Originally Posted by
drewguy
Assuming your legal conclusion is correct, while you could take the course of mentioning chocolates only on your way to secondary, it seems to me the safer course is simply to proceed with declaring it at the outset.
Chocolate either is or is not something that must be declared. If it must be declared, even though allowed, might as well do it at the earliest point possible to minimize risk. If it does not need to be declared, then doing it on the way to secondary isn't necessary either.
The problem is that CBP has not made clear whether chocolate (putting aside the Kinder Egg issue) should be declared as food or not.
I agree declaring is the safest option and I wouldn't have bother researching if declaring and getting the O merely resulted in a wave-thru the customs checkpoint instead of actually getting referred to baggage control. As reported on this thread, some experienced minimal delay while others including myself experience delays in excess of 10-15 minutes (2x already personally) clearing baggage control.
Anyway, I've presented my research. Each of us can make our own conclusion and our decision on how to answer this question.