UKH

Help from the Collective required,

I'm going to Norway climbing in May.  I was going to take a supply of dehydrated meals with me, but....

Their Regulations state that if you're entering from outside the EU/EEA you can't bring in any meat based products.

Anyone know what the reality of this is?  If I risked it in my hold baggage what would be the chances of getting stopped & searched at Customs?

Any experiences gratefully received...

Barbrg

In reply to barbeg: I’ve taken freeze dried meals, milk powder and other food through customs at various Norwegian airports loads of times without incident. I wouldn’t, of course advocate breaking any regs, but just to say no one’s searched my bags so far.

Real Turmat (the FD meals most commonly sold in Norway I think) is really good, but as with most stuff in Norway, you get what you pay through the nose for.
 

Supplement what you bring with Bixit biscuits (cheap, full of kcals, any local super market). 
 

In reply to barbeg: Commercial or home made? I think it's a non issue.

Which airport?

In reply to wbo2:

Commercially made....

Through Oslo.....

In reply to barbeg:

I reckon you will be OK with the meat - that page on the Toll website has not been updated since before Brexit, if it had been they would probably have added the UK to the list of Switzerland, Liechtenstein, Iceland, Andorra and San Marino which are granted exceptions.

Technically, there is a limit of 6000 NOK per person on how much you can import into Norway for consumption in the country, you should be OK unless you have expensive tastes!

It's been a long time since the customs people at Gardermoen showed much interest in flights from the UK. They save their energy for more juicy targets!

In reply to barbeg:

I recently brought 30 kgs of freeze dried food, biltong and salami into Oslo airport for an expedition.  No problem whatsoever.

In reply to barbeg:

Why?

Norway is a "first world country". They have shops.

In reply to biggianthead:

because Britain is now a second world country and has currency devaluation 🤣

In reply to TheGeneralist:

Actually the kroner has tanked massively relative to even the old pound sterling, so Norway is a lot cheaper to visit than it was a few years back. If you shop around, you can even get good beer at London prices now

In reply to biggianthead:

And only Real Turmat... which, while very yummy, has very few appropriately sized meals.  500 kcals might feed a kid, but its not suitable for active human adults.

In reply to barbeg:

How about taking veggie dried food and buying your meat in Norway? Save money and put a little bit into the economy of the country you visit. Win win.

In reply to biggianthead:

Becasue people are under the false impression Norway is expensive. The Norwegian kroner has tanked recently, and UK inflation has put food on a reasonable cost-equal level. Except supermarket workers in Norway get a decent wage and the companies mainly pay tax, and we couldn’t have that.

In reply to barbeg:

Norway is expensive and the cost difference is nothing to do with the UK becoming a second world country. We took in a good supply of food due to the lack of availability of certain quality things we enjoy and also because it was cheaper to load the space space in our check in bags with food from home.

We planned our meals for all days and packed accordingly with spiced sausage, no issues at all. We bought a bag of frozen chicken from the supermarket in the discount section. Like home, you can get great deals on food that they want gone. If you're going more down dehydrated vac packs then I'd pack with confidence.

In reply to barbeg:

It's not necessarily about not wanting to spend in the country your visiting, for me anyway. If I can arrive with my rucksack packed ready then I know I've not forgotten anything. All I need to do is get fuel and I'm off. 

Year before last I went to Wyoming, flew into Jackson, picked up from the airport had two hours in Pinedale to get everything I needed for three weeks in the mountains. Didn't know where anything was, what was available, all the packaging was different, things had different names. Real mare.  

In reply to ianstevens:

Making things relatively affjordable?

In reply to barbeg:

Went a couple of years ago for a fat bike race and took all my race food with me which included wet meal pouches and some meaty snacks and such like with no issues.

Before the inevitable criticism I didn't have much spare time before the start of the race to shop for such things and wanted to avoid stress/risk of not finding anything suitable in the limited shopping opportunities.

In reply to Rampart:

Read my post. Weak currency and much lower food inflation than the UK means it's not so bad (but I say this as a tourist in both countries these days, and honestly didn't find Norway noticeably more expensive than groceries in the UK were in December). Honestly just go to Rema and buy own brand products, and you won't really notice the difference. 

Part of the perception I think is to do with the exchange rate - its common to just assume 10NOK=£1 for the sake of the mental maths, but this is far from the case - 13NOK is £1, which is harder to do in your head but makes you realise prices aren't so bad.

In reply to ianstevens:

Read his post.

Again

Slowly.

In reply to Rampart:

On our trip to Norway this Feb we were pleasantly surprised how comparable supermarket prices were to the UK. Slightly more but nowhere near the levels they were a few years ago.

So yes, affordable!

In reply to TheGeneralist:

Amazing how the brain auto-corrects these things!

In reply to ianstevens:

Agreed, I only just noticed it! My initial response was the same as yours 😄

In reply to TheGeneralist:

Sorry, it was an open goal and I couldn't resist.