[scboyd]

It all depends on the border patrol that you get. We have been asked to discard hot dogs and apples on one trip. and on other trips we didn't have any problems with bringing our camping food in. Be honest and forth coming and they are usually pretty good.

I had to laugh when I saw that you are assuming your DD will sleep in the car. Our DS (4) and DD (2) were suppose to sleep through the night, we left at 8 pm and drove to Tennessee and they didn't fall asleep until 4am....

If u are taking I75, walmart and rest stops will be your friends. There are many on the way that allow her little legs to stretch.
Have a great trip!

scboyd

 

[cslittle999]

The rules say that you can't bring fresh fruit, vegetables or meat. As dsneygirl said prepackage food is the way to go. Here is a link on what is and isn't allowed:

http://www.cbp.gov/xp/cgov/travel/vacation/kbyg/prohibited_restricted.xml#FoodProductsPrepared

I laughed about your DD sleeping too. Our kids never did on any of our trips and we leave at 5 AM.

 

[ccudmore]

And no Kinder Surprise eggs.

 

[Bertie9396]

Thanks for the info. I'm hopeful DD will sleep but if she doesn't, that's OK too. Either way, I know she won't want to eat before we leave. I think I'll stock up on granola bars and juice boxes, etc. I'll pack a sandwich each and if we have to toss it, we have to toss it. Its just the first day I care about anyway.

 

[Bertie9396]

And no Kinder Surprise eggs.

My kid on an extended road trip with chocolate is not something I'm willing to attempt anyway.

But really? Why are they not allowed? Do people try and smuggle stuff in them or something?

 

[dntd]

Kids have died from kinder toys but AFTER the treat was aten. If we stopped selling things that kids could choke on we wouldn't have much of anything at all! I trust my kids not to put the toys in thier mouths because they are over 3

 

[ccudmore]

Here's the story on Kinder eggs:
http://www.cbc.ca/news/story/2011/01/10/man-kinder-surprise-border.html

 

[MamaLema]

I had to laugh when I saw that you are assuming your DD will sleep in the car. Our DS (4) and DD (2) were suppose to sleep through the night, we left at 8 pm and drove to Tennessee and they didn't fall asleep until 4am....

We left at 9 am and the kids didn't sleep until 4 am

I hate wasting money so we never bring any meat or fruit across the border in case they make us throw it out.

 

[mombrontrent]

We live in Barrie too! We are also driving but not until the end of April. Me and DH were just talking about this on the weekend. We were talking about bringing snacks and drinks across the border with us. I am going to try anyway, hoping it will be fine as long as I don't pack any produce (although DH pointed out that any fruit we wanted to bring over was probably from the U.S. anywys, so it would have already crossed the border once).

 

[networktek]

it all depends on who you get we find that the fort erie crossing to be alot faster and easier the lewiston and peace bridge we always get a hard time crossing

 

[cslittle999]

We live in Barrie too! We are also driving but not until the end of April. Me and DH were just talking about this on the weekend. We were talking about bringing snacks and drinks across the border with us. I am going to try anyway, hoping it will be fine as long as I don't pack any produce (although DH pointed out that any fruit we wanted to bring over was probably from the U.S. anywys, so it would have already crossed the border once).

If you want to try and bring fruit over the border it needs to be in its original packaging and include the country of original. Both of these tend to be challenging because you want to wash most of the fruit to make it easier to eat while you drive. We've never had any problems with snacks. I suppose that beef/turkey jerky might be a problem. There are no restrictions on drinks beyond alcohol.