Food and customs

Customs information can be found here: https://www.cbp.gov/travel/us-citizens/know-before-you-go/prohibited-and-restricted-items.

Ultimately, it's up to the inspector to decide whether a questionable item is OK. Since I don't want to buy something and have it confiscated, I'm very conservative in what I bring back. I've never tried to carry meat or cheese; pay particular attention to the rules about those products. A lot of packaged items are OK--supermarket containers of flavored salt, olive oil, vinegar, etc. Fresh fruit and vegetables are very risky because they may harbor agricultural pests.

Customs clearance takes place after you retrieve your checked baggage.

Yes, the tins of liquid that are larger than 3 oz need to go in checked baggage. Do you have some bigger ziplocks to wrap them in? Just to keep them contained in case if a leak.

When you come back in you’ll go thru Immigration first, then collect your bag. Then you’ll go thru Customs where they’ll ask if you’ve got anything to declare. You say chocolate, vinegar and oil and they’ll probably nod and send you on without looking.

Here is a starting link for what you can bring in. There are links to the meat and cheese section.

https://help.cbp.gov/s/article/Article-3619?language=en_US

Do you end in Atlanta or have to catch another flight?

Hope you are having fun in Italy! I’m up on Lake Como watching it rain, lol!! ☔️😬

Editing to: oops, Acraven is typing faster than me today!

Above post reported

Thank you both! I wasn’t sure the order of events so this helps greatly. I have another flight after Atlanta. Will I still collect my checked luggage there?

Yes. You collect your bag, carry it thru customs then re-check after customs. There will be a place right after for the bag drop for your airline so it’s not like you have to go to a check in desk when you start a journey.

Then you’ll go back thru security to reenter the sterile part of the airport. When you leave the plane don’t take your water or parts of your lunch with you.

Pockets need to be empty so take a minute to do that after you hand your bag back off to the guys from your airline. Find your boarding pass and ID for security and head off to your flight home!

No meat.

Read this carefully:

https://www.cbp.gov/travel/us-citizens/know-before-you-go/prohibited-and-restricted-items

Thank you all for your help! Much appreciated

I was surprised that I was allowed (on two different occasions) to bring dried mushrooms in a paper bag and honey from Poland. I read the list and they were okay No problems!

If you bring back anything that's not allowed but DECLARE it, CBP will not fine you (they'll just seize and destroy the item). However, if they discover something prohibited (and the list can change, due to a foot and mouth disease outbreak, for example), and you did not declare it (ftr, they have food dogs as well as drug dogs that detect these things), then you WILL be fined, and the item will be seized, etc.

So declare, declare, declare.

We brought back vacuum-packed cheese and vacuum-packed toasted hazelnuts, declared them, and they were OK. Several different trips.

There are tons of videos on youtube of people being caught by agricultural inspectors at airports. The crime is in not declaring that you have food, when they can see it on the x-ray or the dog sniffs it out. You don't need to try and outguess whether something is allowed or not, just check the box on the form to declare it and they will let you know and take it from you if its not. Just dont say you have no food when cookies, spices, coffee, chocolate, and cake are indeed, food.

We've brought cheese back several times. The key is it must be hard cheese (no soft creamy stuff) and packaged in unopened plastic. We just declare it and they look at it (or not) and let it go. Its not traumatic.

I had a friend who did agricultural inspections at airports (they are US Dept of Agriculture employees), and he said they know which flights are most likely to have people bringing contraband food, based on where its coming from. He said flights from Italy always generate boxes of salami they confiscate and destroy.

No meat, but cheese is mostly OK.

The key is it must be hard cheese (no soft creamy stuff) and packaged in unopened plastic.
"Must" is a strong word. It is more accurate to say what you cannot have is an unpasteurized, unaged cheese. A fresh Mozzarella or a soft goat cheese would be an example. Basically any cheese that is some what firm is fine, since they need to be aged a couple months. Gouda for example, I would not consider a hard cheese, but is fine, as is a Gorgonzola. Packaging also is no real issue, they care about what it is, not how it is packed.

So go ahead and bring back a nice Pecorino, or what ever cheese pleases you, just leave the fresh and runny stuff there.

But in the end, it is up to a customs officer to make the call.

from the USDA APHIS site (linked from CBP) : the exact wording

Certain items may enter from any country. These include:
Butter
Butter oil
Solid hard or soft cheeses (as long as the cheese does not contain meat or pour like a liquid i.e. ricotta or cottage cheese)

He said flights from Italy always generate boxes of salami they confiscate and destroy.

I can figure the "destroying machine"!!! :-D Party every night!

After the joke, as far as I know, is that cured meat can be legally introduced in USA if is packed in a box/bag with the FDA approval. Means that it's from a producers authorized to send to USA. The problem is that the FDA approval is a very expensive and difficult matter (costs around 100K$ the request and you are not sure to pass it...), so only very big groups do it. On the other side 99% of times tourists visit and purchase stuff from little producers. So no FDA seal, no legal import.

One good thing could be that in Italy we are so fond of our cured meat that when here you will eat that almost every day. And people will be offended if you don't want it! So after a couple of week you will eat the normal amount of charcuterie for a couple of years...

We just returned yesterday from Italy. We packed olive oil and balsamic vinegar in our checked bags and also brought vacuum sealed cheese. None of it was an issue for customs in Boston. Although we didn't bring any meats back, I'm curious about the packaged, sealed, meats you can buy at the duty-free shop in FCO. I know that any liquids you buy at the duty free shops (even over 3 oz) can be carried onto the plane.

Meat in duty free is still meat, they sell to anyone and are not responsible for any other countries import laws, that is up to you.

It sounds like you have a carry on and a checked bag. I would put any special outfits in your carry on that you would especially disappointed if they were ruined with a leaking food container. Then wrap everything else around the tins in the checked luggage for as much cushioning as possible.