They're concerned with protecting the U.S. food supply. Contaminated meat can put U.S. livestock at risk of mad cow disease, foot and mouth disease, swine fever, avian flu and other illnesses that can enter the food supply through garbage feeding and other means. Plants may harbor pests that could decimate whole crops.

So the regulations are based on the disease conditions in the country the product is from. Beef in any form is not allowed from Europe, Oman or Israel, all classified as areas with bovine spongiform encephalopathy, or mad cow disease. Canned beef bulgogi from Korea, however, is fine. Korea is classified as free of mad cow.

Spain and Italy are recognized as countries with swine disease, so in general no ham because curing methods don't always kill the disease. Parts of France have been designated as bird flu zones, so no foie gras.

So what does this mean for you?

Fungus routed from the ground by pigs in France? Load up. Basil plant from your grandmother's garden in Italy? Pack it up (just shake off the soil)! Kangaroo jerky from Australia? Bon appetit.

But don't even think about canned corned beef from Dublin or smoky, Spanish chorizo. And foie gras, even cooked and canned? At your peril.

In general, baked goods, candy and chocolate are all fine to bring into the U.S. Condiments — oil, vinegar, mustard, pickles, syrups, honey, jelly — also fine.

Cheese is trickier, with hard varieties such as Parmesan and cheddar allowed, but soft, fresh or runny varieties, such as Brie, burrata and ricotta — big no-nos.

Fruits and vegetables generally are prohibited or require special certificates, unless you can prove they were grown in and came directly from Canada. Except potatoes. No Canadian potatoes, which have suffered disease outbreaks.

Fresh meat generally is forbidden. No steaks, no chops, no sausage. Unless it comes from New Zealand. Or is a wild bison. From Canada. That you killed yourself (keep your hunting permit with your passport.)

Cured meats — that's your Serrano, Parma and Iberico hams, plus Hungarian salami and other delicacies — are almost always forbidden. Unless they come from particular, preapproved production facilities.

Check with customs before leaving so your potential contraband doesn't earn you a strict talking-to from concerned customs agents. The only thing you can know for certain is that the agents won't be shocked by whatever you're trying to bring back.

For Maurine Bell, port veterinarian at Chicago's O'Hare International Airport during the 1990s, that would be the whole goat she once found stuffed in a passenger's luggage.

"The gentleman was from Greece and he was bringing it in for his daughter's wedding," she says. "We took the goat. And the suitcase, too."

Think twice before stuffing your suitcase with prosciutto [USA Today]
Know Before You Go - Regulations for U.S. Residents (PDF) [U.S. Customs and Border Protection]
(Photo: dizznbonn)

Judy Cardin, section chief for weights and measures with the state, said that in the case of bulk coffee, the weight of the packaging materials was included when the price of the product was determined. The state had tested one-pound bags of Cameron brand coffee beans, which were found to be 3/100ths of a pound over the actual bagged content.

While that doesn't seem like much, it translated to an overcharge of 21 cents per pound, Cardin said.

"This is something that's difficult for the consumer to know it's even going on," she said. "How would someone know they were being overcharged? This is why weights and measures checks products to make sure consumers are getting what they paid for."

Cardin said Wal-Mart was fined $25,000 in January 2006 for overcharging for bulk coffee.

Wal-Mart hit with $89,705 state fine [Manitowoc Herald Times Reporter]
(AP Photo/April L. Brown)

After rigorous statistical analysis, the researchers found that, on average, all three minerals evaluated have declined; two of five vitamins have declined; and protein content has dropped by 6 percent.

The decline is attributed to the relentless pursuit of crop strains that produce high yields, but few nutrients. One solution, short of agribusiness embracing lower-yielding crop strains or starting a vegetable garden, is to patronize farm stands and farmer's markets where you can buy from smaller, multi-crop farmers that value quality above quantity.

Changes in USDA Food Composition Data for 43 Garden Crops, 1950 to 1999 [Journal of the American College of Nutrition via The Conocopia Institute]
(Photo: androog)

3. Is it organic? Fruit and vegetables are not organic just by virtue of their presence at a farmer's market.
2. What are the farm's sustainability practices? Do they rotate crops and utilize bio-diversity?
1. Are those free range eggs? Chickens that roam freely and much on grass produce eggs with a richer, orange-yellow yolk.

Farmer's Market Shopping Tips [wannaveg via Frugal For Life]
(Photo: _e.t)

Put your fresh greens in a big plastic bag, gather up the neck, blow a little air, aka carbon dioxide, into the bag, then seal it up quick. If your greens are perfectly dry and really fresh (...), they'll stay bright, firm and flavorful for at least a week like this.

Greenskeeping [In The Kitchen And On The Road With Dorie via The Morning News]

Stay clear of all spinach distributed by Natural Selection Foods.Natural Selection Foods supplies a huge amount of spinach to various resellers, including Dole, Green Harvest and Trader Joe's. You can find the complete list of suspect spinach sellers over at Accidental Hedonist.

They aren't the only suspects, so you should avoid any packaged spinach that has a "Best If Used By Date" of August 17, 200 through October 1st. Though it goes without saying that if your black, oozing bag of spinach has a best if used by date of over a month ago, E. Coli will be the least of your worries upon consumption.

Natural Selection Foods recalls spinach... [Accidental Hedonist]