Prosciutto from Italy

I tried a few years ago flying into San Francisco. I declare everything even cookies and chocolate. It was a no go, taken for destruction. It was similarly packaged but a small chunk not sliced. Enjoy it in Italy or on the flight back.

I would agree with Rocket, but do check with your government websites about what you can and cannot bring into the country.

As suggested by unclegus.

https://help.cbp.gov/app/answers/detail/a_id/944/~/bringing-meat%2C-poultry-or-pork%2Fswine-products-into-the-u.s.

Scroll down to swine products and it looks unlikely to be allowed.

You can get excellent Italian prosciutto in Canada, too.

https://help.cbp.gov/app/answers/detail/a_id/944/~/bringing-meat%2C-poultry-or-pork%2Fswine-products-into-the-u.s.

It's really not worth the risk.

High quality Italian prosciutto is available in the U.S., but it is expensive. It's one of the few imported meat items from Italy that is allowed under strict regulations.

Buying prosciutto in the U.S. Is expensive, but buying it in Italy and having it seized and destroyed is even more expensive. Bite the bullet and purchase It here. Every once in a while Costco sells beautiful, vacuum-wrapped half hams of Italian prosciutto so watch for it.

Costco sells Prosciutto di Parma made by Citterio, a leading Italian company. Trader Joe's does the same. Costco also sells San Daniele at some locations (don't remember the brand). Importation of both is allowed since 2000 I think. In 2013 the CPB allowed other meats from specific regions of Italy, but again only for official imports which are inspected by the USDA, not for the average Joe Doe coming from a trip with an unofficial vacuum pack.

As the others have mentioned, the safer approach would be to find a local source in your area. Your profile doesn't show your location so hard to know what might be available in your area.

I can buy a wide range of Italian products (including Prosciutto) at the local Italian Deli so never bother trying to bring anything back.

We just went through US customs a few weeks ago. When we were going to show him what we had he said if there is no meat you are fine - and let us go. So I would say NO.

In very few cases swine and swine products can enter the United States (U.S.). Commercially canned pork is allowed if the CBP officer can determine from the label that the meat was cooked in the can after it was sealed to make it shelf-stable without refrigeration.

By definition, salami and prosciutto crudo do not meet these criteria. They are not cooked, not canned, and not shelf-stable. See this version of the same rules, as well: https://help.cbp.gov/app/answers/detail/a_id/3619/~/travelers-bringing-food-into-the-u.s.-for-personal-use.

You can bring them back if they were inspected by a USDA inspector. Almost nothing in Italy is so certified on the package for sale in italy. No vac packed piece is liable to carry it. Citterio has a USDA inspector, but none of the smaller producers do. So the general answer is no.

Now, cheese, on the other hand, is a completely different matter. As long as it's vac packed, you're good to bring it home. I brought 1.24 kilos of small producer Fontina Val d'Aosta back, as the lady in the store sealed it in her chamber vac. Much easier to get good charcuterie in the US than to get real Fontina. Unless you want something like Culatello di Zibello, you're probably better served with small producer cheese anyway.

They do sell some prosciutto and cheese in the duty free ship at the airport in Milan. You are already through customs and can carry on the flight. OIf course, only helpful if that is the airport you are using.

Yes you can buy prosciutto in the duty free shops. Enjoy it on your flight home, but it still won't be allowed in.

Some people may try to sneak it in and not declare it. I don't know what the minimum fine is but it's not worth it to me. The link above states that fines can be as high as $10,000. I almost always see the USDA beagles at baggage claim at SFO.

Also if you are caught lying I'm guessing that you will be subjected to enhanced scrutiny each and everytime you enter the US.

I'm not saying anyone here is smuggling food in, just pointing out consequences and potential consequences.

we shipped home prosciutto on our last trip, not terribly expensive, keeps well at room temps and we enjoyed for some time once we got home. Made for nice gifts to share with family and friends as well.

I would prefer the whole (non acorn or is it chestnuts) pig from Spain. The local deli sells prosciutto or Spanish ham. They even let me taste. I also buy Costco or TraderJoe's options. Do I have pig stories. The best bean and ham soup in Bologna. And better stories from Spain.

No, you are not through "customs" when you reach the duty free shops in Milan -- you are through Passport Control for immigration leaving Italy. Italy doesn't care what you take out of the country food wise. What matters is the country you are arriving in at the end of your journey. That is where you go through customs. And US customs does NOT allow meat products such as this through. If you think you can sneak a little through and it won't matter, you are wrong especially if they catch you. $10,000 fine and revocation of any expedited clearance program membership is just the start. The dogs they have sniffing your luggage at many airport can smell these meat products from a long way away.

Buy Prosciutto from San Daniele not Parma. Parma is tough, San Daniele is tender, closer to homemade Prosciutto. I know my homemade Prosciutto because Dad made it in Indiana. It's sweet, tender, and full of flavor. And there's varieties of San Daniele, so try them all.

Try both, and add prosciutto di cinghali from Tuscany as well.

The "toughness" of Emiliano prosciutto versus the tenderness of Veneto prosciutto is nonsense. It's all in the pig, the cure, the weather and the carve. I've had tougher San D and I have had silky Tuscan boar. The San D vs Parma is really about a mild sweetness to San D that isn't in Parma. And the Tuscan boar prosciutto has a porky gaminess that is amazing. However, there's no such thing as a Tuscan or Veneto culatello, so Emilia wins. Again.

And you still can't bring it back unless it was inspected by the USDA at the packaging site.

U.S. Customs will probably take it. Last year I bought some vacuum packed jamon in Madrid airport, since it was on the secure side of the gate area, I assumed it would be OK to bring back. It wasn't, customs took it.

It's only nonsense if you've never had homemade Prosciutto, the real stuff, cured the right way like how the old timers did it centuries ago. I've never seen it anywhere in Italy commercially.

Italians who've lived in Italy all their lives have never had real homemade Prosciutto. They tell me that such curing is handed down only in certain families and that it stays within that family, a closely guarded secret, not shared commercially. You have to be invited into the family home to taste the real homemade Prosciutto. And if you're never invited in, you'll never know the ecstacy of Prosciutto.

It's difficult for me cause I have only my two brothers now who know what I'm talking about. We often share memories of the time in our lives when Dad made Prosciutto. Even though many decades have passed, we'll always remember it. It was that memorable, not just because of the exquisite food homemade Prosciutto is, but also because it took many many different forces to align up and make it possible, forces that may happen only once in a lifetime.

And so is it that even though an Ancestor may have made it or knew how to make it, there may never be the opportunity in that family to make it again. The taking of a pig in the Italian countryside is a Big thing, a Major undertaking, not taken or done lightly, if it can be done at all, and many times it can't be done.

And so it was in my family, so much so that while the universe gave me a gift of the food of the mythical gods, I'm so sorry and I feel so sad that I've not met anyone anywhere who's eaten at that table.