Must I include on my US Customs declaration items discarded and/or consumed before entering the customs area?

Upvote:6

You are making a bit of a fuss over nothing. The time between passport check and customs check is usually a few minutes. Why not dispose of (or consume) the items before filling in the form?

Technically the form is asking about items you intend to import into the US, so you should not mention items you intend to consume or discard before that. The downside of that is that if you are found with these items on you at any time, they may or may not believe that you were intending to discard or consume them. That should be balanced by saying that US customs are very, very unlikely to be seriously concerned about small quantities of fruit, even if you did try to smuggle them into the US. The usual punishment would be confiscation, and getting taken aside for a little talking-to.

My advice would be to eat or discard the items before immigration and save yourself the hassle.

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