Customs and ribeye steaks?

yes, I know of a NY guy that brings over a lot meat - don't know about luggage restrictions in weight though

worst they can do is confiscate it.... have your friends keep $5 bill handy on the way through

chances are zip will happen

Bring in fruit and meat products will be difficult. Then again we have brought in bag full of tangerines and apples for our son by accident. We were going to eat them during the flight and throw away what was left but we just slept through our flight. We had no problem it just scanned through.

Freeze them solid, wrap them in tin foil, pack them tightly in a small soft-sided cooler, fill as much empty space as possible with those blue plastic freezer packs. I'd put that in your checked luggage....won't weigh much more than the meet itself. It should stay fully frozen during the trip. I doubt you'll have problems with customs at POP...nothing a few $$ wouldn't fix anyway...

I have known of people bringing meat from the USA without having any problem at customs.

Just make sure that your luggage is not so heavy as to raise a red flag. One time I brought a lot of baking goods in one of my luggage and a sticker was put on it that said "check, heavy luggage" letting me know that my luggage was checked prior to boarding. It's always best to put them in your luggage and not your carry on.

Checked luggage, no dry ice, follow post #6. I bring USDA beef in all the time and so far no problems.

My recent experience

I brought meat with me in February. Since POP now uses x-ray machines, they picked it up - esp. since it was frozen and then wrapped in aluminum foil.

The Customs inspector checked it and said it was OK, but that if the meat had had bones in it, it would not have been allowed.

Take it for what it is worth - they opened my bag and unwrapped several packages of meat I brought with me.

I bring in frozen Jimmy Dean sausage all the time.

I agree with the packing suggestions except for the aluminum foil. First of all, it's a thermal conductor, not insulator. Better to wrap in clear wrap or freezer bags, then in paper, foam sheeting, or even bubble wrap. Second, aluminum foil will light up the x-ray machines like crazy. BUT that's all splitting hairs ... probably doesn't matter anyway.

Now these are steaks worth bringing back............$62.99 a pound..........

6 - 12 oz. D

B in Santiago

I usually bring tenderloin on my return trips from the States. I've never had trouble until just a few weeks ago. Customs guy tried to tell my I couldn't bring it in. I just argued with him for a few minutes and he gave up. Persistence is key. Dominicans have short attention spans. I find this technique works in many situations.

Some good suggestions here. Let me add a couple more via a good story/discovery from several years ago.

A friend lived in Santo Domingo and was so missing a reasonably priced turkey at the holiday, so I offered to bring one down.

Bought a nice soft sided cooler and a frozen twenty pound bird. Since I had extra space in the cooler I added some frozen bacon, meatballs, and a pound of preciious scallops. (note-this is when the luggage restriction was 70 pounds)

Loaded the cooler into my suitcase at 4:00 AM and headed to the airport at 5:00. Went through X-ray and the TSA guy just shook his head and laughed when I told him what the big frozen mass was.

Plane was on time and my flight after changing planes in Fort Lauderdale was also on time. Flight arrives at Santo Domingo around 1:00PM. I head to the baggage carousel......and no luggage.

Long story short, they sent it to Punta Cana by mistake. After the usual we will deliver it to you soon, the luggage arrives at 10:00 AM the next day.

Fearing the worst, I immediately check the luggage. Interestingly enough, everything is still ice cold and the turkey is only partially unthawed.

Moral of the story:

Whenever I bring in anything that needs refrigeration, I always go and by a small frozen turkey breast as my ice. It serves two very useful purposes. The first as a refrigeration device and the second as a very nice meal later on.

If I had really thought about it I should have come up with that one without the lost luggage experience. How many of you remember Mom pulling the frozen turkey out of the freezer two days ahead of Thanksgiving....in order to give it an opportunity to unthaw.

One last suggestion. if you are fortunate enough to have a direct flight, you can use standard sized frozen bottled water.....that will also do the trick....and is much less expensive than using those freezer packs.....and tastes better too.


Respectfully,
Playacaribe2

I used to bring in meat all of the time--rib eyes, t-bones, prime rib even! Freeze it good and solid, preferably in a vacuum sealed packaging, wrap it in a towel or two and pack it in the suitcase. TSA doesn't care, the DR customs seldom find it and if they do the $5 to $10 bill wrapped with it will disappear as if by magic.

That said, I did this because I didn't know where to get USDA Angus here in the DR. But now I do so I don't have to worry about it. There are two or three meat stores in SD and often at La Sirena in POP you can get it.

USDA Ribeye, very good ribeye available here, about US$1150.00 lb. super mercados nacional, some decent local beef t-bones and local beef tenderloin is almost always great and at US$6.50 lb. can not beat that price.

Even Kobe beef is available in Santo Domingo, last time we bought Kobe rib-eyes were RD$3,000.00 lb. at that time RD28 - US1, it was only a test, good but US$11. 50 lb. ribeyes win out hands down, oh and did I mention the local beef ternderloin!!!

g'luck

Good point, donluis99, you can get actual Kobe Beef here and not the "Americanized" version of it.

CaptnGlenn said:

I agree with the packing suggestions except for the aluminum foil. First of all, it's a thermal conductor, not insulator. Better to wrap in clear wrap or freezer bags, then in paper, foam sheeting, or even bubble wrap. Second, aluminum foil will light up the x-ray machines like crazy. BUT that's all splitting hairs ... probably doesn't matter anyway.

Click to expand...

My Dominican in-laws always bring beef to the DR from NYC. Never use aluminum. I wrapped over 100 of the balls of cacao a few years ago and used aluminum when leaving the DR. They did a special screening of the luggage and was told was due to the aluminum. Use multiple layers of was wax paper with a nice tape and fully freeze. Tom F.