Taking food into France

[curlygriff]

I have been told that no food from the U.K. is allowed to be taken into France especially fridge food, has anyone has had this experience, as all food is confiscated.

 

[Derek Uzzell]

There have been two earlier discussions here about this - this long forum thread in January 2021, (that I ‘froze’ when it went off-topic)

 

https://forums.outandaboutlive.co.uk/forums/Motorhomes/Motorhome-Matters/No-Food-to-be-Taken-to-Europe-/57186/

 

and a 2nd (shorter) thread in mid-February 2021

 

https://forums.outandaboutlive.co.uk/forums/Motorhomes/Motorhome-Matters/Food-to-be-taken-into-the-EU/57567/

 

This January 2021 article "What are the rules for travelling to France after Brexit?"

 

https://www.completefrance.com/home/rules-for-travelling-to-france-after-brexit-1-6960357

 

included the following advice

 

Customs control

 

You are not allowed to take meat or meat products to France apart from fish or fish products (up to a maximum of 20kg). You are not allowed to take milk, cheese, yoghurt or other milk-based products except for infant milk, infant food or food required by humans or pets for medical reasons. However, you are allowed to take eggs (if avian flu restrictions allow), egg products and honey into the country.

 

What about fruit, vegetables and plants? Soil and other substrates, vine plants, citrus fruits and seed potatoes (for planting) are strictly prohibited.

 

Bananas, coconuts, pineapples, dates and durian fruit are allowed. All other plants and plant products, including fresh (and chilled) fruit, vegetables (including ginger), firewood, plants (including flowers and seeds) fall into a grey area. In principle, they are allowed as long as you present them at customs with a phytosanitary (plant health) certificate proving their provenance and attesting they are free from certain pests and diseases.

 

However, in practice, it is complicated and expensive to get hold of this paperwork and probably not worth it for members of the public unless they are absolutely determined to take the items across the border.

 

and a GOOGLE-search on “Taking food to France” produced the following results

 

https://tinyurl.com/avcfcsrz

 

The food-related restrictions are well known, but Grahams’ question is specific and can be summarised as follow:

 

Has any Out&AboutLive forum-member visting FRANCE since the restrictions came in been checked at the French border and, if ‘prohibited’ food products were discovered, were those food products all confiscated?”

 

I haven't been able to find anything online about what French border controls are (or have been) doing about checking UK tourists for compliance with the food regulations. There was the widely reported Dutch border control 'Trucker's Sandwich' incident in January 2021, but seemingly nothing similar reported since.

 

(As neither curdle’s immediate response nor John52’s rejoinder had any relevance to Graham’s enquiry, I’ve deleted both of those postings.)