I like taking some fruit with me when I'm flying. It's refreshing, easy to pack etc etc. However, on a recent trip to the USA it got me into trouble when I arrived at Customs & Immigration. I had dutifully filled out the Customs Declaration and declared that I had with me an apple, a banana and a tomato, so I was a bit surprised when the Border Guards took me & my bags to one side, searched everything and confiscated all the fresh fruit for reasons of 'bio-security'.
On chatting with the Customs Officer it became clear that there had been a misunderstanding and it all boiled down to a language problem, rooted in the difference between US-English and UK-English. The notes on the Customs Declaration form said that you must declare all fresh fruit, as it was "restricted". I had interpreted this to mean that you could bring a small amount of fruit with you, so long as you declared it. However, as far as the US Customs goes, their word "restricted" has the same meaning as our word 'prohibited'. Hence their action in pulling me to one side (very politely) and confiscating my goodies.
I was not the only one, either; the Customs man had a sack that was half full of all sorts of perishables that people had declared (or not). I'm glad that I did declare mine, as there's a very hefty fine if they find you in breach of their bio-security policy. The rule seems to be that processed stuff, like tea-bags, vegemite etc is OK, but fresh stuff is not.
So make sure you finish you '5-a-Day' before you touch down in the USA. :cool:
Roger
