Forbidden Foods

According to the Guardian’s Anna Brones, the United States recently implemented a blockade on mimolette, the brightly colored orange cheese that traditionally comes from Lille, an industrial city in northern France near the Belgian border.

Because mites are introduced to refine the flavor of the cheese, the FDA claims the tiny organisms could cause allergic reactions and halted the sale.

Brones points out that the FDA has a strict ban on the import of unpasteurized, raw-milk cheese less than 60 days old. Australia and New Zealand have similar restrictions, and in Scotland, raw milk is totally banned.

Bloomberg recently reported on negotiations aimed at creating a trade agreement between the U.S. and the 27-nation European Union, which was endorsed by President Barack Obama and his counterparts across the Atlantic.

“Both sides — whose economies collectively represent almost half the world’s output — say they’re ready to knock down barriers that for years have bedeviled their compatibility on trade.”

“We’ve fought over bananas, we retaliate against their beef ban with Roquefort cheese,”Alex McCalla, a professor of agricultural trade at the University of California-Davis, said in an interview. “There has to be a more lucrative approach”

In the meantime, the Guardian and Bloomberg list a few more foods from around the world that are currently or previously banned or restricted.

Roquefort

Banned in Australia and New Zealand until 2005, the blue cheese from the south of France hasn’t always had an easy time outside of its home country. In its final days, the Bush Administration placed a 300% duty on the cheese, essentially keeping it out of the American market.

Casu marzu

Because of food and hygiene regulations, this traditional Sardinian sheep’s milk cheese containing live insect larvae was banned until recently by the European Union. But here’s where food culture reigns: the ban was lifted on the grounds that Casu marzu is a traditional food made using traditional methods.

Haggis

The traditional Scottish staple makes its way to plenty of plates in the UK, but in America it has been banned since 1971 because of the use of sheep’s lung. Since the US has firm Scottish roots, there is, however, a small market for American businesses making lung-free haggis for the domestic market.

Marmite

The savoury spread has made its way around the world thanks to British expatriates, but you might have a hard time finding Marmite in Denmark. Danish law restricts the marketing of food products fortified with added vitamins. Such foods cannot be marketed in Denmark without approval from the Danish authorities. It’s still allowed under EU law, but you’ll find it best to buy your Marmite elsewhere.

Foie gras

Banned in California since 2012, partly due to campaigns from activists and lobbyists, chefs and producers alike have protested against the state’s move to keep the goose liver delicacy from being served, but to no avail. While the import and sale of foie gras is legal in Europe, force-feeding animals for non-medical purposes is banned in a handful of European countries, including the United Kingdom and Norway, limiting production to Belgium, Bulgaria, Hungary, Spain and France.

Parmesan Cheese

Italy prefers that Parmesan cheese originate only in its region of Emilia-Romagna, not in factories in America or elsewhere.

US Beef

The EU limits beef injected with hormones, a restriction U.S. lawmakers including Senate Finance Committee Chairman Max Baucus, a Montana Democrat, have said will need to be relaxed in a trade deal.

More food bans previously mentioned at FriendsEAT:

Raw Milk

The fight over the national raw milk ban has gone on for years. There have even been police raids on raw milk purveyors. In 2010, the Farm-to-Consumer Legal Defense Fund, an organization that defends the rights and freedoms of family farms and consumers, challenged the FDA’s ruling on behalf of raw milk consumers in half a dozen states.

Their suit maintains that the FDA’s actions are unconstitutional. In France, raw milk is abundant, and you can even get it from a vending machine.

Horse Meat

It isn’t illegal to eat horse meat in the US, but it is illegal to produce it with the intent of selling it for human consumption; however, that might change since the USDA has approved a new horse slaughter plant in New Mexico that would be allowed to make edible meat.

As National Geographic’s Catherine Zuckerman points out, in the U.S. having pig, chicken, and cow as part of your diet is one thing, but “there’s just something wrong about eating horse”

Bottled Water

Starting on January 1, 2013, the charming suburban town of Concord, MA, has banned the sale of “non-sparkling, unflavored drinking water in single-serving polyethylene terephthalate (PET) bottles of 1 liter (34 ounces) or less”

Mirabelle Plums
These tiny, delicious plums are only grown in Lorraine, France, and, thanks to import laws, are impossible to get in the U.S. It’s not because legislators are anti-plum, but they’re banned nonetheless.

Margarine

In Wisconsin, which just happens to produce a lot of dairy, it’s illegal to serve anything but real butter to anyone in a public institution, be that a prison, school, or hospital. Violations will run you “not less than $100 nor more than $500,”or up to three months in jail.