FDA regulations for sending food abroad

Caution about mailing foods.  :-/

I went to the Post Office the other day to send my son an Easter gift. They asked if it contained food and I told them it had some chocolates. I was sent away to go get an FDA number first. They couldn't touch it without an FDA number.

LisaE...don't tell them?

Seriously, that's bizarre. I've NEVER been asked if I had food in a package and Lord knows I've sent a few. Guess it's time to check the Royal Mail website for clarification. Ya never know, you might send mad cow disease in that milk chocolate! Good grief.

It's the governments new anti-terrorism move.  

http://www.fda.gov/oc/bioterrorism/bioact.html

So this is for real?! I'm going to have to get an FDA number if I send Vnice Walkers crisps? OK, I can't process this web site so can someone give it to me in layman's terms i.e. how it works? I'm a PhD student and I find that once I've spent a day on research I can't do much more!   I'm hopeless!

If you make it you can still send it, if you buy it you need to give prior notice and tell them what's coming and what's in it.

So if you melt the chocolate and reform it into a new shape and call it homemade no problem.  If you buy it you have a problem.  You have to go to the FDA and let them know you are sending it.  

So if I was a terrorist I'd make my own and send it anyways.  Like much of the new legislation they seem to have passed it without thinking too much about the consequences first.

So take the crisps out the bag..smash them slightly call them homemade crisp crumbs and put them in a ziploc and there ya go.    Can anyone guess my opinion of this new rule?

LOL      

So like what do I need with the Kinder Bueno? Send a formal announcement to the FDA?

Dear Sirs,

I respectfully inform you that on the 27th of this month exactly 4 Kinder Bueno bars and 2 Kinder Bueno eggs (with toys inside) will be arriving in Atlanta, Georgia. Please do not hinder the arrival of these sweets as the recipient cannot be responsible for her actions!

tee hee!

Im sending some blackcurrant Airwaves chewing gum to a friend in the States, and do you believe the FDA class chewing gum as 'food' and i had to complete that prior notification proforma online?!  
It was a pure nightmare... very difficult to read and absorb the information (very word-y!) and the form itself is diabolical to complete, but i did it.    I had to phone the FDA helpline at one stage and the b*tch on the phone was so condescending and unkind... and believe me, I told her so!

Do I understand correctly that the form is filled in once, to get you 'registered'? And then you can just send and send whenever? Or, does it have to be completed each and every time for each item?

I looked at the instructions, but I haven't looked at the form. Too mind-boggling right now for me to absorb.

The way i understand it is that you get registered once... you get a user name and a password.  That's you creating your 'web entry'.

Then, whenever you want to send a parcel, you've got to do the 'create a prior notification' bit, .. to describe what's in the parcel, choose the correct FDA code, tell them the weight, and how many of _______ you are sending, etc.

Gads...more forms...
Thanks for the clarification!

I read this all in stunned dismay at the sheer stupidity of it all. As Vnice point out, there seems to be rather large loophole in this!

Oh my...we send packages back and forth every few weeks...and of course the ones he sends me from the UK almost always (if he knows whats good for him!) contains some form of chocolate...even if just a wee bit. We just need to get on the same side of the Atlantic...soon!!!!!

oh, tell me it's not true?!!!


NO tollhouse cookies, either??


**sigh**


It's ok....Mr Snupy is worth the sacrifice...**sniff** :'(

Doesn't this tear the red tape off your whatever!  My suitcases look like I'm running an import-export business.  I load up one suitcase with Fluff, Toll House dough, and mac and cheese with the sqeeze cheese packet when I'm going to the UK.  On my way home, I've got PGTips, Schwartz sauce packets, and 40 different cheeses.  I can fly this stuff, but if I mail it, I have to be registered?  It's not like I'm running chocolate covered C4 in Godiva boxes.  Is the government's motto "If you can't dazzle 'em with brilliance, then baffle them with bull****?"  Rant over.