I, perhaps stupidly, didn't think of perusing the questionnaire. When last in SYD we got some of the lovely Assie lamb cutlets and a roast, in the Duty Free ~ just for personal consumption. All were thickly & hermitically sealed and had all kinds of offical stamps stating that were up to snuff with the agriculture authorites. I guess I just assumed that it was perfectly legal.

Unfortunately I also had some fruit (I think it was 2-3 passion fruit) that I carelessly had tossed into my handlugge, while preparing to land. We just strolled through at SFO (a transit stop on our way to NAS) but were stopped for a search. The officer was not happy, he took the fruit but let us take the meat ~ he really gave us a an earful.

But I do think there has been progress made in the US. I was an FA in the mid 70's, flying exclusively non-stop between the Caribbean and Europe. Occasionaly we had to divert to MIA en route, for an hour or so for some paper work usually and nobody was allowed off, save the Captain. All the crew scrambled to hide our food stuffs (cheese, salamis, parma hams belgian choclates etc.) inside the catering containers which had "quarintine tape", crossed over the them. Agriculture teams plus immigration would board the plane, then the former, would rip off the tapes in all galleys and confiscate everything. Including Crew meals. It was a real drag since none of it would be entering the US. Without a doubt our goodies were divvied up up between
them and taken home