Bringing pickled vegetables back to Australia

Hi,
Does anyone know if the Australian Customs would have any issues with Japanese pickles? There are so many varieties here in Japan and we plan to bring some back.

Thanks.

Hi Paul,

Good question, and quite commonly asked here at the snow resorts with frequent Australian visitors... there is almost guaranteed to be at least one food you will fall in love with! For any foodstuffs from Japan I would recommend to check with your local quarantine inspection.

http://www.daff.gov.au/aqis/import/food/private-consumption

In general I have heard that Japanese pickles are acceptable as most are considered to be pickled in salt brine, but please remember this could be subject to inspection.

Hope you enjoy your time in Japan.

Generally if it is factory sealed in container (jar, plastic, watever) it will be cleared without any concern.

Thanks for the response. Guess I can stock up on a few types of pickles now.
Cheers!

Make sure you declare it.
Make sure it is "factory sealed" : a very good point:
ie bought in a shop:
loose bags of pickles bought in market will not get through.
We have bought and declared loads AND loads of food bought in supermarkets in Namba and had no problems.
Good luck!

Declare all.
As long as you aren't trying to be sneaky & you're upfront. If unsure about something just ask directly, "I've brought this in, can I? or do you want me to chuck it away?"

Quarantine officers were very impressed with me last time returning to Oz, because when packing I made a list of every food item I had. I labelled each item with sticky notes in English and it was all in the one suitcase. (No rifling through your socks n jocks to find the forgotten umeboshi stash.)

Yeah it's best if it's all manufactured/shop bought vacuum sealed type packaging.
There are some things on the banned/restricted list - you may be surprised what's in and what's out - this list can change eg. Sesame seeds were out but our whole dried up dead fish katsuo that looked like a block of wood was fine! (it was vacuum sealed) AQUIS guys knew what it was. As long as it's clean & manufactured looking.
We've brought in various pickles, cakes, okashi, senbei, liquid dashi -fish, squid sauce and regional sauces,tea, condiments, spices, yuzu stuff. Some Officers are more informed than others but they have a database and Japanese staff on hand to do a computer search if they are unsure.
If you have a lot of stuff & have been an honest citizen, they get sick of you & your Japanese food obsession & quickly send you on your way.
BTW: Okaasan has sent her home-made umeboshi by mail to us in a big tupperware style container and that's been fine (by mail)

Thanks again for all the responses. No plans to sneak food in, just didn't want to see good food in the airport bin.

Developed a liking for cheese snacks here but won't try to bring it back. I think dairy products are a no-no with customs.

As long as you declare them AND they are vacuum packed properly, no problem, Iv,e done it twice and they didn,t even look.