I feel so much safer.

I used to play with these types of eggs when I was a kid. They were our reward for behaving during social events.

I will sleep so much better knowing we are safe from Kinder eggs.

I am of two minds on this one.

1) This regulation has been around for a long time and has been enforced for a long time. This shouldn't be a story. Also, the regulation which CBP is enforcing isn't theirs, it comes from elsewhere in the government.

2) The regulation is overprotective. Neither Europe nor Canada have a problem with these eggs. Why should we?

The ironic thing is, you can go into ethnic grocery stores near where I live (and I expect in Seattle, too) and buy either Kinder eggs or cheaper knock-offs. So no real need to "smuggle" them.

I can (or could as of a few months ago) buy them at several BXs on AFBs around the US.

The rule is absurd. It means CBP is spending too much time looking for eggs when they could be opening up more entry lines or looking for real contraban.

As noted, Europeans and Canadians are not dropping dead from them. By CBPs logic, coins, legos, buttons and basically anything else smaller than a half dollar should be banned since children could choke (and I say this with two small kids, I know parents must by vigilant)

IMO this is an excuse to look for more contraband. I go to Canada a couple times a year to stock up on liquor. I always declare it at the booth, and usually get sent to secondary to pay duty. At secondary you are instructed to leave everything in your car except your wallet, including leaving keys and cell phones. While not officially detained, you are made to wait an exceptionally long time for something that should be very easy to determine duty on. There will also be a CBP officer standing by the door in case you try to leave. While I am inside, I can see the liftgate on my SUV open and close a couple times (assuming they were running a dog through). Last time my friend that was with me was called up while waiting to check his left arm for a tattoo.

A kinder egg or bottle of Canadian Club is just an excuse to rummage through your car and run your passport against criminal databases.

I think people here are too quick to blame CBP for a rule that was enacted by the legislature and has existed for a very long time. As for searching a car, they do not need any specific reason, especially Kinder surprise - they can do without any excuse.

Related thread from 2011:
http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/pract...late-eggs.html

:)

Can someone cite the actual statute or regulation being enforced here?

All I can find about food with inedible, non-functional ingredients refers to sale in the United States and wouldn't apply to personal-use imports. In a similar fashion, you're allowed to import booze without the Surgeon General's warning and food without English labelling but it'd be illegal to sell it.

I understand it's not CBP's rule, but it *is* CBP's choice to start enforcing it now. I saw thousands and thousands of Kinder eggs when I worked for CBP and knew full well that their sale was banned in the US, but we took no action against personal-use imports in baggage.

It's not CBP, it's the FDA:

http://www.accessdata.fda.gov/cms_ia...alert_107.html

I think if one is choking one is probably aware of the fact.

Is there a 'detention center' per se at the border ? I've been selected for secondary several times and because of the general fustercluck it can take up to 2 hours. I doubt they were banged up in a cell, but yeah you can't leave until The Man says so.

I am not sure when you worked for CBP, but they didn't start enforcing it now. The first post in this thread is a year and a half old, and I think they were enforcing it before that.

I realize I'm responding to a comment made over a year ago, but I think the "Feds scrambling" line was meant to be a play on words (eggs...scrambling...har har) rather than an attempt to convey a real sense of urgency or desperation.

Funny thing is, I crossed the border from Canada back into the US at Queenston/Lewiston yesterday - and the duty free store had Kinder eggs sitting right at the register! When I mentioned something about it to the cashier, she insisted that since everything in the store had to be exported, the eggs were perfectly legal. I tried to tell her about the Consumerist article & the FDA ban, and the fact that travelers caught with Kinder eggs have been booked on smuggling charges, but she was insistent that the eggs were perfectly legal to import to the US. Her colleague on bagging duty mentioned that I wasn't the first to say something about the eggs...but something tells me the eggs are still sitting at the register, the world's worst impulse buy.

These are banned in the United States under the 1938 Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act and have never been available in the U.S. The United States is the only country that bans the eggs.

The Wikipedia article is a bit weak on details but can be found here. The link goes to the section on the U.S. ban of the eggs.

CBP press release