The recent uptick in scrutiny of baggage — carried-on and checked — has claimed another victim: epicurean travelers who might have brought back a culinary souvenir of their travels abroad. The Wall Street Journal has a piece focused on chefs who smuggle in small quantities of cured meats, sausages, and other charcuterie for the demanding carnivore.
For the would-be meat runners: One of the tricks of the trade, revealed in the article: Hiding a meat product inside a fish, like a whole salmon (which can legally be brought in).
The chefs argue that they are bringing in samples of small-production meats from villages across Europe in order to “reverse-engineer” the products and recreate the recipes here in the US.
The US government’s view is less sanguine:
Sausages and hams “are much more dangerous than people think,” says Janice Mosher, an official at U.S. Customs and Border Protection, which seizes about 4,000 pounds of prohibited meat, plant and animal products a day. “Those items truly have the ability to spread disease.” The government is concerned that bacteria from a smuggled piece of meat will spread through the ecosystem, infecting livestock and hurting agricultural production, Ms. Mosher says.
And then there’s this kicker, the culinary equivalent of a terrorist watch list:
Ms. Mosher [...] says that if people are caught bringing food in once, it’s a good bet they’ll be subjected to extra searches in the future. She says that Customs and Border Protection doesn’t target chefs, but their exploits are known to the government.
Sometimes it seems the CBP folks is targeting travelers from an entire country: On a recent international arrival in Philadelphia, I was horrified at the long lines to exit customs. But a friendly airport worker advised me that the long line was just for the people arriving from Italy. “Not arriving from Italy? Step right to the front.” No beagle sniffing the bags, no questions asked. (Travelers from Italy carrying aged meats might wish to consider changing planes in Paris, London, or Frankfurt, before heading back to the US, to improve their odds.)
The CBP isn’t just out to protect American soil from the dangers of smoked meats. They’re also defending America from smoke — Cuban smoke.
Wine Spectator and Cigar Aficionado critic James Suckling got dressed down at the US-Mexico border by CBP guards after (correctly) citing the law governing their transport of wine into the country. Correcting a border guard on the fine points of the law? Yes, asking for trouble, but the alternative (dumping cases upon cases of wine, when the law is on your side) is hardly pleasant. But, by standing up for his rights, Suckling subjected himself to an excessively thorough search, which turned up a pair of Cuban cigars — illegal to transport into the US.
I’ve been guilty of this in the past. I’ll cop to transporting both meats and Cuban cigars (the latter purchased at duty-free, no less). But in today’s post-crotch-bomber world, with its increased scrutiny, bringing it into the US is a riskier proposition.
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January 14th, 2010 at 3:39 pm
WTF??? Which bacteria, exactly, travels in sausage, hosts in a human body, and then infects a cow or pig? This sounds more like the result of the agricultural lobby.
January 14th, 2010 at 6:38 pm
OMG… did anyone tell the Europeans that they are doomed? Then again, on second thought, shouldn’t they have been all dead for centuries, thanks to sausage consumption?
As for cigars (which I know nothing about, and have no interest in), how do CBP agents determine the origin of those cigars? How do Cuban cigars differ from those made next door in, say, the Dominican Republic? Labels with Casto’s face on it?
January 15th, 2010 at 6:49 am
“Excuse me, sir — do you have anything to declare, or are you just glad to see me?”
January 18th, 2010 at 3:49 pm
@Oliver – the band on most high-end cigars shows the place of origin. Most Cuban cigars either say “Cuba” or “Habana” on the band. It’s easy to get around the ban by just removing the band, but cigar lovers are likely to want to put them in their humidors when they get home and will want to leave the bands on so they can tell their various cigars apart.
As for the quality, Cubans are prized for both the quality of the tobacco itself (like other crops, tobacco’s taste changes depending on the soil in which its grown) and the skill of the tobacco selectors and wrappers – high-end cigars are made by hand. I’ve had Cuban cigars, and personally I think there are Dominicans every bit as good.
As a practical matter, unless you’re bringing in a resale quantity, the only thing that’ll happen to you if you’re caught with Cuban cigars is they’ll be confiscated and depending on where you flew in from (e.g. Mexico City), you’ll be questioned to see if you had actually visited Cuba. You’ll likely be flagged in the CBP computer for future questioning as well.
January 19th, 2010 at 9:34 pm
What Craig said. And if anyone can shed light on exactly what dangers the importation of small supplies of cured meats will present to the US food supply, please let me know.
January 22nd, 2010 at 12:31 pm
absurd! Thanks for the amusing comments as well.
January 22nd, 2010 at 1:25 pm
Mark, I think the fear is that if you eat cured European meats, you might contract Mad Cow disease. Then you could die and, as happens surprisingly often, you could die in a cow pasture and be eaten by carnivorous cows. And if that happens, Mad Cow might spread through the carnivorous cow herds throughout the United States, causing more Mad Cow infected humans to die in cow pastures, leading to ever more cows feeding on the carcasses of the Mad Cow dead.
But beyond that, I got nothing.
January 22nd, 2010 at 7:43 pm
We just came back from Italy, via Paris … and yes that was a wild boar salami in our bag … and it is sooooo good!
January 26th, 2010 at 9:22 pm
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