Reindeer Salami

[Plato123]

We purchases a chunk of reindeer salami in Ketchikan the other day and when we returned to Vancouver it was confiscated by Customs as importation of reindeer meat to Canada is prohibited. This applies to anyone entering Canada and completing the required Customs declaration.  Too bad, as I had hoped to save it for Christmas dinner.

FYI.

 

[1025cruise]

Hopefully all they did was confiscate it, and not fine you.

 

But yes, generally it is not allowed to bring food off a ship at any port, including embarkation and disembarkation. 

[Plato123]

Perhaps I should have mentioned that this was not "ship food" but a commercial product sold in a store in Ketchikan. We have often purchased food items while off the ship on cruises and declared them with no issues whatsoever.

I was told by Customs that the product could have been accepted provided that it did not contain reindeer meat.

As to a fine, that would have been possible if I had not declared it and it was discovered in a baggage search, but unlikely as I did declare it.

[GTJ]

On 8/29/2022 at 8:38 AM, Plato123 said:

We purchases a chunk of reindeer salami in Ketchikan the other day and when we returned to Vancouver it was confiscated by Customs as importation of reindeer meat to Canada is prohibited.

Next time, travel on a U.S. flag vessel, such as those operated by the Alaska Marine Highway, so you can arrive in Washington (rather than Vancouver) with purchases intact.

[rkacruiser]

1 hour ago, GTJ said:

Next time, travel on a U.S. flag vessel, such as those operated by the Alaska Marine Highway, so you can arrive in Washington (rather than Vancouver) with purchases intact.

 

Since the OP is Canadian, what might happen when the OP returns to Canada with the Reindeer Salami?  If Customs confiscated it in Vancouver, wouldn't the same thing happen wherever the OP crosses the border?

[GTJ]

22 hours ago, rkacruiser said:

Since the OP is Canadian, what might happen when the OP returns to Canada with the Reindeer Salami?

I overlooked that fact! If home is in Canada, then indeed importation of anything from the United States is eventually going to be subjected to Canadian customs requirements. Now if the poster had a second home somewhere in the United States . . . .

 

As to the substance of the matter, it is difficult for me to understand the basis for the Canadian customs requirements. Usually the reason for prohibition of meat across international frontiers is to prevent the spread of disease. But it is my understanding that caribou are wild animals that migrate freely across the United States and Canadian border. If that is true, then a person importing slaughtered and processed caribou meat would seemingly pose no greater threat than the living caribou themselves crossing the border on their own. True, the processing facilities in Ketchikan might follow USDA standards rather than Canadian standards, but that would seemingly not instigate any concerns about which Upton Sinclair might write. Is there anything that I am missing here, or is the only customs concern that of administration rather than substance?