12 Bizarre Foods Confiscated from U.S. Borders
People try to sneak in the darndest foods when they're entering the U.S. From Argentine vicuña patties to Zambian baobab fruit, officials confiscate enough food at the border to throw a months-long (and rather exotic) feast (learn more about it right here).
U.S. Customs officials provided BonAppetit.com a copy of their records from fiscal year 2010 to 2013 listing the kinds, quantities, and countries of departure for all the food items they seized from all commercial flights into America. Meanwhile, we sent photographers to LAX to document a day's haul at the Customs checkpoint. Here's what we found.
DYLAN + JENI1/14Deer Antlers (China)
Used to make a medicinal soup in Chinese medicine, deer antlers were confiscated a handful of times over the past few years, either whole or sliced. Perhaps surprisingly, the biggest offender isn't China but Vietnam.
DYLAN + JENI2/14Seahorse, Lizard, and Needlefish (Vietnam)
In Chinese traditional medicine, eating seahorse allegedly increases virility. Eating dried gecko lizard allegedly increases virility.
DYLAN + JENI3/14Seahorse, Lizard, and Needlefish (Vietnam)
Eating needlefish, surprisingly, has nothing to do with virility, but is supposed to rid the body of toxins.
DYLAN + JENI4/14Contraband Cuisine's Worst Nightmare
Aruba, the dog cop at LAX customs, gets an ID badge, awesome jacket, and everything.
DYLAN + JENI5/14Aruba Finds the Pork
Aruba has a handle on the illegal-chicarrón situation at the airport. This bag of microwaveable pork rinds flew in from the Philippines.
DYLAN + JENI6/14Liquid Bird Nests (Malaysia)
After pork, beef, chicken, and more common foodstuffs, bird nests—including in liquefied form, like here—were among the most frequent confiscated foods in the Customs records, especially from countries including Indonesia, China, and Vietnam. A whopping 665 bags of the stuff coming in from Indonesia in fiscal year 2013 was trickily mislabeled as "potato chips." Though it's called birds nest, users typically care only about the saliva of the Southeast Asian swiftlet, which hardens to make suction-cup-shaped nests. It's cleaned of twigs, soaked in water, and served in soup. It's considered to be an aphrodisiac.
DYLAN + JENI7/14Donkey Dung Tablets (China)
Another traditional herbal medication in China, donkey dung is a rare find even by U.S. Customs standards. Donkey dung is used in various cultures to stop bleeding by rubbing it into wounds.
DYLAN + JENI8/14Chicken Bouillon (Philippines)
Chicken-soup packets or bouillon is one of the most confiscated food items—especially the Maggi brand. In 2011 alone, officials seized 5,690 units of chicken-soup mix from travelers from South Africa alone, half of them specifically of the Nestlé-owned brand.
DYLAN + JENI9/14Seed Packets (South Korea, China, Vietnam)
Every year, officials take away thousands of packets of seeds from travelers. They may seem like simple additions to your garden, but they could spell disaster for the local ecosystem.
DYLAN + JENI10/14Dried Citrus Fruit (MIddle East)
Dried lemons, yellow dates (pictured), and citrus peels are the most commonly smuggled fruits. In FY 2010, officials seized 800 dried lemons from people flying from South Africa alone.
DYLAN + JENI11/14Fruit Tea (Middle East)
Tea is among the more common contraband beverages, with citrus-peel tea from China the most seized of the bunch (U.S. Customs seized 300 bags of it in FY 2013).
DYLAN + JENI12/14Chinese Long Beans (China, Malaysia)
Chinese long beans are among the more commonly smuggled vegetables (in FY 2012, 500 bunches of them were nabbed from India alone). That's all the more surprising because you can easily buy them in the U.S.
DYLAN + JENI13/14Deer Penis (China)
Another ingredient used in—you guessed it—Chinese traditional medicine, deer penis is extracted from the animal while it's still alive, and is used for everything from supposedly fattening babies to (surprise, surprise) ensuring virility. It's been banned at athletic events because it often contains stimulants such as ephedrine.
DYLAN + JENI14/14Dried Fruit (Middle East)
Other commonly seized fruits besides citrus include grapes, gooseberries, dates, berries, mangoes, oranges, and longans.
