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I am crossing the border from Canada into USA with a cooler full of personal food.

After reading this document, I am not fully clear about the restrictions.

I am bringing some processed pepperoni, that I think only contains pork. I am bringing unlabeled fruit, as well as cooked hard boiled eggs. The other contents of my cooler are explicitly allowed.

Will I have any trouble crossing the border? I really hate border stops setting my timelines back.

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  • Have you ever been stopped before?
    – Karlson
    Commented Jul 13, 2016 at 16:47

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Processed pepperoni

This is a bit unclear, one paragraph says they're prohibited and another says canned and unopened pork products are ok. I think you should be careful with this one and leave the pepperoni unopened.

Fresh (chilled or frozen), dried, cured, and fully cooked meat is generally prohibited from most countries. [...] Pork should be commercially canned and labeled in unopened containers

Unlabelled fruit

They'll need to inspect them even if they were labelled, and unless you can prove they were grown in Canada, they will most probably be confiscated.

Fruits and vegetables grown in Canada are generally admissible, if they have labels identifying them as products of Canada. Fruits and vegetables merely purchased in Canada are not necessarily admissible

For fruits grown elsewhere in the Americas, you can check the FAVIR database. You'll notice there's no US in the dropdown, I would be careful with US imported produce, I've seen Florida oranges confiscated at the border but then again they might let them in.
As for packaged fruits as opposed to raw ones, once more it depends where it was processed. This guideline (table 3.123) has all the information.

Hard boiled eggs

Those should be ok as Exotic Newcastle Disease seems to be under control in Canada and few cases of HPAI were reported.

Eggs and egg products from Exotic Newcastle Disease (END) and Highly Pathogenic Avian Influenza (HPAI) affected regions, including cooked eggs, if not accompanied by a USDA Veterinary Service import permit remain prohibited regardless if those items are for personal consumption.

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  • Last time I drove into Canada, the person ahead of me had a large quantity of apples, which were specifically prohibited. (Medfly issues in California.) I think he must have tried to hide them in his trunk and lie, because they led him away.
    – Andrew Lazarus
    Commented Jul 13, 2016 at 18:20
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    @AndrewLazarus of course they would, you're supposed to declare everything even allowed items. The question is about driving into the US though, Canadian rules are probably different
    – blackbird
    Commented Jul 13, 2016 at 18:23
  • What about fruit an vegetables grown in US or other countries in the Americas? Most Canadian fruit comes from the same places the US fruit comes from.
    – Scorb
    Commented Jul 13, 2016 at 18:28
  • @ScottF I updated the answer with more detail
    – blackbird
    Commented Jul 13, 2016 at 18:34
  • Is there a difference between raw fruit, and packaged fruit cups
    – Scorb
    Commented Jul 14, 2016 at 14:05

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