[Forgive me if this is a re-post on this topic--I could not find one on it...]
I came back from France recently and brought back some cans of foie gras, which CBSA ended up confiscating and "destroying" [perhaps by being immersed in the stomach acid of a lucky CBSA officer..]. I will spare you all of the painful details, but the confiscation ended up being a mistake. The CBSA agent was kind enough to tell me [was that foie gras I smelled on his breath?] about a very useful tool on the CFIA website that provides much more detailed information than is available on the CBSA web site on what you can and can't bring in, it is called the Automated Import Reference System ["AIRS"]:
This is the tool that the CBSA folks use to figure out what is OK and what is not. The problem with the system is that you actually have to know a bit about food to understand it--the agent who rejected it incorrectly classified it as fresh foie gras (which is forbidden). My recommendation: If you are bringing any unusual things back, plug the details about the stuff into the AIRS system and then make a print-out--bring that with you when you clear customs. It may save you the having to go to secondary inspection or expedite your clearance if you do end up there. Plus, you won't lose your foie gras...
You can search for the "commodity" by name [can foie gras be considered a commodity?] Or you can use a hierarchical menu tool instead--do this with care because if you don't choose the right branch of the tree you will end going down the wrong path and will end up without your foie gras.
My only objection is that it doesn't give the reason for rejection of an item.
Ideally the item should be clearly labeled with all of the information required by the system. For example, cheese is supposed to be labeled with the country of origin, but once I simply had the cheesemonger in the States write "Product of Spain" on my Cabrales, and that satisfied the officer at the border.
mark_ottawa
[Forgive me if this is a re-post on this topic--I could not find one on it...]
I came back from France recently and brought back some cans of foie gras, which CBSA ended up confiscating and "destroying" [perhaps by being immersed in the stomach acid of a lucky CBSA officer..]. I will spare you all of the painful details, but the confiscation ended up being a mistake. The CBSA agent was kind enough to tell me [was that foie gras I smelled on his breath?] about a very useful tool on the CFIA website that provides much more detailed information than is available on the CBSA web site on what you can and can't bring in, it is called the Automated Import Reference System ["AIRS"]:
airs-sari.inspection.gc.ca
This is the tool that the CBSA folks use to figure out what is OK and what is not. The problem with the system is that you actually have to know a bit about food to understand it--the agent who rejected it incorrectly classified it as fresh foie gras (which is forbidden). My recommendation: If you are bringing any unusual things back, plug the details about the stuff into the AIRS system and then make a print-out--bring that with you when you clear customs. It may save you the having to go to secondary inspection or expedite your clearance if you do end up there. Plus, you won't lose your foie gras...
You can search for the "commodity" by name [can foie gras be considered a commodity?] Or you can use a hierarchical menu tool instead--do this with care because if you don't choose the right branch of the tree you will end going down the wrong path and will end up without your foie gras.
My only objection is that it doesn't give the reason for rejection of an item.
Ideally the item should be clearly labeled with all of the information required by the system. For example, cheese is supposed to be labeled with the country of origin, but once I simply had the cheesemonger in the States write "Product of Spain" on my Cabrales, and that satisfied the officer at the border.
Enjoy!