papercoffeecup

This occurs more often than you think. It's so easy to forget about a fruit that you got on the airplane. Especially after being in the air for hours on international trips.

Ber2dca

As others have said, it's easy to forget an item especially if it was handed out by the FAs during the flight.

While that isn't Delta's fault, I do think Delta may want to reconsider handing out items on international flights which are prohibited or restricted by customs in the destination country; or maybe they should at least accompany it with a warning to that effect.

On the other side of this equation, I recently had a family member who was visiting me preemptively throw out packaged and sealed condiments 'from the old country' (bought in a supermarket there) because they were afraid of CBP restrictions. This greatly annoyed me as that stuff is hard to find in America and shipping stuff by mail is costly. I myself have imported these condiments (look, nothing beats the mustards and sauces you grew up with) without any scrutiny on several occasions. Rule of thumb for me, if it's a processed food that comes in a sealed box, bottle or jar from a grocery store, it's fine. But some people - especially inexperienced travelers - get super nervous about the word 'food' in the customs form.

JamesBigglesworth

Legal immigrants are statistically the single most healthy group, as a whole, in the US. The reason is simple: you *can't* get an immigrant visa without a medical and you're not issued the visa if anything interesting shows up. Same for all the dual-intent non-immigrant visa classes too. They specifically screen for TB. As an immigrant you are not allowed to use public welfare in any form for (usually) the first 10 years in the US. If you do then your visa status is automatically revoked and you are placed into deportation.

So, yeah, aside from those small facts, everything you said is completely true.


Or possibly just one exercising their allowed discretion when faced with someone who is whining at them after being caught breaking the law? After all, she *could* have been fined $1000.

expert7700

I don't feel sorry for her. She likely intentionally answered NO because a YES notation to food can lead to secondary screening.

The question on the Global Entry kiosk asks 'Food'.
Officers at my GE/Nexus interview told me that it means anything with a calorie content. Even mints, airline pretzels, or a granola bar.

I know someone who had their GE/Nexus revoked for 7 years. For a granola bar forgotten in her jacket.

I use GE every week, sometimes multiple times a day. My routine is that I always take out any food/snacks/candy from my, my wife's, and child's bag and carry them thru in a half open plastic bag. When the agent sees one of our GE slips with an X or O, we point to our airline snacks.

They are very appreciative of us knowing and following the rule, and we are cleared immediately with no delay what so ever.

If our snacks were randomly tossed inside multiple bags and backpacks, we would likely be delayed by secondary hand screening.

Once an officer pointed to all the GE slips of passengers before us and said "I'm sure all these people had the same food, but every one of them lied about it."

Sometimes an officer gets excited about something illicit being declared then sees our 'food' and rolls their eyes or scoffs at us being petty declaring airline snacks. Each time I remind them that they can revoke global entry for such violations and and it is far too valuable of a privilege to lose it.

DiverDave

So I'm left wondering how Delta handles the remaining apples. Are they quarantined or do they have to be destroyed?

David

ibmman69

The spirit of the rule is for things that pose a risk, and packaged food generally doesn't, but there are even some kinds of packaged food, such as sausage or jerky, that are still prohibited.

That said, the declaration does say "food," and my read of that is anything whether it's prepackaged or not.

Whether it was an accident or not, this lady did not correctly fill out the declaration. Whether she was a jerk, or the CBP agent just had a bad day, she was in violation of the rule, and should suffer the consequences. She's clearly using this as a gross publicity stunt, blaming everyone but herself, which that makes think she likely was not polite when questioned about the apple (maybe even intentionally didn't declare it), and was probably pissed she was selected for "random" screening.

The rules on foods exist for very important reasons, and aren't a joke. I'm happy this CBP officer is doing his job, and helping to keep agriculture safe.

NotHamSarnie

I buy several boxes of chocolate at the Duty Free whenever I'm coming back to the US from anywhere that makes more decent chocolate (read anywhere in Europe and South America) and don't declare them as Food in the GE questionnaire. The CBP person frequently asks me what is in my Duty Free bags and I say chocolate and they don't bat an eyelid even though I say No to food on the form. That tells me they're not considered food you need to declare. They do still ask me if I have an apple I might have forgotten about

wrp96

As I understand it, all remaining food, trash, etc coming off an international flight is destroyed.

manneca

Ever since I got GE, when I repack for the return, I make sure I have no snacks in any of my bags. I'm gone for several weeks and I'll buy snacks along the way and they can easily be forgotten. I pay particular attention to my back pack. If I'm taking food to be consumed on the plane, it all goes in one plastic/paper bag in the backpack which gets removed when I arrive at my seat on the plane. I declare all chocolate returning home, even though I know that at SFO it means a trip to Ag. (A FA told me I didn't have to declare chocolate and I ignored her. Usually I get if it's only chocolate it doesn't matter, but not at SFO). I'm not about to lose GE over bringing a 50¢ piece of fruit into the country or the remnants of a bag of almonds I bought at TJs before I left home. I also nag my traveling companion to make sure he doesn't have food. It is so easy to forget a food item in your backpack particularly when you're at the end of a 30 hour slog back home.

I don't have any sympathy for this woman. She knows the rules. (And I hate those stupid beagles.)

captaink

Yep. Better to get a lecture about over-declaring alcohol (as I did on my last return to the US) than get randomly selected and get dinged for the second bottle of wine in your bag.

ijgordon

If given the choice between a $500 fine and losing GE (and TSA PreCheck, although perhaps one could sign up separately even if GE revoked for customs violation?) I would gladly pay the $500 fine.

The duty-free exemption for alcohol is generally 1 liter. Which is basically anything more than 1 bottle. So when the GBP was super-depressed ~16 months ago I brought a few bottles of some nice bubbly at the LHR duty-free, and declared it. I was specifically asked why I declared it. "Because it's over the 1 L duty-free exemption." I got a "fine, go ahead" and an eye-roll.

s0ssos

Really?
You mean how on some flights in Asia (like to Singapore) they remind you that drugs are strictly prohibited, with penalty up to death?

Where is the responsibility for the passengers to know where they are going, and the rules?

Insulator-King

I did not realize this thread would get over 100 posts and be #1 on the Trending Forums Thread.

Last time I flew international it was while I was still in Naval Aviation! That was many years ago.

If the woman goes to court, what is the probability that she will receive a bigger fine than the $500?

TBD

It really isn't hard to just declare questionable items and let CBP send you along your way. I've done it multiple times now and can't say that process has added any noticeable time to the arrivals process whatsoever.

TBD

I think she'll quickly realize that taking it to court will cost far more than $500...