These 10 Ingredients Were Once Banned In The US, But Not Anymore

We all have strong opinions on food, whether it's a belief that every day should be Taco Tuesday, or that some foods just should not be allowed to exist. When those in power believe the latter, there can be some hilarious consequences. One vegetable — broccoli — was once banned from the White House, and that's far from the only example. Way back in 1777, Frederick the Great of Prussia once banned coffee ... in order to make beer more popular.

While there might be plenty of people who can get on board with a nationwide broccoli ban, that didn't happen. Other foods have been banned across the U.S., like haggis. True Scottish haggis can't be enjoyed (if that's the correct word) in the U.S. because of the potential dangers of eating lung meat, and the ban has stood. Rarely, though, food bans have been overturned.

And this is a surprisingly weird bit of U.S. history. We might think of foods being banned for all kinds of reasons, many of which might be related to food safety. Ingredients might be banned over sourcing concerns, or you might get in trouble for eating some fish that have been taken off the menu after finding their way onto endangered lists. That all makes sense. But the world is weird, things don't always make sense, and some food bans have been downright bizarre and — thankfully — are no more.

Mangosteens can still be hard to find in some places, and when you do find them, you might be wondering just why mangosteens are so expensive. Not only are they hard to grow, but for a long time, it was illegal to import them into the U.S. at all. It wasn't until 2007 that it was announced the first mangosteen shipments were poised to make their way stateside. Even though they were a minor crop in Hawaii, not even those fruits could make it into the continental U.S.

Why? They were banned for a long time because of a worry that they would introduce pests into the U.S. from the areas capable of growing them in large enough quantities to sell commercially. It's not easy: Few places have the heat and humidity to grow the delicate fruits, meaning most come from Southeast Asia. They're highly susceptible to pests and disease, and entire crops can be devastated by irregular watering.

Worries about importing those pests didn't go away, not precisely. Mangosteens are now allowed into the U.S. on one condition: Crops are irradiated. As the word suggests, that means exposing shipments to an FDA-approved type of radiation, and it's done a lot. In addition to mangosteens (and other mainly tropical fruits), irradiation is also used on foods to destroy microorganisms and pathogens that cause food poisoning, spoilage, and rot. It's also used to make food safer for those with compromised immune systems.

Next time you're browsing the European import section of your favorite grocery store, pick up a bag of Skittles made in the UK. Temporarily resist the urge to drink them right from the bag like a normal person, and try the purple ones. Then try the purple ones from the U.S., and you'll be wondering why the UK Skittles taste so different. It's because they're not grape-flavored like the ones Americans are used to, they're made to taste like blackcurrant. That's a berry that was banned in the U.S. for decades.

It wasn't always like that, and in the 19th century, there were acres and acres of blackcurrant bushes. There was, however, also a problem, and that problem goes by the ungainly name of white pine blister rust. White pine blister rust kills trees in a pretty grotesque way, developing sections that (and apologies for the following set of words) look like burst and leaking boils. The disease spreads via spores that infect other plants and then are later carried to the trees. The most vulnerable plants? You guessed it.

Blackcurrants were banned sometime around 1911, and the ban remained in place for years. Some states lifted bans back in the 1960s, but many state bans remained until 2003. That's when a New York farmer named Greg Quinn sampled a liqueur called cassis, and it kicked off his quest to bring disease-resistant varieties of blackcurrants back. With some help from Cornell University, he absolutely did it.

Did you know that you can use gooseberries for the perfect sweet-tart chutney? You can and should, and you should also appreciate the fact that gooseberries have been unbanned after decades of being illegal to grow in the U.S.

Gooseberry bushes are susceptible to the same disease that blackcurrants helped spread to pine trees. Like blackcurrants, gooseberry production was banned in the early 1900s. Although this ban was largely overturned in the 1960s, when states were left to decide whether or not to enforce it, gooseberries never caught on in quite the same way as other popular berries.

That's a shame because they're pretty delicious. Pre-World War I, gooseberries were once so popular in Britain that they were the star of the show at growing competitions and even had their own fan clubs. They've been an important foodstuff in Britain since the 15th century or earlier, and once you try them, it's easy to see why. They're tart when young, sweet when ripe, and they're brilliant for jams, pies, or on a cheese platter. Agricultural experts suggest there could be a lucrative, growing market out there for these one-time favorites, so if you happen to find them at the grocery store, you should definitely give them a try.

Thirteen years of a (theoretically) alcohol-free America kicked off in 1920, and perhaps predictably, it didn't go well at all. When the U.S. outlawed making and selling alcohol, the consequences were fast and far-reaching. There's enough to be said about the rise of the mob, bootleggers, bathtub gin, and speakeasies for volumes of books, but it's worth noting that the Prohibition we all think of wasn't the first. 

In 1918, a temporary Prohibition was put in place, mainly in an attempt to avoid wartime grain shortages. It, however, helped inspire the temperance movement to try to make Prohibition permanent, which was hugely complicated. While many campaigned on the grounds of moral superiority, for others, it was based on racist stereotypes. Historian Michael A. Lerner told USA Today that "Prohibition was a huge amount of anti-immigration sentiment masked as, 'We're trying to deal with the social problem'" of immigrants overindulging. In the end, it was a terrible idea for a lot of reasons.

Countless jobs were lost, businesses — including theaters and restaurants — closed, law enforcement was stretched to the breaking point and beyond, and people actually started drinking more. Prominent Americans like the Rockefellers campaigned to overturn Prohibition, and when Franklin D. Roosevelt promised to do exactly that, he was elected President and followed through, ending Prohibition in 1933.

Ackee and saltfish might be one of the staple dishes you'll find on the breakfast table in Jamaica, but if you're hoping to make it once you get back to the U.S., you'll be sort of disappointed. The problem is that ackee is filled with something called hypoglycin A, and when ackee is unripe, there's so much of it that it can cause everything from fatigue to dangerously low blood sugar. In some cases, it can be fatal. 

It's easy to see why ackee was banned in 1973, but there is some good news. In the late 1990s, Jamaica and some ackee processors partnered with the U.S. Food & Drug Administration to put controls in place that would guarantee safe canned ackee. A lot of what makes ackee safe happens when it ripens, splits open, and loses a lot of the hypoglycin A that's so dangerous in the first place. This makes training to safely handle fruit and judge when it's ripe necessary, and it also means taking the time to let the process happen naturally.

Once the FDA got involved in inspecting processing facilities and procedures, companies started getting added to the list of those approved to import canned ackee. Starting in 2000, canned ackee was permitted in the U.S., although fresh imports are still a no-go. It's easy to find, though, and if it's not at your local grocery store, you can order several brands — like Country Isle's Jamaican Ackee in the Can — from Amazon.

Saccharin is a lab-synthesized sweetener that's everywhere these days, and although it's now touted as a perfectly safe and possibly healthier alternative to sugar, there was a point not too long ago that it was banned in the U.S. For the full story, we'll have to go back to the 1970s. That's when researchers did the admittedly weird thing of feeding a saccharin diet to rats, and when those rats developed cancerous tumors, the status of saccharin was changed to carcinogenic and banned ... even though the experiment wasn't duplicated on other animals. 

The ban hit in 1981, and it was a wildly controversial thing. Through the 1990s, there was a ton of arguing over whether or not the studies were flawed, and if the ban was actually on something that was potentially beneficial. Those erring on the side of caution were quick to point out that among the top consumers of sugar (and, by extension, saccharin) were children, which made things even more complicated.

Today, saccharin is everywhere and is recognized as a safe food additive. The ban overturn was explained in a 2010 issue of Current Oncology, where it was noted that it's all about the dose. Remember when we said that researchers were feeding their test subjects saccharin? In order to get the same dosage in humans, it would require a person to drink 9,600 ounces of diet soda in a single day. (Please do not consider that a challenge.)

Anyone who's looking at getting into the world of caviar should know that osetra is the best caviar for beginners, and there's good news for anyone who decides they seriously love it. There's a new caviar on the market in the U.S. these days, and it's beluga caviar.

Beluga caviar comes from Beluga sturgeon, and it's not cheap. At the time of this writing, a 50-gram tin will set you back $950, but yes, you can legally get it in the U.S. now. It was banned way back in 2005 when the Beluga sturgeon was facing extinction. They're seriously incredible fish: they live between freshwater and saltwater environments, and they're predators that can reach enormous sizes (with the largest on record weighing just over 7,000 pounds). They're rarely that big anymore, though, as they're critically endangered with a wild population that's still on the decline — partially because both males and females are identical, leading to both being slaughtered in hopes of harvesting caviar.

Beluga caviar is technically banned from being imported today, but you can still get it from one place. That's Marky's Caviar, and owners Mark Zaslavsky and Mark Gelman have been crucial in the preservation of Beluga sturgeon. They run Sturgeon AquaFarms, which is one of the largest sturgeon farms in the world and has bred more than 80,000 of these giant fish. Caviar enthusiasts can rejoice, as they're once again able to sample this most celebrated variety and know that it's responsibly sourced and managed.

Given the name, it's not surprising that Sichuan peppercorns are one of the key ingredients you should keep in your pantry for Sichuan cooking. It's these peppercorns that are responsible for that delightful, delectable tingle that comes with so many Sichuan dishes, and interestingly, there's a practical reason for their popularity. The Chinese province of Sichuan is known for having some serious heat and humidity, and it's long been believed that sweating — which a spicy Sichuan dish will make you do — helps you manage the heat. 

For 37 years, the Sichuan peppercorn was technically banned in the U.S., although it was loosely enforced for much of that time, and many people still found a way around the ban. The reason for the ban was that the peppercorns are actually berries, and they grow on a prickly ash shrub. That particular plant is susceptible to several nasty diseases, including canker disease and leaf spot. Amid a fear that diseases could be imported and spread along with the berries came a ban, but it was only between 2003 and 2005 that it was pretty well-enforced, and these peppercorns all but disappeared from the U.S.

When it was agreed that the peppercorns would be heat-treated to kill any pathogens, the ban was lifted. Now, brands — such as the Soeos Sichuan Peppercorns — are available on Amazon for a reasonable price which means you can once again keep some on hand.

Yes, you read that right. Sliced bread was once banned in the U.S., and it's one of those weird stories that sounds fake, but it is absolutely and 100% true. The ban was enacted in 1943, and yes, it was one of those strange, World War II-era things. The idea was that if stores started selling whole loaves, it would be cheaper, and use less wax paper. On the side of the argument against the ban was the idea that sliced loaves would last longer since they didn't need to be repeatedly handled to be cut, and suddenly, more people needed to buy previously unneeded bread knives.

Things got pretty heated — from reports of disgruntled customers threatening bakers to a congressman who declared the bread ban was so extreme that it was an abuse of power. There were complaints that some were struggling to cut bread, and hilariously, the Associated Press ran an article with this advice: "Don't bear down ... use a gentle sawing motion ... Then hold the knife flat against the loaf while you're cutting it." We're honestly not sure if that's meant to be satirical or not, but the article also describes the ability to slice your own bread as a "lost art."

The sliced bread ban only lasted about two months before legislators backtracked. There was no real explanation, only that it hadn't really worked out in the way they'd planned.

Britain's history of raising sheep and lamb dates back around 11,000 years, so it's safe to say that they know what they're doing. It's been a huge industry for a long time, but for most of that time, it was the wool that was the most important. Lamb's place among the pantheon of the most delicious and tender meats is fairly recent,  and for a long time, British-raised lamb and British beef were both banned in the U.S.

Bans happened around outbreaks of bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE), or mad cow disease. Most outbreaks are traced to feed issues, and the terrifying thing is that it can take years for symptoms to manifest in sick animals. When meat from those infected animals is eaten by a person, it causes an invariably fatal brain disease called Variant Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease. Lamb and beef imports have been banned several times, with lamb imports stopping in both 1989 and 1996 and beef being banned in 1996 as well. 

It wasn't until 2019 that British beef producers were given the all-clear to resume imports into the States, while lamb took a little longer. The ban was officially lifted at the beginning of 2022, but it wasn't until October of that year that it actually happened. Finally, Americans can once again enjoy a shepherd's or cottage pie with real, British-sourced meat. And yes, there's a difference: Shepherd's pie is lamb, cottage pie is beef.