What to mention in customs form if you have pickles and sweets with you?

[ramram]

All,

I have a question. If you are carrying sweets and pickles with you, are we supposed to mention 'yes' in the customs form for the question/statement below?

I am bringing fruits, plants, meats, food, live animals...:

Since sweets and pickles are food, I am guessing we should say 'yes'. If so, would that concern the customs officers?

Thanks,

[immihelp]

You can just answer 'no'. That question refers to the fresh food (like fruits, vegetables etc.) among other things.

You can't put pickles or sweets into the US land, grow something out of it and possibly pollute it or cause some harm through germs etc. That is actually the intent of those questions.

[nitu]

Hi,

We went to India in the last week on July and came back in the end of august. We said 'No' for this food question, as we always do. But this time, the person who gives us our I94, asked me,
"Are you sure you dont have any food item in your luggage, because if you have something and you say in the form that you dont have anything and if the customs officers decides to check your luggage on a random basis, then it will be like you are lying and you might be in trouble! "

Then I told him I only have some pickles. Then said, " see thats why I asked" And he wrote "Yes, Pickles only" on the form, and signed it. Then when the customs people looked at the form they dint say anything or they dont check the luggage, they just let us go.

This is the first time this happened to me. Now I dont know if I need to mention Pickes the next time I go to India and come back, or if somebody is coming from India. I also think even If we dont put Yes in the form, and incase customs people check our luggage, I dont think there will be any problem RIGHT!!! At the most they will just throw the pickles in the garbage, and then let us go, RIGHT!!! Or is it better to say 'Yes, Pickes only' as the officer corrected in my form.

Asking out of curiosity (for future)!!!

--Nitu

[acpdelhi]

Nitu - One of my friends had a similar experience recently. The officer told him to select Yes and write what he is carrying.

At SFO airport, they asked me whether I am carrying Jeera powder when I came back from India recently.