Personal import of precooked bacon into Germany from USA

Upvote:2

No.

Travellers are not in general allowed to bring in meat, milk or their products, unless they are coming with less than 10 kilograms of meat, milk or their products from Croatia, the Faeroe Islands, Greenland, or Iceland.

(EUROPA: Trade and Imports of Animal Products - Introduction of personal consignments)

To untangle this a bit:

  • Travellers are 'in general' allowed to import:

    • meat,
    • things made from meat,
    • milk,
    • things made from milk

  • only if:

    • You have less than 10kg of it, and
    • You are importing it from Croatia, the Faeroe Islands, Greenland, or Iceland

It looks like you could send them by FedEx though, if you get them certified by the vetinary authorities at your end:

The importation of food products containing meat or milk products for personal consumption is prohibited unless accompanied by the necessary documentation from the official veterinary services of the country of origin.

https://smallbusiness.fedex.com/international/country-snapshots/germany

Upvote:6

Although the import* of food for private use or consumption is permitted in principle in Germany, meat, milk and dairy products must meet the same veterinary requirements as those applying to commercial imports.

Quoted from source [2]:

This means that travellers who are carrying such products may only enter the European Union through those points of entry where a veterinarian is on duty. The necessary health certificates and a validated Common Veterinary Entry Document - CVED (Gemeinsames Veterinärdokument für die Einfuhr - GVDE) must also accompany the products.

Competent veterinary border control posts in Germany are listed in the following pdf document. Not sure where you plan on entering Germany, but most likely you'll be arriving at one of the airports, most of which seem to be listed in the document.

If you don't want to go through the process of acquiring the appropriate documents, which, to be honest, sounds like quite a hassle (they sell bacon in Germany too...), then the answer is most likely: no. You could still bring it along and declare it at the airport if you're really keen, but chances are you'll be forced to dispose of it on the spot, which would be kind of a waste. In my opinion, you're probably better off buying some local bacon instead.

Sources: [1] [2]

  • = import here refers to small amounts that travellers cart with them in their luggage or that are sent in small quantities.

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