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Delicacies from distant lands - A recipe for quarantine
AQIS20139
4 May 2001
The good news for travelling ‘foodies’ is that some delicacies can be brought home from overseas – without posing a risk to our unique Australian environment.
Quarantine do’s and don’t’s for Australia-bound foods vary depending on the country of origin and the type of food itself. Generally, fresh, uncooked foods are out, and cooked, processed foods are in – if the country of origin does not present a high quarantine risk, like foot and mouth disease (FMD) affected countries. All foods must be declared to AQIS upon arrival.
Popular foods that are allowed into Australia, from anywhere in the world, include:
Delicacies
- frogs legs and snails – canned only
- pate – canned only
- birds nest – canned or heat sealed
Seafood
- lobster, mussels, crab - maximum 5 kg (dead)
- smoked salmon – maximum 5 kg, commercially packed only
- dried fish, gutted fresh fish – maximum 5 kg
- caviar – commercially packed only
Vegetables
- artichokes, sun-dried tomatoes, olives – marinated, preserved and commercially packed
- truffles – dried and commercially packed
- dried mushrooms (except ganoderma mushroom)
Sweets
- chocolate
- biscuits and cakes – no cream
- jams
- maple syrup – commercially packed
- lollies
Beverages
- wine
- coffee – roasted only
- tea – plain and green (not herbal)
Travellers can find out if the food they wish to bring into Australia meets Australian quarantine requirements at AQIS’s quarantine import conditions database - http://www.aqis.gov.au/icon/ - which contains current Australian import conditions for more than 13,000 foreign plant, animal, mineral and human commodities.
Declare anything made from plants or animals, including wooden articles, dairy products, meat products, fresh fruit, seeds and nuts, as well as live animals.
National Quarantine Week, 30 April - 6 May
For interview
Contact: Carson Creagh
Phone: 02 6272 5156
Mobile: 0414 577 472