Banned Foods Around the World: A Complete Guide

Food bans are more common than you might think - and often more surprising. Every country draws its own line between what's acceptable to eat and what isn't, and those lines vary enormously. Here's a guide to the most notable food bans still in force around the world, and what's actually behind them.

Foie Gras - Banned in California (and 15+ Countries)

Foie gras - the fattened liver of a duck or goose - is one of the most contested foods in the world. Produced through a process called gavage, in which birds are force-fed grain through a tube to enlarge their livers, it is banned or heavily restricted in the UK, Germany, Austria, Italy, Norway, Switzerland, and over a dozen other countries. In the United States, California banned its sale (not just production) in 2012, following years of legal challenges that went all the way to the Ninth Circuit.

The counter-argument from producers is that ducks naturally gorge before migration, that the birds show no behavioral indicators of distress, and that the gavage process is less invasive than most people imagine. The debate is genuinely unresolved scientifically. In practice, foie gras is easily available in most of Europe and throughout the US outside California.

Raw Milk - Heavily Restricted Across the EU and US

The sale of unpasteurized milk to consumers is banned in Scotland, restricted to farm-gate sales in England and Wales, and banned entirely in most EU member states. In the United States, it can be sold legally only in about 30 states, and interstate transport is federally prohibited.

The reason is straightforward: raw milk can carry Listeria, Salmonella, E. coli O157:H7, and Campylobacter, all of which cause serious illness. The CDC estimates that raw milk causes 840 times more illness than pasteurized milk per unit consumed. Raw milk advocates argue that pasteurization destroys beneficial bacteria and enzymes, and that properly produced raw milk from tested herds is safe. The scientific consensus on the latter claim is mixed; the former is well-documented.

Kinder Eggs - Banned in the United States

The Kinder Surprise egg - a chocolate egg with a small toy inside - has been sold across Europe and Canada for decades. It is banned in the United States under a 1938 FDA law that prohibits confectionery with embedded non-food objects. The law was written to prevent children from accidentally swallowing toys hidden in food, and the FDA has enforced it against Kinder Eggs specifically since the 1990s, seizing shipments at the border and fining individuals who attempt to bring them in from abroad.

The ironically named Kinder Joy (sold legally in the US since 2018) gets around the ban by having two separate compartments - chocolate cream in one half, a toy in the other - which technically don't constitute a food item with an embedded non-food object.

Haggis (with Lung) - Banned in the United States

Traditional Scottish haggis - sheep's offal (heart, liver, and lungs) mixed with oatmeal, suet, and spices, cooked in a sheep's stomach - is banned from sale in the United States because it contains sheep's lung, which has been prohibited from human food products in the US since 1971. The FDA's justification is that stomach contents can enter the lungs during slaughter and contaminate them.

The Scottish haggis sold in the US substitutes other offal for the lung content, making it technically legal but traditionalists argue it's a meaningfully different product. The ban has become a minor cause célèbre in Scottish-American communities around Burns Night.

Shark Fin - Banned in 12 US States and Counting

Shark fin soup is a traditional Chinese delicacy, and shark finning - removing the fin and discarding the body - has driven several shark species toward critical endangerment. Twelve US states, including California, New York, Hawaii, and Illinois, have banned the sale, trade, and possession of shark fins. Canada banned the importation of shark fin products in 2019. Several Pacific island nations, Australia, and parts of the EU have implemented similar restrictions.

China, the world's largest consumer of shark fin, has seen declining consumption since a government campaign discouraging luxury gifting of the dish began in 2013 - an unexpected effect of anti-corruption policy.

Sassafras Oil (and Real Root Beer) - Banned in the United States

Sassafras was the original flavoring in root beer and was widely used in cooking. In 1960, the FDA banned safrole - the active chemical in sassafras oil - after studies showed it caused liver cancer in rodents at high doses. This made traditional root beer illegal. Modern root beer uses artificial sassafras flavoring without safrole. Real sassafras root bark is still sold for tea, though technically in a legal grey area - the FDA tolerates small amounts of non-extracted bark as "generally recognized as safe."

Absinthe - Banned in the US 1912-2007

Absinthe was banned in the United States in 1912 on the grounds that thujone - a compound in wormwood, one of its key ingredients - caused hallucinations and was dangerous. The evidence for this was always thin, and in 2007 the ban was lifted after scientists demonstrated that genuine pre-ban absinthe contained far lower levels of thujone than previously believed and posed no specific health risk beyond its high alcohol content.

If food bans interest you, you might also enjoy our guide to foods banned on planes - including surströmming (so pungent it's banned on most Scandinavian airlines) and durian, which is prohibited on virtually all Southeast Asian carriers.