What about gum? Is gum food? Where does it end?

I normally don't report any processed food items that are sealed in packaging. The issue with Nexus is if you say yes on the computer you are off to secondary and that can kill 5-30 mins.

The US officer said that any food is "food" and if you check off that you don't have "food" and you do have "food" you can be fined and you and all those on your declaration can lose their NEXUS cards. You are not necessarily going to go to secondary. After you get your ticket from the iris scan the guy looks at your card and knows whether to ask you a question or send you to secondary. You can then tell your story about your food. The whole thing is stupid.

when I enrolled, the Canada agent said that even if it was gum she recommended declaring it as food as she said there had been "problems".

Processed food is not exempt either since some packaged room temperature meats require inspection.

I just avoid carrying food but have to admit I carry gum and don't declare it as food.:eek:

Packaged, factory-sealed beef jerky from China?
Corned beef in cans from The Philippines?
Packaged ghee from India?
Sealed packages of clotted cream from the UK?

AFAIK, filling out the customs card before entering the US CBP customs hall has been a requirement (nexus or not) for as far as I can remember. They always check it.

The US customs card does indeed list food as an item you have to declare, and so you should declare it - always. If its a packaged item - they will see its packaged very quickly when they check and send you on your way. Whether or not you want to declare, or even know if you have it doesn't matter. Just like if you break a law you don't know about, ignorance isn't an excuse, and you are still liable to whatever the sentence is.

This is why I like the Canadian cards better - they point out specific types of food (meats, vegetables, fruits, meats, dairy, etc.) but not "food."

Mistakes happen - in fact, last time a similar thing happened to me. I had a bag of pretzels I brought back from the US to Canada, forgot to give it to the person it was for and that it was still in my bag, got secondaried, and a lecture about having to declare food, could take away Nexus etc. The officer was absolutely right - he could have - and I am very thankful he didn't do anything. I would have been very po'ed if it got taken away for something like that. But it was my own fault - an honest mistake that we all make once in a while.

The moral of the story, of course, is to make sure you know what you (and your traveling family member) have with you, and you'll avoid all the problems in the first place.

As a relative newcomer to NEXUS I wrote CBP on the subject as I almost always travel with food in my carry on and I found the responses at the NEXUS interviews (and here) inconsistent .

Here are excerpts from their response:

Response

First of all, at the kiosk you must respond that you have food. If you do not, you can receive a fine of $300 and lose your NEXUS status. There is no such thing as a de minimis amount of food.

The apple would be ok if it has a sticker saying Grown in or Product of Canada. Canada imports apples from all over the world and they are not required to have marking of country of origin, so unless that sticker is on the apple, we would take it. Everything else that the CBPO told you looks correct - although lamb (even cooked) is not admissible at this time from Canada.

Thank you for contacting Customs and Border Protection's CBP INFO Center. If you have any other questions or would like clarification on this response, please feel free to contact us either by calling our toll free number 877 CBP-5511 (227-5511) or if calling from outside the United States our toll number 703-526-4200 and speak with a Public Information Officer. Our hours of operation are Monday thru Friday from 8:30am-5:00pm Eastern Time

In my inquiry, I wrote that I had spoken with a CBP officer in Miami when picking up my Global Entry sticker and he indicated that it really was not necessary to answer yes for small amounts of food and that: Any fish sandwich is ok, even if there is some cheese or vegetable in it. A side salad or french fries is ok Any cooked meat sandwich or chicken sandwich is ok, Baguettes are OK even with cheese and salmon A personal vegetable salad Is OK Snacks are OK
Pastries such as Danish are ok. A Canadian grown apple be OK

I also inquired: if I have small amounts (e.g. one sandwich each) do I respond to the NEXUS machine that I have meat or dairy products as what I have is really de minimis

So when the machine asks you, you must answer yes and then speak to the nice officer behind the counter. Those long lines make me want to do anything reasonable to avoid losing this benefit. I only wonder why I did not sign up earlier.

GTAA responds
 

"Dear B1,
...Currently the tables to fill out the US CBP declaration forms are located in front of the Westjet, Continental, Delta and American Airlines check-in counters. Additionally, there are three tables on the right side of the entrance to US CBP. The effort being made by staff positioned at the entrance is to avoid having passengers walk in with no card or incomplete cards. If declaration forms are not properly filled out, passengers will be asked to leave and line up again by US CBP officers as they do not want passengers stopped or loitering in the area...." Or as Paul Simon and Arthur Garfunkel put it: "We'd like to know a little bit about you for our files. We'd like to help you learn to help yourself. Look around you, all you see are sympathetic eyes. Stroll around the grounds until you feel at home."

This food thing is weird. In all the times filling out this form - and yes I do read it each time (apperently not well enough) - I never saw food. Yes I realize it is there now between seeds and insects.

I guess I will be checking it of now to make sure I am not offside on my mints or granola bar, I guess the bar may have seeds too ;-)

it makes one wonder even more about the inconsistecy between mans and air crossings

When we enrolled, it was stressed to us that each member must fill in their own forms. One form per member, not per family. We sometimes have to insist to flight attendants that we need an extra form.

I sympathize on the food thing - I travel with a glucerna bar in case there is a problem with flights (and got to use one just last weekend). If I don't have a problem with the flight, then I'll be carrying it into the US. They are over $2 each so I hate to toss them before reaching the Immigration point and if I'm preclearing in YOW it is even more confusing since I haven't yet left Canada and can buy food beyond immigration that could smuggle into the US so if that is the case, why can't I carry in my glucerna bar?

I'll start answering yes, for the next couple of times and see what happens.

Not a NEXUS user, but I have had US Customs grill me on food, double checking I had nothing, even food for in the terminal or for the plane ride. My uncle had a sandwich confiscated on a trip where he was just connecting in the US on his way overseas.

Back in the old days when they had a duty free just before pre clearance, I had my US customs form filled out before hand, and decided to do some browsing. Picked up a bottle of liquor. Hand my card off to customs, he looks at the bottle in my hand and asks why it wasn't declared. Oops. Thankfully he was good natured about it.

Planning to apply for NEXUS. In the application it asks for the countries visited in the last five years. I have been to Cuba for vacation within the last five years. Anyone has experience if this may be a problem?

Wasn't a problem for my wife or myself as we'd also been to vacation to Cuba and noted it on the application. Never came up either during the interview or anything like that. I wouldn't worry about it.

It would be helpful to know if you are an American.
For a Canadian it shouldn't pose any problems.

For my data point above - my wife and I are both Canadian

Easy crossing, despite pulling a secondary
 

The latest news from YYZ Nexus southbound....

Machine was really sluggish today. Took three cycles of trying to get it to recognise my eyes -- finally did, and then it spat out the dreaded V-R-R ticket.

While I was frobbing with the NEXUS, the previous crowd of users (very infrequent ones, apparently) were patiently waiting in line for someone, anyone, to beckon them on to one of the glassed-in booths. They would not accept my helpfully-intended assurance that they could just walk on to the next chicane (the one where the paperwork is lifted).

Well, having my V-R-R ticket, the fellow at the next chicane directed me into the secondary room, where the Immigration and Customs people were friendly, answered all my first-time-secondary questions that I had for them (plus asking me the usual about "why do you go to Boston so often" and "where did you meet Mevlannens-Sweetie, anyway?"). Of course, the answers to those questions must have been in my computer file because they came up at both of our NEXUS interviews this past winter. It's not as if DHS/CBP don't know we're an item. Canada Customs can say the word "wife"; CBP (thanks to DOMA) can barely manage to spit out the word "friend", with a three-second pause beforehand.

So, after a short chat about the plusses and minusses of the prescription pills in my purse (yay menopause!), I was free to move on. And then, icing on the cake, I won my game of Dance Dance Revolution and am now free to sit here in the club quaffing Calin's whiskey as usual.

I've had NEXUS (and CANPASS, and PACE) cards from the very beginning, and today was my first ever secondary. Not bad odds for many years' flying back and forth.