Stop, Look, and Listen: “A lot of people don’t think about what’s in the food they’re bringing in,” Furnare says. Maybe that worked with old X-ray machines, but not anymore.” Also, we can tell when you conceal items in aluminum foil. “If we can’t see into an unlabeled package, we will have to cut into it. But that same product, imported as a souvenir, could carry a virus capable of gutting a $97 billion industry.ĭon't Be a Tin-Foil Conspiracist: Richards also recommends putting all food into one bag, and not taping wrappers. If it reaches our shores, it would have a devastating effect in lost profits and the cost of attempts to control the outbreak, a burden that falls heavily on taxpayers.”Īmericans often don’t realize the stakes, he says, because our hog herds rank among the world’s healthiest, allowing us to eat things like uncured sausage. purged the disease in 1929, but stays vigilant against it, as well as new threats like the highly contagious African swine fever, says Bobby Acord, a consultant for the National Pork Producers Council: “There’s no cure, no vaccine. Ranchers had to round up livestock-even exposed but healthy animals-and slaughter them, burying 131,973 carcasses in pits of lime. The virus spread to cows, sheep, goats, and deer. Raw garbage off a Navy ship returning from Kobe, Japan, did exactly that in California 90 years ago, infecting hogs that chowed down on it with foot-and-mouth disease. The Perils of Pork Officers understand the siren call of bringing home the bacon, even as they have to confiscate it, Richards says: “Travelers think, ‘I’ve been eating it for weeks, what’s the problem?’ But if they throw away a wrapper, it can cause an outbreak.” But during our trusted-traveler interview, I joked, ‘Really, that’s on our permanent record?’ And the woman got all stern: ‘Yes, and it’s pretty serious.’” The actual getting-busted part, they were nice about. "The sausage was cut up and in a little kid’s container. I’d forgotten we even had it tucked into some random bag," he says. “Traveling with an 18-month-old child is distracting. Seattleite Christian Silk almost didn’t get his NEXUS pass because he’d absentmindedly packed some kielbasa for his toddler while saying goodbye to family in Ukraine. "Because from there out, they’re gonna be stuck in normal border-crossing traffic (90 minutes versus 15, on average, in Washington state).” “I’ve seen people shrug off big fines, then cry over losing their NEXUS cards ," Furnare says. Penalties for undeclared items start at $300 for Joe and Jane Public, and $500 for trusted travelers, who also risk their speed-demon status. I tell myself the worst that can happen is they will confiscate it, but there’s probably a fine too.” Once she even wedged in an entire lomo (dry-cured pork tenderloin). They return from his homeland every year with chorizo and jamón vacuum-sealed in their checked luggage. New Yorker Elizabeth Lasa (not her real name) and her Spanish husband certainly do. No wonder many travelers want to keep the real thing." "Meanwhile other countries have traditionally pasture-raised and artisan-finished red pork, and fermented sausages. “The mainstream American production of lean meat has led to underfed, stressed animals here,” she says. Others hope to hang on to that last burst of flavor, suggests Chrissie Manion Zaerpoor, owner of Kookoolan Farms, a producer of heirloom pork in Yamhill, Oregon. Some brave the gantlet to smuggle in deeply nostalgic foods. Nearly 400 pounds of unrefrigerated Chimex-brand Mexican bologna behind the seat of a pickup. Dirty underwear wrapped around Italian pancetta. My mother made it, and I only get home once every five years.”) But nothing causes tantrums as consistently as pork, still the world’s most popular meat, which can wear many disguises in transit. When confronted, people often curse and attempt to compromise. (With grannies that spry, no wonder China’s Olympians took ancient performance boosters like this and turtle blood prior to the 2008 ban for top athletes there.)
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