AIBU to take banned food into EU?

[Hatehairdressers]

We’re flying into Europe on Thursday staying in an AirBnB in an area where shops are going to be very shut for Easter (at least until Saturday).

My plan was to pack a bit of food to see us through a couple of meals - I’ve packed a picnic bag in our hold luggage full of long life stuff like pasta, tuna, and sweetcorn; brioche rolls and hot dogs. Chocolate bars, tea bags and some UHT milk. Applauded myself on my forward planning.

Then I realised we’re not in the EU any more and half this stuff is banned.

AIBU to take it anyway?

Google is your friend

The crap you're planning on bringing in with you will be available at local shops!
I'd rather arrive and go find a convenience shop than spend ours extra in te airport with customs explaining why I've brought random food in with me...

I have checked the actual regulations, and milk chocolate is a dairy product and not allowed.

Google contains as much misinformation as information.

But still don't understand HOW they pick up that someone has foods they shouldn't have?

Sniffer dogs and spot checks.

Then you’ve not read them correctly. You absolutely can take these things in. And fish.

if it really helps soothe you- I’ve spoken to a customs officer in Dover as we were stuck in a queue. And they confirmed it. But crack on believing that if you want.

You may be thinking of the temporary rules that allowed more exemptions, that are now ended.

You can take a certain amount of fish, shellfish, eggs, and honey. You may not take any products containing meat, or dairy. The only current dairy exemption is for infant formulas, special foods and special pet foods for medical reasons.

There are currently no exemptions for dairy chocolate in the rules, which you can read here: https://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/EN/TXT/HTML/?uri=CELEX:32019R2122&from=EN

and explanation here:

Did we ever find out where OP is going? Just take them out for a pizza Thursday night! Friday buy some rolls and cheese or whatever from a service station for lunch. Take a pack of breakfast cereal. What a drama about nothing.

We've driven to France every year since Brexit shitshow and I always take a pack of breakfast cereal, a multipack of coke zero, sandwiches and apples for the journey etc and nobody has ever said anything or cared,even the French border people who peer in the car and have seen it. I fly all over the place and alway have cereal bars in my rucksack, some have chocolate chips in! Nobody has ever confiscated them and they are clearly on show in the outside net pocket.

There are animal and plant diseases in other countries that we don't have in the U.K. (and vice versa) you could cause huge problems. Plant diseases aren't always obvious. There are massive signs about this in Manchester airport. Same for meat and particularly pork, we don't want African Swine Fever here.
Don't be so selfish just because you think you can get away with it, you can buy pretty much everything here anyway.

To be fair @Thisisworsethananticpated sounds like they didn't know the rules. The selfish bit is aimed at those who do and don't care. We farm so I'm invested in this.

No it isn't, stop spreading fake news.

It's not fake news, its a fact. The info is widely available.

Can you point to the article in th regulations that allows an exemption for chocolate?

@OMGitsnotgood

But still don't understand HOW they pick up that someone has foods they shouldn't have? I wonder whether there are some sort of scanners or sensors as you go through customs? We fly many times a year from a major airport and have never once seen any customs checks.

You rarely if ever see customs checks outbound from UK.

At the other end I'm not convinced there's much bag scanning going on inbound as many people are making out, certainly into the EU (elsewhere it's very different).

However there is the risk of checks - most countries inbound checks are random and you simply get pulled over....OTOH there's what's know as intelligence based searching going on but when that happens it's unlikely they are looking for sausage smugglers.

TBH overall though I'm sort of surprised at the casual nature of some of the replies, at the end of the day breaching the customs regs is breaking the law.

I wonder what the response would be to an AIBU about doing 35 MPH in a 30 zone?

Chocolate containing less than 50% dairy is exempted

Sorry that's blurry but it's right at the bottom of the eu regulations

🤣🤣 oh how true!! They positively salivate at the chance to remind us. Again. And again. And again.

Enjoy your holiday OP. For what it's worth we've taken chocolate into the EU (in hand luggage) a few times over the past 9months. No issue whatsoever.

I wonder what the response would be to an AIBU about doing 35 MPH in a 30 zone?

But that is a safety issue and there is no safety issue with bringing shelf stable items and and out of the EU. I don't even think there is that much risk of bringing the other stuff. It wasn't considered risky before brexit. The risk has not changed. They just want to charge customs fees on it.

Like someone else pointed out, half of this stuff is produced inside the EU anyway! It's nothing like speeding in a low speed limit zone. It's not Australia where they have an incredibly delicate balance of stuff. The channel is not even that wide, I bet birds fly over it all the time.

I'm sure that you can take chocolate, even though it contains dairy. It's highly processed so shouldn't matter.

The reason why you aren't allowed to bring dairy and meat is due to diseases, they can't be spread through chocolate. I've received chocolate as a gift from people who visited me from all kinds of countries ranging from France and Australia to South Korea.

Chocolate should be fine.

We've just had a visitor from a European country. They bought cheese with them in their hand luggage. Obviously wasn't confiscated as we've eaten it. I had no idea he wasn't allowed to bring it into the country.

@BertieBotts

But that is a safety issue and there is no safety issue with bringing shelf stable items and and out of the EU.

Maybe, maybe maybe not... regardless of what we think in the real world if you end up with a customs check you will be dealing with their rules...and that includes the restrictions of foodstuffs.

Standing in front of a customs officer and saying "Well I brought these in since I didn't see the point in that rule..." doesn't tend to get you very far.

The reality is the OP probably will be alright entering the EU but if by some small chance they get checked they have to accept they might well face sanctions...and then the responses to the AIBU that started the thread are a bit irrelevant.

If they do get sanctioned then I really hope they then don't pop up again with an AIBU of: "to think customs were being unreasonable in telling me off, fining me and removing my banned food"..

I know the restrictions for bringing INTO the UK were waived multiple times. Tbh I don't know where we are currently at with checks but they certainly were not introduced due to complications at our end in our inability to actually enforce even if we did. So it has been a one way issue for at least some time after we brexitted.

So he may well have been completely within the law anyway.

Don't you just love it when someone says 'ive checked the regulations' and they don't believe you...

We are eurocamping this summer and this was our plan as well, because the supermarkets over there are expensive.

So we are ok to have these things in our home luggage? I was planning on taking pasta, pesto, sweetcorn, tomato sauce, tea, coffee, kids snacks....will that be ok?

I had no idea!

there was a lot of discussion at the time it was all finally implemented, truck drivers having their cheese sandwiches confiscated and so on.

To answer OPs question: yes. YABVU

Check what is allowed and take that.

absolutey invested in finiding out where this shopping desert is though. Even in Germany where music is actually banned on Good Friday (and 1st November) (i mean you can play it at home or on headphones, but if you're too loud you can bet your bottom dollar someone will complain. I have seen this happen. More than once.) you can get something to eat on Thursday. Supermarkets are generally open until 8pm if not 10 pm. (Friday though? EVERYTHING is verboten and closed)

Not at all, your not being unreasonable, your being stupid 😂

Were you sober when you posted this?