Step Away From the Mango...
Q: In the past when returning from India with spices and cooked sausages, they were thrown out by U.S. Customs. Where can I get an itemized list of permitted items? -Chris G.
A. Chris, as a man who knows two things to be true: cake is really just a vehicle for the icing and travel is an excuse to eat out, I feel your hunger pain.
My memories of travel are usually based on menus, markets and food vendors. Sure I can focus on a business meeting, just as long as I know there's lunch between PowerPoint presentations and the promise of local cuisine later in the day.
Bringing home a few culinary souvenirs seems innocent enough, but the curious canines of U.S. Customs care little of the delectability of your smuggled treats; it all smells like contraband to the beagle brigade.
Of course, you can eat it on the plane or dispense samples before landing.
Once I had no choice but to throw an impromptu mixer between coach and business class when I learned my parcel of pates and cheeses would become fodder for the Customs garbage can. (Secretly, I wonder if the Customs break room resembles the food court at Harrods.) My new friends and I landed with indigestion, but we gave up nary a gram of France's finest snack food to the waste bin.
U.S. Customs and the U.S. Department of Agriculture take illegal entry of foreign fruits, vegetables and animals into the U.S. quite seriously, and have raised fines to eye-watering levels. For travelers entering the United States who do not declare agricultural products, the Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS) can now charge up to $50,000 in fines, though $1,000 seems to be the standard for first time offenders.
Here are some links to the information you requested:
U.S. Customs Prohibited and Restricted Items
Department of Agriculture: On Bringing Food, Plant, and Animal Products Into the United States (Pamphlet still in use)
While we're on it, you may wish to learn about duty-free exemptions.
Feigning ignorance rarely works, especially when your tax dollars have been spent so brilliantly on online education.