Comments on: Not Allowed: Mailing Food Packages from France to the U.S.

By: Claire

Claire — Fri, 11 Jul 2008 15:02:52 +0000

You can mail food to the US as long as it is not a type of food that is specifically prohibited – it’s just that now you have to submit “prior notice” of the shipment of the food on the fda.gov website, which will generate a special number which you must put on the package. This is a rule that went into effect several years ago, but enforcement has not been high for non-commercial shipments from one individual to another. See:
http://www.cfsan.fda.gov/~pn/pnmail.html

By: Z.

Z. — Tue, 18 Mar 2008 01:41:38 +0000

HI,
I can tell you for sure that it’s not only aimed against France (which, knowing Americans, wouldn’t be surprising). I am waiting for my package stuck in customs and I don’t know what to do to get it. It would cost even more to send it back. Apparently they need to know % of cotton in a t-shirt my mom is sending me. Tragically hillarious. Americans.

By: ptinfrance

ptinfrance — Sat, 28 Jul 2007 07:36:32 +0000

hi nicole, just quickly checked out la poste and they have a software to download that calculates the cost of a package based on the weight you input. here it is: Pesez, c’est timbré

By: Nicole

Nicole — Sat, 28 Jul 2007 00:56:27 +0000

OK, I came across this thread while looking for something else entirely. We will be spending 3 months in Montpellier starting Oct 1. Of course that means we will be straddling seasons. I want to send back my summer clothes via “La Poste” (I think?) figuring that will the cheapest. I have been cruising that site for the past hour trying to find what it will cost me to ship this back (or should I just take my oldest stuff and leave it all in France and look like a waif for a few weeks?). Could someone point me to the right place on that site to find out the info I need?

Thanks so much.

By: ptinfrance

ptinfrance — Wed, 28 Feb 2007 01:56:12 +0000

here's a link that might be helpful to you, atlantel: Sending Food Thru Intl Mail this link was posted by melly on this post.

By: atlantel

atlantel — Mon, 26 Feb 2007 15:59:00 +0000

HEllo,
I used to send some candies and other teas, tisanes to a friend in the US. Your post worried me (I’ve a small package on its way, mailed last Friday). I did double checked the US customs site, they don’t say anything about FRance.
http://help.cbp.gov/cgi-bin/customs.cfg/php/enduser/std_adp.php?p_faqid=717&p_created=1070554436&p_sid=PRxNxGYh&p_lva=&p_sp=cF9zcmNoPSZwX3NvcnRfYnk9JnBfZ3JpZHNvcnQ9JnBfcm93X2NudD01NjEmcF9wcm9kcz0mcF9jYXRzPSZwX3B2PSZwX2N2PSZwX3NlYXJjaF90eXBlPWFuc3dlcnMuc2VhcmNoX25sJnBfcGFnZT0y&p_li=&p_topview=1

See, they even updated their site as of February 2007, it’s still allowed or am I guessing wrong?
I don’t know if you will ever answer to this post, so may you answer me at beginnez at yahoo (dot) fr

thanks!

By: ptinfrance

ptinfrance — Sat, 27 Jan 2007 17:39:08 +0000

yup frog. i think you’re right. there’s some sort of cold war going on but maybe some of that will dissipate due to the huge 10 year contract michelin “won” to supply the u.s. army

By: LA Frog

LA Frog — Sat, 27 Jan 2007 10:30:15 +0000

I received chocolate twice from France over the past few weeks without any problem, and from family, i.e. no company. I guess I got lucky. Last week, I received tea from the Paris-based Mariage Freres company, but in all fairness it had an FDA declaration form — the first one I’ve ever seen. I guess all this nonsense ptinfrance and others have been going through lately is yet another temporary anti-French clamp-down — similar to the “freedom” fries. Hopefully, it won’t last.

By: ptinfrance

ptinfrance — Mon, 22 Jan 2007 18:39:59 +0000

thanks for that info nicole. i didn’t hear about the soda can thing. the world is insane, though, when you can’t send your friends some goodies from overseas.

By: Nicole

Nicole — Mon, 22 Jan 2007 17:57:48 +0000

They have really clamped down since August 11th when they uncovered the bombs in the soda container plot. The only companies that are allowed to ship food in are those that send a sample of every batch to the food and drug administration to be authorized with an import number- its so difficult with wine that even vignobles can’t do it unless they are part of some huge group. I only discovered this after buying 4 cases of wine and all the packing materials- then no one would ship it for me.
As for trying to sneak packages through, a friend of mine works in customs and he said that they used to check about 25% of packages and now they probably are checking 50%. If you go through FedEx or UPS, you probably have a better chance of it getting through because they have their own inspectors.

By: ptinfrance

ptinfrance — Mon, 22 Jan 2007 10:19:20 +0000

the horror didier: the pretzel! i’m not a great fan of those either but if you dip them in chocolate, they are so much better!

carole, you crack me up. if you have time, read this funny post about who makes the best chocolate at david lebovitz

By: Carole

Carole — Mon, 22 Jan 2007 09:41:43 +0000

Food packages were stopped sporadically in the past. I guess they just became even more carefull.
You don’t know what could happen to americans if they start to eat real chocolates

By: transall

transall — Mon, 22 Jan 2007 00:08:06 +0000

Bonsoir,

Peut-être les “denrées alimentaires françaises” sont-elles finalement des armes de destruction massive ?

On n’est jamais trop prudent, n’est ce pas…

Enfin, si ce n’était le coût, bien réel celui-là, du retour de colis après refus par la douane, tout ceci pourrait prêter à rire.

Les tablettes de chocolat françaises ne me semblent pas de nature à entraîner le décés d’un américain, mais sait-on jamais ?

Enfin, a mon avis il y a plus dangereux que ladite tablette de chocolat… le bretzel !!! Si mes souvenirs sont exacts, celui avec lequel le Président Bush a failli s’étouffer était bel et bien un bretzel US. Comme quoi, l’ennemi est parfois à l’intérieur.

Amitiés,

Didier

By: ptinfrance

ptinfrance — Sun, 21 Jan 2007 16:40:38 +0000

so, so sad, isn’t it samantha? and your poor mum needs her chocolate! it’s crazy.

michelle, there were no mushrooms in this particular package, but there was chocolate.

sam, isn’t this weird?! i did try to send chocolate this time so maybe that was it – but i’ve sent chocolate before many times. pfffff! what is it with chocolate?

my mailman said absolutely no food. that is just insane.

By: samantha

samantha — Sun, 21 Jan 2007 16:24:46 +0000

This happened to me just a few days ago – my mother was upset that I didn’t bring her any French chocolate for Christmas, so I decided to mail some to her. They were trying to make me pay 32€ for a Chronopost box, so I finally asked if he could ask anyone else for other (cheaper) mailing options. He asked the manager, who came over and freaked out, saying “Absolutely no chocolate can be mailed to the US, it’s not worth it and will never reach its destination”.

I didn’t believe her (I thought it was just cheese and paté that were forbidden), so finally she went and got this big book and showed me the paragraph that said that all “denrées alimentaires françaises” were forbidden from being shipped to the US. So I saw it with my own eyes – but who would’ve known?

By: michellenyc

michellenyc — Sun, 21 Jan 2007 15:43:12 +0000

it might have been a specific food that caused the problem. probably the mushrooms – there are very strict guidelines about various Fungi and plants so…. i think that might have been the problem

By: ptinfrance

ptinfrance — Sun, 21 Jan 2007 08:02:27 +0000

maybe it’s just for individuals sending out pkgs and not from companies. i have no idea what’s going on. this has got to be recent because i’d just sent my mom in CA a huge box and she received it last week.

maybe there’s a ban on food stuff from just france, not necessary the rest of europe or asia.

By: Kat

Kat — Sun, 21 Jan 2007 00:02:51 +0000

That sucks, and you had to pay for it to come back too! blah! I just went through customs today and after they asked me what was inside my box, they scanned it…luckily they didn’t open the box up.

By: LA Frog

LA Frog — Sat, 20 Jan 2007 20:02:01 +0000

This is weird: I get food packages from France [to California] on a regular basis — even those with detailed custom declaration forms. I recently received a big box containing tisane and chocolate, some homemade massepain and sablés à la lavande, and I just ordered 1kg of tea from Mariage Frères. I also get cosmetics, even meds, without any problem. Maybe it’s TN the problem?

By: ptinfrance

ptinfrance — Sat, 20 Jan 2007 19:54:01 +0000

oh well. i will have to bring it over next month when we go to california then mail it to you from there. man, i hope i can bring that in my luggage at least, or has customs put a stop to that too? pffff!

By: Angry B

Angry B — Sat, 20 Jan 2007 19:45:23 +0000

Sorry . At least we now have a new Universal Truth unveiled: Post Offices suck all over the world.