iherb -customs stopped protein

cypressg

I ordered 2 tubs of protein off iherb,customs has stopped them saying I need a licence to bring whey protein into the country in such a form(big tub of it),they say I can bring in protein pills if I want but not powder in a tub.
Anybody got any suggestions?

Zombienosh

I've never heard of this

Greenmachine

Never heard of it before either. Demonstrate to them that similar product are on sale to consumers in stores and pharmacies here.

cypressg

Me neither,sounds like some newbie in customs just started or something.

--Kaiser--

I've bought protein powder over the interweb several times before

cypressg

Just rang customs,they said whey is deriven from milk and as such is an animal foodstuff and can't be imported anywhere into eu without licence ...
my options are get it destroyed or return it and hope iherb refunds me.:mad::mad::mad:

Oisinjm

cypressg wrote: »

Just rang customs,they said whey is deriven from milk and as such is an animal foodstuff and can't be imported anywhere into eu without licence ...
my options are get it destroyed or return it and hope iherb refunds me.:mad::mad::mad:

Yeah you can't bring in whey protein from the states. However, you can bring in rice, hemp, pea etc.

Oisín

--Kaiser--

Oisinjm wrote: »

Yeah you can't bring in whey protein from the states. However, you can bring in rice, hemp, pea etc.

Oisín

Is this new? I've recently bought collagen, which is also derived from animals, without issue

Oisinjm

--Kaiser-- wrote: »

Is this new? I've recently bought collagen, which is also derived from animals, without issue

No it's been around for ages. Tried to order whey from the states ages ago through the supplement shop I work in, got stopped as well. The main issue is the guys at customs recognise the word whey and will stop it if they see it. However with most other stuff they're clueless. Nearly everything will get through except whey.

Oisín

cypressg

--Kaiser-- wrote: »

Is this new? I've recently bought collagen, which is also derived from animals, without issue

If it gets through it's by fluke apparently.

blatantrereg

http://www.fsai.ie/faq/import_export.html

Have a read through that. It appears that there should not be an issue if the amount doesn't exceed 2kg and is for personal consumption. Not certain if they can take issue with it being above that amount.

Food supplements are supposed to be excluded from the restriction. You could class whey protein as a food supplement or as a foodstuff equally well really.

cypressg

Oisinjm wrote: »

No it's been around for ages. Tried to order whey from the states ages ago through the supplement shop I work in, got stopped as well. The main issue is the guys at customs recognise the word whey and will stop it if they see it. However with most other stuff they're clueless. Nearly everything will get through except whey.

Oisín

Lol,so true I think.When I was on the phone talking to customs it did seem like when I said "whey" that an alarm went off in urmans head and he immediately knew what to say.

cypressg

blatantrereg wrote: »

http://www.fsai.ie/faq/import_export.html

Have a read through that. It appears that there should not be an issue if the amount doesn't exceed 2kg and is for personal consumption. Not certain if they can take issue with it being above that amount.

Food supplements are supposed to be excluded from the restriction. You could class whey protein as a food supplement or as a foodstuff equally well really.

Just rang customs again quoting this information and they said "we don't take instructions from FSAI but rather from dept of agri and europe":(

--Kaiser--

cypressg wrote: »

If it gets through it's by fluke apparently.

I've bought collagen off the web three times (as has a friend of mine) and whey protein, I dunno, maybe half a dozen times. It's unlikely they're all flukes

Oisinjm

cypressg wrote: »

Just rang customs again quoting this information and they said "we don't take instructions from FSAI but rather from dept of agri and europe":(

Unless you've been very lucky and got a sound guy to deal with, you're not going to get it through. Try telling him that you didn't realise you couldn't bring in whey, could you have this one and it won't happen again. Worth a punt.

Oisín

cypressg

Oisinjm wrote: »

Unless you've been very lucky and got a sound guy to deal with, you're not going to get it through. Try telling him that you didn't realise you couldn't bring in whey, could you have this one and it won't happen again. Worth a punt.

Oisín

Might be worth a try alrite although I'd say the bloke in customs I've been dealing with is sick of the sound of me at this stage.
I've given him sobs already:D

blatantrereg

cypressg wrote: »

Just rang customs again quoting this information and they said "we don't take instructions from FSAI but rather from dept of agri and europe":(

The department of agriculture says the exact same thing:

http://www.agriculture.gov.ie/media/migration/agri-foodindustry/animalby-products/importsofanimalsanimalproducts/personalimportofanimalproducts/animalproductssentbypostorcourier/Personla%20imports%20Post%20or%20Courier%2024%207%2009.pdf

So does the EU:

http://ec.europa.eu/food/animal/animalproducts/personal_imports/

The customs official appears to be taking the p!ss.

cypressg

blatantrereg wrote: »

The department of agriculture says the exact same thing:

http://www.agriculture.gov.ie/media/migration/agri-foodindustry/animalby-products/importsofanimalsanimalproducts/personalimportofanimalproducts/animalproductssentbypostorcourier/Personla%20imports%20Post%20or%20Courier%2024%207%2009.pdf

So does the EU:

http://ec.europa.eu/food/animal/animalproducts/personal_imports/

The customs official appears to be taking the p!ss.

Nice,thanks a mill.They aren't answering the ph now,I'll ring them in the morn with this info and report back then.

cypressg

So I rang customs again this morning and was briefly talking to an agent who said they would talk to the agent involved with my case,I told her to pass on the message that there were 2 exemptions relating to my protein that were inexplicably not being applied(thanks to Blatantrereg for giving me the info detailing my exemptions)
1.it's a food supplement packaged for the final consumer(No 7 Dept of Agri)

2.It's s a small quantity(less that 2kg) for personal consumption(No 5)-it's actually 2 tubs at 2.27kg each but that's just semantics:P

Anyway,I told urwan to pass on the message to the person that had stopped my package,she said she would and that I could expect a phonecall in an hour or 2 to tell me whats going on.I missed the phonecall as I was busy and have just checked my email there and it looks like it has passed customs clearance!!:)So go figure,looks like if you pester them enough that they will relent.
You gotta play polite/dumb though I think,at least that's what I did and I think they must've taken pity on me in the end.

Gummy Panda

Why did you order from US?

--Kaiser--

Gummy Panda wrote: »

Why did you order from US?

You can frequently get stuff cheaper than here, even factoring in shipping. Bigger choice too

El_Dangeroso

--Kaiser-- wrote: »

Is this new? I've recently bought collagen, which is also derived from animals, without issue

I once spent a whole afternoon being passed from dept. to dept. when I got a VAT bill for some collagen I ordered. Food supplements are rated 0% VAT so I was trying to get it sorted so I didn't get charged VAT.

I explained to each person I spoke to exactly what the stuff was and not one of them mentioned any issue with bringing it into the country.

Getting the correct VAT code was a flipping nightmare though, the guy I ended up dealing with just but it under some random code for 0% VAT.

Gummy Panda

--Kaiser-- wrote: »

You can frequently get stuff cheaper than here, even factoring in shipping. Bigger choice too

I always assumed shipping would murder the price of getting a tub of whey cheap

iseethelight

cypressg wrote: »

So I rang customs again this morning and was briefly talking to an agent who said they would talk to the agent involved with my case,I told her to pass on the message that there were 2 exemptions relating to my protein that were inexplicably not being applied(thanks to Blatantrereg for giving me the info detailing my exemptions)
1.it's a food supplement packaged for the final consumer(No 7 Dept of Agri)

2.It's s a small quantity(less that 2kg) for personal consumption(No 5)-it's actually 2 tubs at 2.27kg each but that's just semantics:P

Anyway,I told urwan to pass on the message to the person that had stopped my package,she said she would and that I could expect a phonecall in an hour or 2 to tell me whats going on.I missed the phonecall as I was busy and have just checked my email there and it looks like it has passed customs clearance!!:)So go figure,looks like if you pester them enough that they will relent.
You gotta play polite/dumb though I think,at least that's what I did and I think they must've taken pity on me in the end.

did you get the whey delivered?

nice_guy80

sounds like someone is trying to protect the Irish and EU whey industry...

Oisinjm

nice_guy80 wrote: »

sounds like someone is trying to protect the Irish and EU whey industry...

Could be that, but I don't think it's anything to do with the Irish protecting the whey industry. It's an EU wide thing afaik. Any big supplement company will have a European branch that deals with producing the whey for this side of the atlantic.

Oisín

blatantrereg

Cattle in the USA are routinely given growth hormones which are illegal in the EU as I understand it. Possibly products from the cattle would be illegal in the EU as well. My understanding is the growth hormones result in higher levels of IGF1 in the milk.

Growth hormone use and other legislation might explain the cost difference also, since presumably they use growth hormones because they result in higher yields for less costs.

Really there are lots of reasons to outlaw imports from outside the EU, or at least tax them heavily: Protect the European economy; generally better conditions for the cattle; reduced carbon imprint caused by the actual transportation; maybe even health issues with the consumption of the milk (though studies seem to indicate it's as safe as normal milk). However it should be in the form of preventing transactions in the first place, not seizing goods from consumers unaware of any restrictions in the first place.

domhnaigh

Lads, this happened to me as well (no problems for last 18 months) except they don't seem to be budging with me.

I ordered less than 2Kg, but after quoting the regulations from:

http://www.agriculture.gov.ie/media/migration/agri-foodindustry/animalby-products/importsofanimalsanimalproducts/personalimportofanimalproducts/animalproductssentbypostorcourier/Personla%20imports%20Post%20or%20Courier%2024%207%2009.pdf

They put me onto the "Superintending Veterinary Inspector" who informed me thet Whey Protein falls under regulation #1 which means it can't be imported at all from the US. He also said that it doesn't qualify for #2, or as a packaged food supplement in #7.

Any advice? Or could this be the end importing whey protein?

Transform

domhnaigh wrote: »

Lads, this happened to me as well (no problems for last 18 months) except they don't seem to be budging with me.

I ordered less than 2Kg, but after quoting the regulations from:

http://www.agriculture.gov.ie/media/migration/agri-foodindustry/animalby-products/importsofanimalsanimalproducts/personalimportofanimalproducts/animalproductssentbypostorcourier/Personla%20imports%20Post%20or%20Courier%2024%207%2009.pdf

They put me onto the "Superintending Veterinary Inspector" who informed me thet Whey Protein falls under regulation #1 which means it can't be imported at all from the US. He also said that it doesn't qualify for #2, or as a packaged food supplement in #7.

Any advice? Or could this be the end importing whey protein?

Had a few clients with the same experience - just order your whey from an irish supplier as they have the same range and save the e.g. iherb orders for fish oils, vit D, digestive enzymes, quest bars etc

CWF

Rather than setting up a new thread... I've been looking for quest bars for the last two weeks on iherb and every single type of bar is out of stock. Does anybody know what's going on? I've been ordering the bars from them for months now!

Dotcomdolly

CWF wrote: »

Rather than setting up a new thread... I've been looking for quest bars for the last two weeks on iherb and every single type of bar is out of stock. Does anybody know what's going on? I've been ordering the bars from them for months now!

Maybe try their live chat & ask them, maybe an issue with suppliers?

Nyum Nyum

CWF wrote: »

Rather than setting up a new thread... I've been looking for quest bars for the last two weeks on iherb and every single type of bar is out of stock. Does anybody know what's going on? I've been ordering the bars from them for months now!

They (iHerb) just say on Facebook that it's the manufacturer holding things up: "Unfortunately, while we have placed the order, the delay is coming from the manufacturer. For now, just click the Notify Me link so that you'll get notified when the products are available."


Hopefully they come back soon - My supplies are dwindling

Nyum Nyum

Actually, ignore me, they just emailed saying some flavours are back in

CWF

Yeah I see there one or two flavours are back, but none of the 6 types that I want, the popular ones I suppose!

Transform

CWF wrote: »

Yeah I see there one or two flavours are back, but none of the 6 types that I want, the popular ones I suppose!

ordered my choc brownie ones earlier today.

dont like the white choc rasberry or any of the newer ones as taste wayyyy to artificial. Older ones are still the best

CWF

Ordered the usual... five different types, you know if you order 5 boxes, it works out at E18.40 per box, delivered!