You've packed boxes of baklava, pul biber, dried apricots or Turkish coffee for a customer in New Jersey, and now you're wondering how shipping Turkish food to the USA actually works once it reaches customs. Food parcels aren't treated like clothing or electronics. Before your box crosses the border, US authorities want to know exactly what's inside, who made it, and whether it's safe to eat. Get any of this wrong and the parcel can sit in a bonded warehouse for weeks, get sent back, or simply be destroyed without a refund of your shipping cost.
Shipping Turkish Food to the USA: What Changes at Customs
Most general shipping guides focus on invoices and HS codes, but food is a separate category. On top of the normal customs entry every parcel to the US now needs, food items fall under the jurisdiction of the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA), not just Customs and Border Protection. That means an extra layer of paperwork that other product categories don't require.
FDA Prior Notice: The Step Most Sellers Miss
Any food shipment entering the United States — commercial or personal — needs an FDA Prior Notice filed before it arrives. This notice tells the FDA what the product is, who the manufacturer and shipper are, and which port it will enter through. For small e-commerce sellers this is usually handled as part of the customs clearance process by the courier, but the information behind it has to be accurate: a vague description like "food item" or "snack" is not enough. "Pistachio baklava, 500g, contains nuts, wheat, dairy" is the kind of description that lets a customs officer process the entry without stopping it for review.
Homemade or unlabelled food — a jar of jam made in someone's kitchen, loose dried fruit in a plastic bag, a bottle of olive oil with no manufacturer information — is frequently refused at this stage, regardless of how good the product is. If you're shipping as a business, it's worth treating every food parcel as if a customs officer will actually open it and read the label, because sometimes they do.
Labeling: What Has to Be on the Box and the Jar
Beyond Prior Notice, the product itself needs proper labeling. For most packaged Turkish food this means, at minimum: the product name in English, a full ingredient list, allergen information (nuts, gluten, dairy, sesame are common ones in Turkish sweets and spice blends), net weight, and the manufacturer's name and address. If you're shipping spices, dried herbs or tea, the botanical or common name in English should match what's declared on the commercial invoice — "kuru kekik" alone won't be understood by a customs system looking for "dried oregano" or "dried thyme."
This labeling requirement is separate from the "Made in Turkey" country-of-origin marking that applies to physical goods generally. For food, the ingredient and allergen labeling matters just as much as the origin marking, because it's what the FDA checks against its own safety rules.
No More Duty-Free Shipments, Even for a Jar of Honey
Until recently, many sellers shipped low-value food gifts under the US $800 duty-free threshold and never thought about customs duty at all. That exemption no longer applies. Since August 2025 it has been suspended for parcels from every country, the suspension was made indefinite for all transport modes in mid-2026, and a 2025 law ends the exemption permanently from July 2027. In practice, this means every parcel of Turkish food you ship to the US — whether it's a $15 bag of lokum or a $300 gift box — now goes through a customs entry and can be charged duty based on its 10-digit HTS code.
Because duty rates differ by exact product (chocolate-covered Turkish delight is not classified the same way as plain dried figs, for example), a precise product description on the commercial invoice matters more than ever. Courier shipments through FedEx are cleared by the carrier, and duties are billed to the recipient unless you choose to ship duties paid. There's no US federal VAT to worry about — state sales tax is a seller or marketplace matter, not something collected at the border — but duty and the customs entry itself now apply regardless of value.
Choosing a Service for Food Parcels
Transit time matters more for food than for most other products, since flavor, texture and shelf life can degrade in transit. On Kargobaz, FedEx typically delivers to the US in 2-4 business days with its fastest service, PTT in 3-7 business days, and Widect (Turkish Airlines) in 4-10 business days. For shelf-stable items like spices, tea or packaged sweets with a long shelf life, any of the three can work depending on your budget; for anything closer to perishable, a faster option reduces the risk of complaints. You can compare current rates for each in the price table below, or run your own numbers with the international shipping cost calculator.
Common Mistakes That Stop Food Parcels at US Customs
- Writing a vague description like "gift" or "food" on the invoice instead of the actual product name and ingredients.
- Shipping homemade or unlabelled food with no manufacturer information.
- Leaving allergen information off products that contain nuts, sesame or dairy — common in Turkish sweets.
- Assuming a low-value box is duty-free; the $800 exemption no longer applies to any parcel.
- Using the wrong HS code for a specific sweet or spice blend, which can trigger the wrong duty rate or a manual review.
If you regularly ship food items from an online store, setting up the paperwork once and reusing it for every order saves time. Store orders can be imported automatically through the available store integrations, and you can attach an e-Archive invoice to the shipment through the e-invoice connection instead of filling in a commercial invoice by hand each time. For a general overview of shipping to this destination beyond food, the Shipping to the USA guide covers the broader customs and carrier picture.
