FlyerTalk Forums - View Single Post - Global Entry Kiosks Declarations and Food Questions
Old Jan 24, 2019, 7:09 am
  #895  
richarddd
 
Join Date: Dec 2003
Location: NYC
Posts: 6,407
Originally Posted by TAHKUCT
Yes, indeed CBP is in charge. Therefore they use "food" in the question just in case someone has something that is not permitted to be brought into USA. There can be a situation where they need to prohibit something on the day of your arrival that was permissable the day before due to the risk associated with that "food". The only way to catch it is to have a general question as it takes time to update the GE kiosk.
What are examples of things that were food one day and not the next?
A problem is that many people don't understand what is meant by "food". "Anything you can put in your mouth" is clearly not sufficient. I can put a marble in my mouth, but it's not food. You might say this is silly, but if you have to resort to some notion of common sense, then the definition is inadequate.
For that matter, if CBP want the rule to be that anything you can put in your mouth is food, they could say so explicitly.
Is gum ever good? Are gummy bears ever food?
At the moment, we have CBP agents who disagree on the meaning of the term food. A basic principle is that rules should be sufficiently clear, which they obviously are not. CBP could easily clarify them, on the kiosk, on their web site, etc.
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