Originally Posted by SFOSpiff

Even meat products are not necessarily automatically prohibited. You can bring in, say, beef jerky from Australia, as long as it's really beef (not endangered animal), there's no cow-specific illnesses is Australia at the time, and the package is sealed and labeled as made from Australian beef.

The rules can change at a moment's notice. ICE does the enforcement, but they take their guidelines from the USDA. USDA publishes documents of "allowed" imports but it's hard to get good answers from it.

Just declare it. If you declare it, the worst thing they can do is seize it and send you on your way. No harm, no foul. Unless it's illegal to possess it, like drugs, etc.

They may or may not track every detail on the computer but I'm pretty sure that getting caught violating the rules will flag you and subject you to more searches in the future. Again, just don't cheat.