New regulations for sending food to the US

Did you know that there is new legislation that went into effect December 12th regarding sending food to the US? I am probably one of the last people to find this out but thought I would mention it.

I went to the post office this morning to send a small box of chocolates to the US and they told me that they couldn't send it because it was food.  I needed to go to  www.access.fda.gov to complete necessary documentation before they would accept my package.  They said also if I didn't accurately describe the contents that it was possible that the package would be destroyed or returned to me.

Well I am off to the FDA website to fill in my forms!  

Kathy

I am bleeding from the eye balls!!! I can't believe the sign up you have to go through in order to set up an account for the FDA.  I have never seen a password requirements like it:
The password that you want to use to login to FDA Industry Systems. Passwords must meet ALL of the following requirements:
At least 8, but no more than 32 characters.
At least one UPPERCASE letter.
At least one lowercase letter.
At least one special character: ~ ! @ # $ % ^ * ( ) _ - + = { } [ ] | : ; " , ?. Do not use < >& or '.
At least one number.

It is hard enough remember the password I use and they are extremely simple but now I there is no hope to remember this one!

I swear it took me longer to fill out the website than to catch a bus into town, find the gift, get a card, come home on the bus, fill out the card and wrap it !

God Kathy..that's insane.  I'm sorry.  As a public admin person I feel I hae to apologize when government goes OTT.

I thought the only loop hole was that if the goods were homebaked you were okay.  Do  you know if that is true or not?

It's only pre-packaged foods that fall under these new regulations.  Home-made goodies are okay - for now...

Thanks for the FDA tip. Sheesh...sounds like the web admin person has just had a Regular Expressions course and wants to show off. So many stipulations for a password...totally unnecessary. I'm not sure I care whether or not someone went into my online FDA account. It's not that important! It's not like a bank account or anything!

homebaked = taking the package off the prepackaged food and putting it in a tin or box with wax paper to make it LOOK homebaked *grin*

You know, that is a feasible approach (taking off the packaging)...and yet why do I feel that Customs is just getting really silly with these regulations now?

I think that instead of putting up all those "DO NOT BRING..." signs, there should be someone actually explaining the reasons. I don't think with most folks it gels. They don't link mad cow and the destruction of an entire countries' industry with just one small little stupid morsel of tainted meat. Or the emptying of almost an entire population because of a potato famine, or the introduction of, and subsequent forest demolition, to the desire to bring a pretty plant back from holiday. We're not even going to discuss rats and what they can do being stowed away on a boat. Oh, and AIDs, didn't they trace that transfer to the US back to a monkey bite? Oh heck, I'm probably mixing a movie plot with reality right now...LOL.

Please don't think I'm getting high and mighty. Heck, I bring stuff through. What can tinned cooked meat affect? Why not oyster stew...it's crap in the UK! Dried potatoes in a box can't cause any trouble, right? Beef jerky is DRIED meat, get a life!

I guess...I would just have more respect for the regs if I was told the reason. Because it does seem over the top. And I think others would do a "Holy cow, I didn't realize!" if there was more a campaign to educate, rather than declare, "because I said so".

isnt that the state of things today? we'd all be cooler with what we're being asked to do if the people in charge actually told us WHY we should be doing it!

I think the thing that made me laugh the most about this restricted foods thing is i actually heard a woman on a virgin flight be told that she couldnt bring CHOCOLATE into the US because it contained DAIRY! OMG people! For crying out loud. Thats just silly.

Thank God you posted the website for registering, I had a heck of a time finding where it was!

Unfortunately, it's taken me a good half hour to actually sign up (once I figured out what an acceptable password was). Now I'm trying to fill in the "prior notice" form and it asks things like what port is it going to (New Jersey has 3, how do I know where it'll go??), what is the expected date of arrival and what's the expected TIME of arrival!!! How the hell do I know??  All I want to do is send a little 135 gram bag of Thornton's fudge to a friend for her birthday. And you know what? The entire process is so completely convoluted that I'm going to eat the fudge myself. I'm never sending food overseas again.   

Thanks for letting me gripe!

Do all of these regulations apply to just posting the stuff over or bringing them over in a suitcase as well?  I am going home next week and really eanted to bring things like kendal mint cakes and some MandS biscuits...  They make it such hard work!