# Anyone know the law about pork imports from China? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [January 31, 2020, 7:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anyone-know-the-law-about-pork-imports-from-china/847306 "2020-01-31T19:28:42Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 6\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Leo\_Bloom](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/leo_bloom/32/10377_2.png) [@Leo\_Bloom](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Leo_Bloom)\ **Post date:** [January 31, 2020, 7:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anyone-know-the-law-about-pork-imports-from-china/847306/1 "2020-01-31T19:28:42Z")
For years I was wondering about this, and, as they say, there’s no time like the present. I’ve been shopping in NYC Chinatown one or twice a week for years. If you like things pork, from ovaries to omentum, it’s unparalleled. Any chance their animal products are imported? Foul is not, and the recently live “Buddhist” birds are slaughtered uptown. ---
**Author:** ![mixdenny](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mixdenny/32/2962_2.png) [@mixdenny](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mixdenny)\ **Post date:** [January 31, 2020, 8:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anyone-know-the-law-about-pork-imports-from-china/847306/2 "2020-01-31T20:25:08Z")
You cannot import raw pork products the last time I checked. Dennis ---
**Author:** ![bump](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/7c8e57/32.png) [@bump](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bump)\ **Post date:** [January 31, 2020, 8:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anyone-know-the-law-about-pork-imports-from-china/847306/3 "2020-01-31T20:48:03Z")
Considering that a colossal amount of US pork is exported TO China (something like 15% of all pork exported), who is the world’s largest pork consumer and we’re the world’s largest pork exporter, I sort of suspect that they don’t do a lot of exporting of raw pork. ---
**Author:** ![markn\_1](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/f9ae1b/32.png) [@markn\_1](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/markn_1)\ **Post date:** [January 31, 2020, 9:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anyone-know-the-law-about-pork-imports-from-china/847306/4 "2020-01-31T21:04:08Z")
What are “Buddhist birds”? And how foul are they? ---
**Author:** ![Melbourne](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/b5e925/32.png) [@Melbourne](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Melbourne)\ **Post date:** [January 31, 2020, 10:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anyone-know-the-law-about-pork-imports-from-china/847306/5 "2020-01-31T22:02:58Z")
Aus does/did a significant amount of pork importing: I only know what I read about port producers complaining about imports. RIGHT NOW there are a lot of bans in place because of ‘swine fever’, a disease that killed ??? 1/3 ??? of the pigs in China last year. ---
**Author:** ![China\_Guy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/779978/32.png) [@China\_Guy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/China_Guy)\ **Post date:** [February 1, 2020, 4:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anyone-know-the-law-about-pork-imports-from-china/847306/6 "2020-02-01T04:23:27Z")
I don’t know the code, but pretty good rule of thumb is no uncooked farm products. Definitely no uncooked meat products into the US. Customs folks get mighty upset and can fine you big time for bringing in just personal use. For really expensive raw meat products, maybe it makes sense to jump thru whatever hurdles the FDA has in place. If it’s cheap, it’s either US product or smuggled. There are plenty of producers in the US that make “traditional” Chinese foodstuffs that are not importable such as mooncakes with egg yolks or “Jinhua style” ham.