12 International Foods That Are Banned In The US

Kinder Eggs (made by Ferrero International) are available in the US, but the Kinder Surprise Eggs found in Europe are forbidden. The reason the US doesn't allow the surprise version of the chocolate egg is because of what comes with that surprise - a toy of some kind in a plastic shell. In the US, candies with toys inside are illegal because they contain a “nonnutritive substance.”

in 2018, Ferrero International introduced a version of the eggs called Kinder Joy for US consumers. They have two distinct halves, individually packaged, with one side holding a toy and the other holding wafers and chocolate cream. 

Even with the ban and the alternative product, Kinder Surprise Eggs have been smuggled into the US. In 2015, US Customs confiscated roughly 30,000 Kinder Surprise Eggs, as the toy is considered a choking hazard.

Not all Époisses are illegal, but when the traditional French cheese is made using unpasteurized milk, it's not allowed in the US. That said, most Époisses are produced using raw or unpasteurized milk. 

For a raw-milk cheese to be imported into the US, it must be aged for at least 60 days; this prevents the presence of potential bacteria like Listeria and E. coli.

Époisses gets its name from the village in France where it was first made. Commonly called Époisses de Bourgogne, the cheese smells pungent and has a strong flavor. The odor is so intense, it's been said that the cheese is banned on the Paris Metro, although this isn't likely true.

As it matures over weeks, the whole milk in the cheese curdles, is salted, and then washed in Marc de Bourgogne (a French liquor). When it's ready, Époisses has a red or orange rind with a creamy, crumbly center. 

Beluga caviar is illegal in the US, but there's a catch - that's only when the caviar comes from wild beluga sturgeon. Legal beluga caviar can be purchased thanks to the efforts of caviar retailer Marky's and Sturgeon Aquafarms.

In 2005, the US banned the importation of beluga caviar due to concerns about overfishing of sturgeon, whose eggs - or roe - become the delicacy. At the time, Ellen Pikitch, Director of the Pew Institute for Ocean Science, indicated:

The majority of the world's major sturgeon fisheries are now catching 85 percent fewer fish than they did at their peak. More than one-third of the fisheries examined crashed within seven to 20 years of inception.

Marky's received a federal exemption in 2016 to sell caviar after its efforts to sustainably raise the sturgeon proved successful.

Tonka beans are actually seeds from Dipteryx odorata, a fragrant flowering tree whose common names include cumaru, kumaru, and Brazilian teak. 

Native to South America, the tree's “beans” can be deadly when consumed in excess. Typically used in fragrances and as flavorings, they smell comparable to vanilla, but when eaten taste bitter.

The FDA determined in 1954 that tonka beans were illegal for consumption because they contain coumarin, which is toxic to the liver when eaten in large quantities. As a result, chefs in the US are forbidden from using them.

However, some chefs still use them, especially in desserts and sweet breads. Because coumarin naturally occurs in other plants, including cinnamon, the ban on tonka beans may seem somewhat inconsistent in comparison. It's their high coumarin concentrations that make the beans stand out among the other sources.

Chefs like Anna Markow of New York have offered something of a defense for tonka beans:

They really aren’t any more harmful than a large dose of cinnamon to people with specific conditions… [Banning them] keeps ingredients obscure and somewhat exotic. People just don’t hear about it unless they go looking.

It's not easy to classify horsemeat in the US, but if nothing else, there's a taboo around eating it.

Legally speaking, horsemeat is not supposed to be sold for human consumption - for the most part - but it can be consumed. In states like Arizona, however, if it's sold by a licensed individual and labeled properly, selling and eating it is fair game. California, on the other hand, banned horsemeat consumption in 1998.

There is no federal prohibition on eating horsemeat in the US. Regulations on a national level have been inconsistent for decades, and as of 2023, it was legal to export horses for food and other byproducts.

To find horsemeat on menus without issue, one can visit countries like Switzerland and Kazakhstan. In the latter, beshbarmak - stewed horsemeat over noodles - is one of the most popular dishes. It has even been called the country's national dish.

Foie gras is the liver of a fattened goose or duck. According to the French rural code, foie gras “belongs to the protected cultural and gastronomical heritage of France.” 

The dish isn't banned in the entirety of the US, but in California, it's forbidden. In Chicago, foie gras was briefly prohibited from April 2006 to May 2008, and in the state of New York, a 2019 ban in New York City was never enforced because it did not correspond to state law.

California, which banned foie gras in 2004, is joined by several countries worldwide that forbid goose or duck liver due to how it's made. Australia and the UK have banned its production - done by force-feeding the birds to make their livers fatty and enlarged, which causes pain and illness. Importation, however, is legal. In India and Israel, on the other hand, both importation and production are illegal.