It’s Forbidden! Here’s Why Some Countries Have Downright Banned These 7 Foods

Have you ever tasted something so good it feels like it should be illegal? Well, in some countries, your favorite ingredients and foods could actually land you in legal hot water. On this subject, the r/cooking Reddit community recently shared the foods they’ve heard are banned — or downright illegal — in some places, and I couldn’t resist diving deeper. Here are some of the banned foods you may or may not have known were ever off-limits:

1.“Époisses. It’s a very soft cheese with a similar texture to brie, but it’s typically aged less. Young cheeses made from raw cow’s milk are difficult to import to many places, and illegal to import to the US, since they’re basically raw dairy.”

Brie’s funkier cousin, Époisses, is a hallmark of Burgundy’s food culture and was even rumored to be a favorite of Napolean Bonaparte. However, you won’t find this pungent cheese in even the finest specialty shops in the US. Federal pasteurization regulation prevents the import and distribution of raw milk cheeses due to a higher risk of foodborne pathogens like listeria.

While the FDA aims to prevent bacterial growth on cheeses, French cheesemakers in Burgundy embrace bacterial development to create the distinct colors, textures, and flavors that define their beloved fromage.

2.“Mustard oil is unfortunately illegal to sell in the US and some other countries for human consumption. Still, I have seen several Indian grocery stores around me place their ‘external use’ mustard oil suspiciously close to the rest of their cooking oils.”

Mustard oil is a common cooking staple across the Indian subcontinent. In the 1990s, however, the US FDA banned the oil for culinary purposes in response to scientific studies suggesting that consuming erucic acid — a monounsaturated fatty acid found in mustard oil — could lead to heart disease. More recent research has challenged these findings, casting doubt on the potential health risks of consuming a small to moderate amount of mustard oil.

3.“Tonka beans are restricted from commercial use in the US.”

Tonka beans are the seeds of the Kumaru tree indigenous to South America. The flavorful beans get their enticing fragrance from high levels of coumarin, a chemical found in many plants, including cinnamon trees. While foods with very low concentrations of coumarin are harmless to humans, research has found that higher quantities of coumarin, like in tonka beans, are hazardous.

4.“Brazil nuts are everywhere and also toxic if you eat too many (like 20 is too many, not 200).”

Brazil nuts are high in selenium, a mineral our bodies need for its micronutrients. However, too much of the nutrients can cause kidney and heart issues. Doctors advise eating no more than 5 Brazil nuts daily to minimize the risks of excess selenium. While you may have no issue getting your Brazil nut fix in the US, they may be harder to find across the pond…

5.“Escolar fish gives some people cramps and explosive oily diarrhea after eating it. It has been banned in New Zealand and also in Japan.”

“It”s such a shame this fish gives you the runs because it’s like eating butter,” said Reed The Fishmonger, in a video where he filleted and ate a large portion of the fish banned in Japan and Italy. Escolar, also marketed as “white tuna” and “butterfish,” is known for its delectable texture and taste, largely from a fat content of around 20%, about double the fat in your average salmon.

While that may sound appealing, the fish’s fat content comes from gempylotoxin, a wax ester that humans cannot digest, causing a laxative effect and stomach pain for many people who consume a large portion of escolar. The risk of becoming sick from eating too much of the fish led the Japanese government to impose a ban on the consumption of escolar. While the fish is legal in the US, the FDA recommends consuming no more than six ounces of escolar at once.

6.“Coca leaves! You may recognize them as the primary ingredient of cocaine. The whole leaves are very common in the Andes, though, and generally have an effect like mild caffeine that’s also really good for nausea and altitude sickness. You would need an absolutely INSANE amount of leaves to make any meaningful amount of cocaine, but hey, here we are. Coca tea is one of my favorite things, but I just can’t get it here in the US.”

The coca leaf grows almost exclusively in the Andean region of South America. In its whole form, coca leaves have been chewed as a mild stimulant and brewed into tea to relieve an array of ailments for hundreds of years. The plant is perhaps more well-known internationally for the psychoactive alkaloid that can be extracted from its leaves called cocaine, a schedule II drug and illegal substance in the US.

7.“Blackcurrants were also banned in the US for some time, which is a shame because they are awesome (Ribena, a blackcurrant soda, is the bomb). The purple flavor candies and things in the US all seem to be grape instead of blackcurrant, and I think you’re definitely missing out here.”

Currants and gooseberries are popular berries in many British and other European cuisines, but very few Americans know what they taste like. For most of the 20th century, farmers were banned from cultivating blackcurrants and other varietals of the Ribes plant family, and grocers were banned from selling and distributing the berries.

The seemingly innocent berry shrub can be host to a fungus, white pine blister rust, that infects and kills neighboring pine trees. This fungus posed such a threat to the booming lumber industry that the federal government banned blackcurrants in 1911 and took to eradicating blackcurrant and related berry shrubs, digging up and burning all the blister rust-producing plants they could find.

What forbidden foods have you noticed are banned in some places? Let us know in the comments.

Note: Some submissions have been edited for length and/or clarity.