https://www.cbp.gov/sites/default/fi...info-guide.pdf

5. You must declare any fruits, vegetables, plants, insects, meats or meat products, dairy products, animals or animals/wildlife products, disease agents, cell cultures, snails, or soil. If you have visited a farm/ranch/pasture outside the United States, please let the CBP officer know.

No broad category of FOOD.

That pamphlet was published in 2013.

The GE kiosks, at least the ones that I've used at LAX, JFK and MIA in the past two years or so, do list the catchall "food" category in addition to all the other specific items.

+1, not to mention there's a cultural element as to whether certain things are edible or not.

Even with this narrow and out-dated definition, there's room for confusion.

I don't think most folks read the above list and realize that ramen seasoning packets, gum, breath mints, tea, chocolate candy and cookies have all been challenged and have to be declared. (Some ramen packets have 'meat' product, tea in any form is 'plant matter' as well as 'food', and a lot of chocolate candy contains milk (dairy product) Some candy and cookies have raisins (fruit) in them.

Exactly! It's CBP - there will never be actual rules. It's always at their whim.
:)

5. You must declare any fruits, vegetables, plants, insects, meats or meat products, dairy products, animals or animals/wildlife products, disease agents, cell cultures, snails, or soil. If you have visited a farm/ranch/pasture outside the United States, please let the CBP officer know.

This is what was listed at ORD last week when we came through. I read it twice to make sure it didn't list food as we had some chocolate. Didn't see food so I checked no.

True, although I'd welcome an example of something eaten in other cultures that wouldn't be properly declared for some reason (e.g., insects, certain plants not commonly eaten, animals). If some culture is eating toothpaste or office paper, do tell!

Anyway, I'd be a lot more comfortable arguing "you're telling me my failure to declare toothpaste violates the food declaration rule?" than arguing "you're telling me that my failure to declare the protein bar I bought in the US and came back with violates the rule?".

As others have stated
 

There is one potential issue with this approach. What happens if the CBP Officer at the exit point asks, "Do you have any food." You say yes, Officer says how come it's not declared, you say it's chocolate and the screen didn't mention it -- if the Officer really has it out for you, you may be lost, as there is plenty of written verbiage indicating "all food" requires declaration.

I maintain my position that dry/packaged goods aren't in the spirit of "food." This is only my personal position (although obviously also the position of many frontline officers).

It's called beating a dead horse. If you have one of those you should answer the kiosk question with a "yes".

Given that the maximum penalty is $60,000 per violation (not that it is routinely imposed) along with GE revocation, the number of people who think it's fun to play too cute is interesting.

I'm new to GE and have yet to use the GE kiosks.

However I've used the APC kiosks several times (primarily at YVR) and to the best of my recollection the list does not contain the generic term "food" but very specific categories of food such as meats, fruit etc.

So I'm finding it interesting that the GE kiosks are like the blue forms in that regard.

The problem is that the kiosks combine the many questions on the blue form into 4 questions on the GE kiosk, including the catch all agricultural question with food in the wording. Having never used the APC or mobile passport app, I don't know how many questions there are for those processes.