Insights For Success

Strategy, Innovation, Leadership and Security

Travel Tip: What food can I bring back

GeneralEdward Kiledjian
Image by Antony Stanley used under creative commons license

Image by Antony Stanley used under creative commons license

Frequent and infrequent travellers usually are confused about what food products they are legally allowed to bring back. Since many of my readers are American, I will write about USA regulations.

Americans coming back home with food

It is important to ensure you comply with these import control rules as breaking them can be punished with a slap on the wrist of a very severe high cost fine. The US CBP website says >“Failure to declare food products can result in up to $10,000 >in fines and penalties.”

You should checkout the special US Customs and Border Protection webpage entitled Travellers bringing food into the U.S. for personal use

The (partial) list of acceptable imports : - Condiments such as ketchup (catsup), mustard, mayonnaise, Marmite and Vegemite and prepared sauces that do not contain meat products

  • Olive oil and other vegetable oils

  • Bread, cookies, crackers, cakes, granola bars, cereal and other baked and processed products

  • Candy and chocolate

  • Cheese- Solid cheese (hard or semi-soft, that does not contain meat); butter, butter oil, and cultured milk products such as yogurt and sour cream are not restricted. Feta cheese, Brie, Camembert, cheese in brine, Mozzarella and Buffalo Mozzarella are permissible (USDA Animal Product Manual, Table 3-14-6). Cheese in liquid (such as cottage cheese or ricotta cheese) and cheese that pours like heavy cream are not admissible from countries affected by foot-and-mouth disease (FMD). Cheese containing meat is not admissible depending on the country of origin.

  • Canned goods and goods in vacuum packed jars (other than those containing meat or poultry products) for your personal use

  • Fish- personal amounts of fish, shrimp, abalone and other seafood are allowed and can be fresh, frozen, dried, smoked, canned or cooked

  • Dried Fruit- things like apricots, barberry, currants, dates, figs, gooseberries, peaches, prunes, raisins, tomatillos, and zereshk (USDA Miscellaneous and Processed Products Manual, Table 3-69)

  • Liquid milk and milk products intended for use by infants or very young children are admissible if in a reasonable amount or small quantity for several days' use.

Note: Milk and milk products from goats must be accompanied by a USDA import permit if from regions classified as affected with foot-and-mouth disease (FMD) or Rinderpest.

  • Powder drinks sealed in original containers with ingredients listed in English. However, admissibility is still under the discretion of the Customs and Border Protection (CBP) Agricultural Specialist.

  • Juices- commercially canned (USDA Miscellaneous and Processed Products Manual, Table 3-75)

  • Tea- commercially packaged and ready to be boiled, steeped or microwaved in liquid. Coca, barberry and loose citrus leaves are prohibited (USDA Miscellaneous and Processed Products Manual, Table 3-148)

  • Coffee- roasted or unroasted if there is no pulp attached. (USDA Miscellaneous and Processed Products Manual, Table 3-48)

  • Spices- most dried spices are allowed except for orange, lemon, lime and other citrus leaves and seeds, lemongrass, and many vegetables and fruit seeds

  • Honey- comb honey, royal jelly, bee bread, or propolis if it is not intended to be fed to bees (USDA Miscellaneous and Processed Products Manual, Table 3-100)

Canadians coming back home with food

If you are a Canadian travelling back home, you have a similar webpage from the Canadian Food Inspection Agency called What can I bring Into Canada in terms of food, plant, animal and related products?. The webpage is comprehensive and worth taking a look. This webpage is also important for Canadians that want to shop for food in the US and bring it back to Canada for consumption.

Security Researcher claims to have downloaded 13M accounts from MAC Scamware apps

GeneralEdward Kiledjian

If you visit shady internet sites from an Apple Macintosh computer, you may have already seen an add from a product called MacKeeper. The researcher in question said:

"I have recently downloaded over 13 million sensitive account details related to MacKeeper, Zeobit, and/or Cromlech." Reddit

He said the information collected includes "names, email addresses, usernames, password hashes, computer name, ip address, software license and activation codes, type of hardware (ex: "macbook pro"), and type of subscriptions."

And he provides this screenshot as proof of his claim :

The sites used encryption but used it badly... The researcher says:

"MD5 with no salt… so very weak hashing"

The moral of the story is be careful what you believe on the internet and where you buy your software from.

Travel Tip: Find safety tips for your travel destination

GeneralEdward Kiledjian
Image by Manoj Vasanth used under creative commons license

Image by Manoj Vasanth used under creative commons license

The Paris Terror attacks were a stark reminder that the world is a dangerous place. It is now and has always been but this should prevent you from exploring this great big beautiful world of ours.

There are tips to stay safe, of course, and one of those is to “Be Prepared”. In my previous blog post, Travel tips when travelling alone, I talk about doing your homework but it’s important enough for me to re-mention it here again.

Many government websites list travel advisories but also provide important information about the countries you will be visiting. As an example some Asian countries have this nasty tradition of convincing young male travellers to visit certain bars where they end up paying 10–20 times normal prices for drinks (and these are pay up or else type shady places).

If you are American, you want to consult all the information the state department has for your destination. In addition to that site, visit the US embassy webpage for that location (if it exists).

Regardless of your country of citizenship, it is also a good idea to checkout the foreign ministry information pages produces by other countries such as: - UK Foreign and CommonWealth Office

"Chance favours the prepared."

Trace Me Luggage Tracker will make sure you never lose your bags again

GeneralEdward Kiledjian

As many of you gear up for holiday travel, you may have the lingering concern of losing your luggage. Most airlines will credit you a couple of hundred dollars for a lost and unrecoverable bag, but this rarely covers the actual cost of the contents. You can also buy insurance but that doesn’t help when you are standing around the carousel waiting to start your vacation and your luggage never shows up.

Do bags really get lost?

SITA’s baggage report 2015 provides some interesting industry information. Passenger numbers rose 5.5% from 2013 to 2014. The Passengers Without Bags (PaWoB) statistic rose to 7.3 bags per thousand passengers (previous year was 6.96).

The statistic is more worrisome than some realize.

The low-tech solution

There are many high-tech solutions (think GPS trackers) but these are techniques you have to perform to locate your bag. A less high tech but very effective product is Trace Me.

Trace Me is a plastified card with a unique identifying bar code. You register this code online. When an airport staff scan it (or law enforcement, baggage handlers, etc.), you are notified via text message letting you know where it was scanned . It also tells the scanning agent whom the bag belongs to. Then the airline performs its delivery magic to reunite you with your “stuff”.

Who is SITA and How does this work?

SITA is a Geneva-based airline technology provider. Trace Me uses their WorldTracer global bag-tracing and matching system.

WorldTracer was developed by SITA in co-operation with IATA and is a global lost and found system for luggage. WorldTracer is used at 2,800 airports worldwide so Trace Me will work in most airports worldwide.

WorldTracer stores your tracking information in their database and is a member of the Worldtracer system. As soon as any WorldTracer user scans the unique bar code, they are presented with your information and Trace Me knows your luggage was scanned (when, where and by which entity).

Where can I buy it

If you search the web, there are a handful of online retailers that sell it. The most popular one seems to be TravelSmiths at a cost of $19.

Travel Tip : Show up to the gate early

GeneralEdward Kiledjian

In an effort to meet departure times, some airlines (worldwide) seem to have adopted an earlier than printed (on the boarding pass) boarding start process. This doesn’t seem to be happening at every airport with every airline but I have been hearing about this more and more from readers, airline employees and frequent flyer contacts.

This means that if you aren’t there a bit early, you may not board the plane early enough to get space in the coveted overhead bin. This is even more problematic for frequent flyers with special boarding privileges that may not be aware and get stuck having to gate check their carry-on bags.

The moral or the story is to show up to your gate at least 20 minutes before the printed boarding time on your boarding pass.