Customs Destroyed my Croatian Ration!

[Joey61301]

I just turned 18 and for my birthday my parents bought me two MRE's a British ORP, and a Croatian ICR. The ORP arrived without trouble but the Croatian ration arrived torn open, and all the meat products destroyed. Both of them were opened by customs so I don't understand why they destroyed one but not the other, maybe I just got lucky. They bought the MRE's from MRE Mountain and were not aware they are shipped from Europe. Inside the package came a notice from customs on the items destroyed. I just joined the forum on the 14th, and having a look around this seems to be happening to everyone. Does anybody know a way we can remedy this issue, since it would be a shame to not have foreign MRE's. Below are some pictures of the form they gave me, and the MRE they tore up. Some of the contents were in the shipping container, because they fell out of the box hole on the bottom. I put the box back in the bag, but when it arrived it was just placed on top of the torn bag.

Thank You for your guys time,

Joey61301

[carlosflar]

Wow... That a serious level of not giving a fuck when opening a package... two slashes with a cutter in X... looks like someone was trying to practice ninja cuts or something like that...

[Joey61301]

Wow... That a serious level of not giving a fuck when opening a package... two slashes with a cutter in X... looks like someone was trying to practice ninja cuts or something like that...

Yeah I am pretty disappointed, no respect for the item.

[mikeoverhere]

Does anybody know a way we can remedy this issue, since it would be a shame to not have foreign MRE's.

It's going to take legislative change at the Federal level as the USDA and Customs has made their minds up about this issue, and is now stepping up enforcement. The CFR needs to be changed so that not all food shipments in the mail are automatically considered to be commercial. This hobby has grown large enough to attract the attention of USDA and now like the Eye of Sauron, it's gaze is now focused upon us.

[RSMRE]

Sorry it's at your expense, but at least I know that MREMountain is not safe to buy from. Guess I'll have to stick to eBay

[Joey61301]

Does anybody know a way we can remedy this issue, since it would be a shame to not have foreign MRE's.

It's going to take legislative change at the Federal level as the USDA and Customs has made their minds up about this issue, and is now stepping up enforcement. The CFR needs to be changed so that not all food shipments in the mail are automatically considered to be commercial. This hobby has grown large enough to attract the attention of USDA and now like the Eye of Sauron, it's gaze is now focused upon us.

I emailed MRE Mountain, and they said
Joey61301
1:21 PM (9 hours ago)
to mremountain

Hello I received the Croatian ICR as a gift. United States customs destroyed all the meat products, we were not aware it would ship from outside the U.S. How do we avoid customs destroying the meat legally?

Thank You,
Joey61301

MRE mountain
1:46 PM (8 hours ago)
to me

Hi, yes i can see if I have one. No they shouldn't be doing that as MREs for personal use are allowed in shipments less than 50 lbs. I'm not in the country at the moment and will settle it soonest

[Sturm44]

The "under 50 lbs" is currently a disputed bit of info in another thread. I don't think it's ever going to apply to foreign MREs

[mikeoverhere]

Hi, yes i can see if I have one. No they shouldn't be doing that as MREs for personal use are allowed in shipments less than 50 lbs. I'm not in the country at the moment and will settle it soonest

USDA and Customs does not care about the weight, they consider ALL foreign rations shipped in the mail as commercial shipments, period.

Sorry it's at your expense, but at least I know that MREMountain is not safe to buy from. Guess I'll have to stick to eBay

An eBay transaction is how USDA caught me

[Joey61301]

Well damn we have got to do something about this, otherwise there will be no more foreign MRE reviews.

[mikeoverhere]

Well damn we have got to do something about this, otherwise there will be no more foreign MRE reviews.

They are also going to go after US foreign MRE YouTube reviewers (and eBay users). They said this to ForeignMRE when they got visited by USDA.