I'm British, and have lived in the US for the last 7 years. I travel fairly regularly to the UK on short business trips, and 2 or maybe 3 times a year do a bumper food haul back to the US, where 1 of my 2 checked bags is literally full of food items and my other bag also has food items wrapped up in the clothes etc.

The food I bring in usually includes some or most of the following (just because I miss certain British brands now and again):

Chocolate, tea, tinned puddings (e.g. spotted dick, sticky toffee etc.), powdered custard, noodles (e.g. chicken & mushroom flavoured Pot Noodles!), crisps, mustard, spices, tomato puree, garlic puree, chinese and indian cooking sauces, gravy granules and more that I've probably forgotten about now.

Every time I declare I have food. Every time the immigration official asks what I have. I start to rattle off the list, he gets bored and changes my check mark on the form from 'yes' to 'no'. I have never, ever, had a problem after doing this 20+ times.

My logic is that I do not want to lie. If I say 'no' and I get subjected to a random search and they find something, then they're going to wonder what else I lied about. This could have hassle written all over it. To tick 'yes' each time has simply added 10 seconds worth of conversation to the proceedings and nothing more. As long as you're not being daft and bringing meat, fruit, veg etc. (that's obviously going to cause more of an issue) then no need to lie on the form.