Importing Meat From Thailand.

[Rinrada]

Almost every Thai that I know who lives here in in UK seems to be under the impression(including K.W.)that you/they are allowed to bring in-import-carry in luggage a certain amount of COOKED meats (suggested 1 kilo)provided its for personal consumption.....yum yum...etc kin kao....

Now i will be the first to admit that I dont automatically go running to DEFRA (government Dept in charge off) to clarify the what-all and if but thought I would have a go and try and clarify this particular direction.

If i am ever asked what i have in my bags on arrival at Heathrow my answer is usually straight forward....1 pair of socks/ups,a toothbrush, passport and duty free J.W Black........all in my plastic Tesco Bag and thats about it..

If on the other hand our travelling Thai friends are with us( females mostly -incl KW) I would have to say ...Dont Know ...Absolutely..NO IDEA......I have a tesco bag .....but she has a tesco store...I am almost frightened to ask ..What exactly do you have in there?

So to clarify i asked DEFRA the Question:

Rinarda (changed to protect the innocent-ME)

Thank you for your enquiry.

You are not allowed to bring in any meat/meat products from Thailand to the UK. The same rules apply if the meat is fresh, frozen, dried, cooked, smoked, vacuum packed or tinned.

You are allowed to bring back up to 1kg of fish/fish products and 1kg of shellfish from Thailand to the UK, these can be in any form as stated above.

The items must be for personal consumption and free from pests and disease.

I hope this is helpful

Sarah Hunt

Defra - International Animal Health Division

Illegal Imports Team

--------------------------------------------------------------------

+ Area 207, 1A Page Street, London SW1P 4PQ

: [email protected]

-----Original Message-----

From:

Sent: 31 March 2005 22:01

To: Illegal Imports (IAH)

Subject: Food for personal consumption from- Thailand.-QUESTION

Sirs/ms

My wife would like to know if she (and other Thai nationals living in the UK) are/not permitted to bring into the country any amount of COOKED meat products ..namely Fish and Pork

Seems from speaking to them they all recon that they are allowed 1 kg each for personal consumption..

Regards and Thanks.

Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra)

(with Thanks)

Anyone in the same boat...?

[Rinrada]

And just to reply to one non spec e-mail....

If you do bring food items into the UK and are unsure whether they are allowed, go to the HM Customs and Excise.

‘Something to Declare’

or

‘Red Channel’ exit for advice and to avoid any penalties.

If you have items that are not allowed, they will be taken away and destroyed, and no further action will be taken.

There are strict Customs controls in place.

If you break the rules and Customs Officers find undeclared items you could face delays, be fined – or even sent to prison

again with thanks from DEFRA..

[bigalsouth]

######!!

Thought it might prevent my nearest & dearest shipping in the usual dried squid.

Foiled again.

[SEAtramp]

I'll stick to my normal 5,000 fags. & half hundred weight of G/Virginia.

[rory]

Almost every Thai that I know who lives here in in UK seems to be under the impression(including K.W.)that you/they are allowed to bring in-import-carry in luggage a certain amount of COOKED meats (suggested 1 kilo)provided its for personal consumption.....yum yum...etc kin kao....

Now i will be the first to admit that I dont automatically go running to DEFRA  (government Dept in charge off) to clarify the what-all and if but thought I would have a go and try and clarify this particular direction.

If i am ever asked what i have in my bags on arrival at Heathrow my answer is usually straight forward....1 pair of socks/ups,a toothbrush, passport and duty free J.W Black........all in my plastic Tesco Bag and thats about it..

If on the other hand our travelling Thai friends are with us( females mostly -incl KW) I would have to say ...Dont Know ...Absolutely..NO IDEA......I have a tesco bag .....but she has a tesco store...I am almost frightened to ask ..What exactly do you have in there?

So to clarify i asked DEFRA the Question:

Rinarda (changed to protect the innocent-ME)

Thank you for your enquiry.

You are not allowed to bring in any meat/meat products from Thailand to the UK. The same rules apply if the meat is fresh, frozen, dried, cooked, smoked,  vacuum packed or tinned.

You are allowed to bring back up to 1kg of fish/fish products and 1kg of shellfish from Thailand to the UK, these can be in any form as stated above. 

The items must be for personal consumption and free from pests and disease.

I hope this is helpful

Sarah Hunt

Defra - International Animal Health Division

Illegal Imports Team

--------------------------------------------------------------------

+ Area 207, 1A Page Street, London SW1P 4PQ 

:  [email protected]   

-----Original Message-----

From:

Sent: 31 March 2005 22:01

To: Illegal Imports (IAH)

Subject: Food for personal consumption from- Thailand.-QUESTION

Sirs/ms

My wife would like to know if she (and other Thai nationals living in the UK) are/not permitted to bring into the country any amount of COOKED meat products ..namely Fish and Pork

Seems from speaking to them they all recon that they are allowed 1 kg each for personal consumption..

Regards and Thanks.

Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra)

(with Thanks)

Anyone in the same boat...?

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Hiya,

When my wife (thai) and i landed at Birmingham Int airport,we was met near the baggage collection area with a sniffer dog just before we went through customs,the dog tried to mount one of our bags,the handler ask what we had inside?obviously they had a good idea.

we was taken to a quiet area and searched,they found, half of BIG C shopping in there, packets of cooked pork,dried fish etc,we stocked up just before we left,also we had 9 mangos in the bag,may of shown on the scan, looking like grenades,the officer in charge wasn't too bad with us,asked us what was we going to do with all this food,that we had more food than cloths?my wife replied,"eeeat",

He looked at her,if saying don't take the piss out of me,so i jumped in quickly, to waffle about, it's hard to get her type of food here,he gave us a lecture and issued some bumff about what we can/can't bring in,and a bog standard letter, the next course of action,now we are on file,the next time we will be in court,it was about the time of high profile state of alert,and we used uzbekistan airways via taskent,

just thought you might like to know our little story,cheers.

Edited April 5, 2005 by rory

[Rinrada]

There was a good programme on about a year ago i think in the US with an Airline type theme but involving Customs guys.

They were showing up some of the "food"being brought in under the heading of personal consumption items mostly from Africa and South America.

Seem to remember the scenes ......Can you imagine....

"Good morning madam"...US customs or coastguards here ...have you read this and do you understand what it means?(declaration)

Answer..mumbles of Yess-siree...(in spanish)...yoriba....pork and cheese

So you understand what it means?

Ans.........errr Yes....not sure......maybe .....

OK ..What you got in the bag?

Dead Rats,Bushmeat,baby aligators,couple of monkeys ...but only little ones...

...looking at the delis I dont think you would need a sniffer dog to detect the stuff...it was RANCID..

Wasnt there also something recently about some woman on an OZ flight who got done arriving with an apple or something..and she ended up in the Slammer and fined a couple of thousand $$$

Not worth the risk but for our happy Thais it seems to be a case of ...MPR....

...only a matter of time and a test case.....volunteers required.......

[chuchok]

There was a good programme on about a year ago i think in the US with an Airline type theme but involving Customs guys.

They were showing up some of the "food"being brought in under the heading of personal consumption items mostly from Africa and South America.

Seem to remember the scenes ......Can you imagine....

"Good morning madam"...US customs or coastguards here ...have you read this and do you understand what it means?(declaration)

Answer..mumbles of Yess-siree...(in spanish)...yoriba....pork and cheese

So you understand what it means?

Ans.........errr Yes....not sure......maybe .....

OK ..What you got in the bag?

Dead Rats,Bushmeat,baby aligators,couple of monkeys ...but only little ones...

...looking at the delis I dont think you would need a sniffer dog to detect the stuff...it was RANCID..

Wasnt there also something recently about some woman on an OZ flight who got done arriving with an apple or something..and she ended up in the Slammer and fined a couple of thousand $$$

Not worth the risk but for our happy   Thais it seems to be a case of ...MPR....    

...only a matter of time and a test case.....volunteers required.......

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

There was a little old lady in NZ that got fined for bringing fruit into NZ.She was in her 70's.I can't remember if she was fined NZ$200 orNZ$2000.