Forbidden Fruits

It’s always baffled me as to how some people can go without breakfast. For me, breakfast is probably the favourite part of my day (apart from that particularly wonderful, guilty slumber, when you keep on dozing even though you know you should really get up) and it generally consists of a bowl of Weet-Bix and a tall glass of orange juice (hence the desire for that extravagant juicer, jfox!). So you can imagine my horror upon discovering that you can’t have foodstuffs such as wheat products, brought into the U.S. – at least without giving them ‘Prior Notice’.


If you wish to send food over to the States, you need to jump through the hoops of filling out a form detailing what you’re sending over, obtaining a permission number from the consulate, then sticking this number onto your parcel before sending it off. According to the fact sheet that outlines why Prior Notice is required, it allows the Food and Drug Administration to conduct inspections of incoming foodstuffs and detect the ones that could potentially be contaminated.

I guess given what the Yanks have gone through in the past, their caution can be understood. It's more than just foreign (albeit innocent) bugs they're worried about. But the funny thing I noticed about this regulation is the section that outlines exemptions to the rule. If you, as an individual are arriving in the U.S., you don’t have to give any such prior notice of food that you might be carrying, say, in your baggage – even though it’s probably no less likely to pose a hazard as any stuff that is being sent over by well-intentioned family or friends. Go figure!!