Homemade Dehydrated Meals through airports

[Huntsman247]

Hi

Has anyone had any experience bring homemade dehydrated meals through airports before?
I prefer them to bought freeze dried meals as I've come up with some great meals that are large enough to satisfy my hiking hunger. I vacuum seal these in Mylar Bags.
Headed to the philippines soon and was wondering if this would cause any issues.

Any advice would be appreciated.

[Lindsay]

Hi Huntsman. I was a Border Force officer until a couple of years ago, and in my experience there should be little drama with taking this food to the Philippines, however you should check their quarantine requirements anyway. Bringing it home again will be a different matter though. Home made freeze dried food is not usually allowed to be brought into Australia. Commercially packaged food is generally permitted as it has been certified to meet certain standards, whereas there is no guarantee the home made food has been produced to the same standards. There are some exceptions however this is the general rule.

[tom_brennan]

Going to NZ some years ago, we took quite a bit of home dehydrated food. We declared it all, they inspected it and confiscated a couple of items - which to be fair, were almost certainly insufficiently dried. They gave us the rest back. This was all fruit, veges and vege-based meals. Pretty sure home-dried meat is a no-no in most places.

Best to have a look at the country's quarantine regulations first.

[davidmorr]

Bringing it home again will be a different matter though. Home made freeze dried food is not usually allowed to be brought into Australia. Commercially packaged food is generally permitted as it has been certified to meet certain standards, whereas there is no guarantee the home made food has been produced to the same standards. There are some exceptions however this is the general rule.

A friend of mine found this not to be true. She had taken some NZ-made commercial dehyd egg with her from Australia to NZ. She did not use it all, and brought it back with her. At customs, it was confiscated. The argument went that they did not know it had been taken from Australia. They also said that stuff imported commercially to Australia had to be certified to certain standards, whereas the same brand sold in NZ did not.

So yes, bringing stuff back is probably a risk.

One more point. I went to South America a few years ago. A friend who had taken some tea bags was made to get them out to be inspected. I had a bunch of muesli bars with nuts and fruit, and they did not even want to see them. I guess maybe they thought muesli bars had so little nutrition that no bugs could live on them.

[Huntsman247]

Hi Huntsman. I was a Border Force officer until a couple of years ago, and in my experience there should be little drama with taking this food to the Philippines, however you should check their quarantine requirements anyway. Bringing it home again will be a different matter though. Home made freeze dried food is not usually allowed to be brought into Australia. Commercially packaged food is generally permitted as it has been certified to meet certain standards, whereas there is no guarantee the home made food has been produced to the same standards. There are some exceptions however this is the general rule.

Thanks. I didn't have any dramas bringing it out of Australia and into the Philipines. I brought homemade dehydrated meats, veg, fruit and rice. I just made sure I ate it all and didn't have to bring any back. Thanks for the advice!