It's really coming to something when a loving South African parent cannot bring a bit of biltong to her starving son studying in York.

Ask York guesthouse owner Olga Shepherdson, who is confused by Britain's food import rules.

She appealed to the Diary: "Can anyone tell me why I cannot bring vacuum packed food stuffs from say France, Italy, Germany for my own consumption as this is against the law, with a stiff fine?

"Yet we have a continental food market in York selling French baguettes etc, German sausage or Greek olives. How do they import their food without liabilities?

"Is this a case of one law for us and one for them?"

The continental market held in Parliament Street, York, over the weekend was a lively affair with stallholders selling all the delicacies Olga mentioned.

So she was miffed when one of her foreign guests complained she had had food confiscated at the airport.

"I've just had a guest staying from South Africa, who brought her homesick son - a student at the University of York - some vacuum packed biltong."

For those gentle readers who have never sampled biltong, it is a meaty treat made by salting, peppering and otherwise seasoning fleshy fillets, and air-drying them for just short of a week.

The guest was forced to hand the offending product to Customs at Heathrow, where it was disposed of. Was this justified, she asked?

So the Diary went to the people who make the rules to answer Olga's query. And there are no such blanket restrictions on bringing food back from any of the EU locales. "If you're travelling from another EU country, you can bring back, or send through the post, any food item as long as it's free from disease and for personal consumption," HM Revenue and Customs told the Diary.

And it is the case that food importers - such as those trading at the continental market - are governed by different laws to you and me.

However, these are far more - not less - stringent than those governing travellers.

The Diary's customs source told us importers were bound by a plethora of food safety regulations, administered by a startling array of government agencies.

Our customs mole revealed travellers are not allowed to bring meat products - be they raw, cured, dried, or cooked - into the UK from any non-EU country, including South Africa.

Lovers of fish, shellfish and honey will have to do a bit of research before stashing their fodder of choice into the suitcase. Restrictions apply depending on the particular diseases and pests on the loose in each country.

Whatever you do, don't go over the one kilo limit for any given food group. For further information, visit www.hmrc.gov.uk, because not knowing the score will not wash with the people at HM Revenue and Customs:

"Some people will try and bring in clearly prohibited goods and try to plead ignorance - but ignorance is not an excuse."

Updated: 10:59 Wednesday, May 17, 2006