Food Imports for Personal Use

Bringing food into Ireland from outside the EU for your personal use.

There are certain foods that you cannot bring into Ireland if you are coming from outside the EU. This includes food that you: have in your luggage; or send to someone; or order remotely (for example, by mail, by telephone or via the Internet) and have delivered to you.

• Meat, milk and their products

  You cannot bring meat, milk or their products into the EU from countries outside the EU.

  The only exception is for these products brought in from the Faroe Islands, Greenland or Iceland, provided the combined weight is less than 10 kg.

• Powdered infant milk, infant food, and special foods or special pet feed required for medical reasons

  You can bring these foods if they weigh less than 2 kilograms and provided that:

  • they do not require refrigeration before opening;
  • they are packaged proprietary brand products for direct sale to the final consumer; and
  • the packaging is unbroken unless in current use.
• Fishery products

  This includes eviscerated fishery products and certain shellfish such as prawns, lobsters, dead mussels and dead oysters. (Eviscerated means that guts and similar organs have been removed from the animal.)

  You can bring in or send to the EU up to 20 kg of fish products. This 20 kg can be made up of a combination of different products or the weight of one fish if this is higher.

  There is no weight restriction if you are coming from the Faroe Islands or Iceland.

• Other animal products

  For example, honey, live oysters, live mussels and snails.

  You can bring in up to 2 kilograms.

  These rules do not apply to animal products transported between the Member States of the EU, or for animal products coming from Andorra, Liechtenstein, Norway, San Marino, and Switzerland.

• Further Information

  Further information on importing foods of animal origin into Ireland can be found on the Department of Agriculture, Food and Marine and on the EU Commission websites.