Are there restrictions on taking nosh in your suitcase to the US?

[rollonthesummer]

I was thinking about taking some specific snacks (certain cereal bars/biscuits) for the kids in my hold luggage for whilst we are out there but have been told (by someone who's never been) that you can't take food with you to America (Disney). Is that correct?

Shamelessly bumping to see if anyone in the evening crowd can help?

You can take biscuits and snacks! Just no fruit, raisins etc.

You can't take Kinder Eggs tho

You can't take:
Fruit or vegetable products (including dry fruit)
Dairy products
Meat products

Think grains are ok but best to check with your airline on that one.

https://www.cbp.gov/travel/international-visitors/agricultural-items there are links on here. Prepacked cereal bars/biscuits should be fine

You know they have cereal bars in the USA right? And it's cheap!

No haggis.

Hmmmm, we are staying in a Disney hotel for the first week with no car (this is a 'free holiday' gift, not one we booked ourselves). Nothing seems to be cheap!

Thank you so much for the replies-what about marmite

I would suspect if the rule is 'no food at Disney' it's because they want you to but theirs.

Whatever about the rules for getting into the US, we had no problems once there going to a supermarket and bringing quite a few snacks into Disney most days. We'd buy some food there but always had snacks with us - in summer 2013, Orlando.

90% of my suitcase is good whenever I come back to the States

I would suspect if the rule is 'no food at Disney' it's because they want you to but theirs.

Im not talking about Disney specifically, more what's allowed in a suitcase coming into the US. I just explained where we were staying to explain why we couldn't do a supermarket shop easily.

I really would like to pack...
Cereal bars
A certain type of biscuits
Marmite
Tortilla wraps

All things I know my very picky 5 year old will eat

DM arrived in Miami with a satsuma in her handbag, and she was immediately accosted by a sniffer dog. They actually had a dog at the airport trained to seek out prohibited food in people's luggage.

She didn't get into trouble, but they confiscated her satsuma!

But I'm sure you are OK with crisps and snacks - it's fresh stuff that is more of a problem.

You'll be fine with those. Fruit, veg, fresh/dried meats are the big issues.

I would read this:-

help.cbp.gov/app/answers/detail/a_id/3619/~/travelers-bringing-food-into-the-u.s.-for-personal-use

The marmite, cereal bars and biscuits are certainly fine. Commercially packaged and processed foodstuffs are generally admissible in any case. You may well be asked at immigration if you have food with you.

Am I best off putting the food in just one of our suitcases or spreading it across all 4??

Will I have to answer the customs questions per suitcase or per person or per family??

If you don't have a car, you can have groceries delivered to your hotel. We've used www.gardengrocer.com/ and would recommend them.

And, you can certainly take a few snacks into the Disney parks. They don't allow huge cool boxes on wheels though!

I brought fruit purees, cereal etc as we were arriving midnight and had 2 under 3s so wanted bits for first morning as we were self catering. I went to the declare line and he let everything through no problem. Just no fresh fruit/meats/dairy. Anything packaged was ok.
It was in 1 suitcase with nappies/wipes etc. Basically a days worth of essentails.

Should I put it in one case or across 4?

Customs form is per family

Put it in one case.

I would spread everything across all cases, or take it in your hand luggage.

Just declare every bit of food rather than the sniffer dogs/ customs find it. Ive brought cereal, snacks, emergency kids food and they just clarify at customs what it is.

We're in Orlando now (arrived last Sunday). Dd is as fussy as they come - had to bring kitkats, mcvities digestives & Hi5 fruit shoots (8 x 4pks of the bl**dy things). Packed them in hold luggage and had no problems at all. We did declare them on the customs forms though. Only got pulled out for the bottle of water in Dds rucksack that showed on the scanner ☺