Bringing fresh eggs to Indonesia (Jakarta)

Well, there are some criteria for bringing items abroad (just as we take certain food back with us): Availability, price and quality. If you really don't trust the latter here I can imagine you'd take it.

For us that could be sausages, rum, wine, chocolate paste and sprinkles (I want ultra dark/pure), anchovy, cheese, bonbons, field peas, sanitary pads; and for others.......eh eggs.
 
Since I live in a place where kids can study at school without being afraid of having someone doing a shooting spree at them, can I bring the AUS tough gun law to the US?

Although it may appear as a simple question about travelling, underlying this is the failure to understand of how to adapt in a new environment. I won't ask about the availability of pecorino cheese if I am vacationing in Kenya.
 
Australian plastic among waste 'contaminating' Indonesian food chains, report finds

A news story from the ABC posted this morning on the topic. Not exactly surprising, but still concerning. Putting the bottom line ahead of peoples' health is not exactly something confined to Indonesia either.

The bit about the factory burning plastic [as a cheaper fuel source] since 1996 gives a bit of an insight into how long this has become ingrained. The sad thing is this means that a generation of kids in the village will have grown up with this exposure.

The cynic in me questions what links the 'senior local official' quoted in the story has with the factory, but he could just be trying to support local economic activity in the absence of alternatives.
 
From the same article:

"In a statement sent to the ABC, Rosa Vivien Ratnawati, a senior official from Indonesia's Ministry of Environment and Forestry, said the open burning of plastic is a violation of the country's laws."

From the widespread burning of plastic and other waste on the roadside and in villages that I've seen in Indonesia (though my observations are largely confined to Sulawesi), I don't know how much notice of this law people take?

Have people made the same observation in other parts of Indonesia? Perhaps more to the point, is anyone aware of instances where plastic-burning has managed to have been successfully curtailed?

The part about education sounds promising, but it still comes back to why it is being done in the first place. I'd doubt that there is any enforcement action of that law, but I'd be happy to stand corrected. (I don't mean that from a punitive sense, but from a pollution/harm-reduction sense).

I suppose that burning does keep plastic from the waterways, but it's swapping this for a different form of pollution (air pollution, instead of water pollution). Either way, it still seems to be entering the food-chain for locals. I guess the health impacts will come out some way down the track.
 
In my western home country, wood burning stoves are very popular. And the fireplaces are heavily used during the colder seasons. Cozy and homy, right?

Can you guess what they burn in those stoves and fireplace inserts?

Besides wood which is not completely dried, they also throw in painted and chemically treated construction wood, plastics, .... You smell it everywhere.

And in the mean time next door, my father is taking care of the spinach, potatoes and leak in his little vegetable garden.
 
In my western home country, wood burning stoves are very popular. And the fireplaces are heavily used during the colder seasons. Cozy and homy, right?

Can you guess what they burn in those stoves and fireplace inserts?

Besides wood which is not completely dried, they also throw in painted and chemically treated construction wood, plastics, .... You smell it everywhere.

And in the mean time next door, my father is taking care of the spinach, potatoes and leak in his little vegetable garden.
I'm sure there are chemicals affecting your dads spinach etc. but the dioxins we linked news stories to in eggs is different. Dioxins are stored in fat so the main contaminants leading to human consumption is not plants. I'm not sure exactly how the chickens are consuming the dioxins to get them into their eggs but any humans eating the contaminated eggs will then store the dioxins in their fat stores. Dioxins are particularly bad because they persist for a long time (they have a half life of 7+ years in the human body) so cause health problems long after exposure - they also build up over time if the source of contamination is still present (https://www.who.int/news-room/fact-sheets/detail/dioxins-and-their-effects-on-human-health )
Before 2018 a lot of plastic waste from the developed world was being sent to China for processing - they have since stopped accepting it and it has been turning up all over the developing world in much higher quantities than before (including Indonesia). So this problem is a recent one (well, it seems like some tofu factories have been using waste plastic for a few years already).
Your father's wood burning stove (and all his neighbours too) is not similar to people burning high quantities of mixed plastic in a open fires (low temperature burning of plastic = high quantities of dioxins).
I hope that this practice isnt affecting the wider food chains here but I would recommend people consider where their tofu comes from and what food source their chickens have access to.

I still think bringing in your own eggs is extreme - I am okay to eat the supermarket eggs because their food stuff is most likely not contaminated by any nasties :)
 
Don't you find anchovies in Jakarta? The Pucci brand in jar of 700g is OK, if you can find them. The problem is perhaps that distributors don't propose it to supermarket / food shop but only to those who deal with the hospitality industry. Some time ago Puspa started a thread about olives and the difficulties she seems to have to find quality one which surprised me at the time. Like with the anchovis we have access to and supply to our clients a fair number of Olive products (Calamata, greek, sicilian...etc) in big cans or jars which seem not to be marketed in the supermarket network.
 
This kind of stuff really makes me laugh.....

Carrying eggs abroad... What has the world become ?

Indeed. I'm all for healthy eating that is also better for the environment; I do my best to buy local, organic, yadda yadda yadda.

But a few days of eating regular food that wasn't harvested by virgins at midnight is unlikely to kill anyone. If you are so terrified of exposure to the real world that you have to hand carry your own eggs to a foreign country, you probably ought to just wrap yourself in organic cotton and retreat to a corner and whimper and never engage with reality.

Given the levels of poverty, environmental degradation, gender inequality, and other extremely serious problems that most people in the world have to confront on a daily basis, and somehow try to survive with dignity, it seems almost obscene to care that you might spend a few days eating slightly less than pristine food. Wouldn't it be better to take some of the energy that goes into that level of attention to detail and apply it to problems that affect the truly downtrodden? (Which maybe the OP does. I sure hope so.)
 
If it happens to you, be cool. Ask the officer who intend to seize anything to escort you to the office to receive the seizure form.

If it's eggs or pork, almost no chance for you to avoid the seizure unless if you want to enter in a monetary bargain.

However, if it is goods that they can resell or consume themselves (if you don't ask for the seizure form, it is most probably what will happen to your goods) and if you tell them that you intend to witness the destruction, their attitude may change drastically.

If it is destroyed, there is gain for no-one. However, if you can come to term that a part of your goods will make happy someone else than you, while you keep the other part, knowing that by law again you shouldn't be authorized to import them (ex: Turkey for Thanks giving or Christmas, Alcohol in quantities well offer the authorized limit...etc) then you can avoid to have the heartbreaking experience to witness that wonderful Petrus going through the drain.
Just saying.

Aside from the products being confiscated, is there a penalty applied?
 
Aside from the products being confiscated, is there a penalty applied?

Yeah. For animals, fish and plants including derivates you did not report, you must pay the import duty owed and you will get an administrative sanction. With a fine which is at least 100% of the import duty and a maximum of 500% of the import duty that should be paid.

Assuming a 5% (import duty for food) + 10% (value added tax), for a kilo of eggs which costs 22.000 rupiah that would mean a fine between 1.100 and 5.500 rupiah. (Excl.)

?
 
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You can pack almost any food item carefully, and have it survive. I’ve never brought eggs, but a whole suitcase of assorted German beers, to the US, one time. Whole desktop computers, a summers supply of meats, olives, cheeses and other food to Indonesia.

Never had a broken bottle, or a cooked or frozen item because of being in the airplane hold. (Most are heated and kept at similar temps to the cabin.)
 
Speaking of eggs. There are eggs in Indonesia contaminated with dioxin, potentially chicken meat, cow's milk and tahu/tempe. Using plastic waste as fuel is causing this, the toxic fallout contaminating the grass where animals feed on. No study on the effects of human though, but dioxin can cause cancer.

 
That is why I’m thinking about bringing eggs from pastured chickens (living outside, full sun exposure) that eat insects and grass that never once sprayed with pesticide. I’m not positive I could find those in Jakarta.
I also had hard times finding the real pasture-raised eggs. Currently, almost all egg brands in supermarkets in Indonesia come from battery cage system. You're in better luck if you go to the rural areas, but even so there is no guarantee the quality or what kind of feed the chickens eat.

There is a better option, a cage-free brand:
"So far, only one farm has been recognised as using higher animal welfare standards and good sanitary practices. Healthy Eggs farm in Sukabumi, just south of Jakarta, is devoted to farming healthy eggs and has adopted a cage-free system." https://indonesiaexpat.id/featured/ethical-eggs/

It's not as good as "pasture-raised" but at least it's better than battery cage system.
 
Better is what way?
The "cage-free" one is better for the chicken welfare than the battery cage system because the chickens have more space to move around and exhibit more natural behavior.

The cage-free system is also cleaner because it is easier to clean and disinfect.

As for nutritional value of the eggs, you can check this article https://www.thepoultrysite.com/articles/why-cage-free-and-why-now

"Numerous studies have found free-range eggs or cage-free eggs to have a healthier overall nutritional profile. Benefits found include less saturated fat and cholesterol, and higher levels of protein. Free-range or cage-free eggs have also been found to have significantly more Vitamin A and Vitamin E; more omega 3s; higher levels of alpha tocopherol and alpha-linolenic acid; higher carotenoid levels; more lutein; a healthier ratio of omega 6 to omega 3 fatty acids; higher bone mineral density; and more beta carotene."

I'm guessing since the chickens are able to move more, they have better metabolic health. Therefore, better metabolic health affects the egg quality as well (less saturated fat and cholesterol).
 
The "cage-free" one is better for the chicken welfare than the battery cage system because the chickens have more space to move around and exhibit more natural behavior.

The cage-free system is also cleaner because it is easier to clean and disinfect.

As for nutritional value of the eggs, you can check this article https://www.thepoultrysite.com/articles/why-cage-free-and-why-now

"Numerous studies have found free-range eggs or cage-free eggs to have a healthier overall nutritional profile. Benefits found include less saturated fat and cholesterol, and higher levels of protein. Free-range or cage-free eggs have also been found to have significantly more Vitamin A and Vitamin E; more omega 3s; higher levels of alpha tocopherol and alpha-linolenic acid; higher carotenoid levels; more lutein; a healthier ratio of omega 6 to omega 3 fatty acids; higher bone mineral density; and more beta carotene."

I'm guessing since the chickens are able to move more, they have better metabolic health. Therefore, better metabolic health affects the egg quality as well (less saturated fat and cholesterol).
I haven't looked into it very well, but I am very willing to believe you are right about all this.

I'll still say that unless there is a meaningful certification and enforcement system set up in the market you are purchasing in, there is a good chance that your eggs won't live up to their labels.

I used to live on an organic farm owned by a former chairman of one of the Soil Associations boards and a Standards Committee member. He held that the value of a given "more healthy/natural" label on a food was determined almost entirely by the location in which it was printed. Certification of organic farming in the States was (at the time, 20-ish years ago) a patchwork affair, for example. Some certifying agents were more thorough than others in their inspection and enforcement of USDA standards and consumers had little way of knowing the difference.

Point being that natural and sustainable farming methods aren't cheap, but everyone can pay the same amount to get the same quality of marketing. There's money to be made in calling your chickens free range because you put them out for five minutes a day, if there is nobody defining how many hours they should be out or checking that you do it.

I'm not saying that it isn't worth the money to buy good food. It really is. I'm more wondering, does anyone happen to know who regulates and certifies free-range and cage-free eggs here?
 
I haven't looked into it very well, but I am very willing to believe you are right about all this.

I'll still say that unless there is a meaningful certification and enforcement system set up in the market you are purchasing in, there is a good chance that your eggs won't live up to their labels.

I used to live on an organic farm owned by a former chairman of one of the Soil Associations boards and a Standards Committee member. He held that the value of a given "more healthy/natural" label on a food was determined almost entirely by the location in which it was printed. Certification of organic farming in the States was (at the time, 20-ish years ago) a patchwork affair, for example. Some certifying agents were more thorough than others in their inspection and enforcement of USDA standards and consumers had little way of knowing the difference.

Point being that natural and sustainable farming methods aren't cheap, but everyone can pay the same amount to get the same quality of marketing. There's money to be made in calling your chickens free range because you put them out for five minutes a day, if there is nobody defining how many hours they should be out or checking that you do it.

I'm not saying that it isn't worth the money to buy good food. It really is. I'm more wondering, does anyone happen to know who regulates and certifies free-range and cage-free eggs here?
Yeah that's true. I agree there are loopholes where people can make more money from the marketing. I guess we have to do our own research nowadays.

I'm not sure who regulates/certifies egg labels here in Indonesia, probably the Komite Akreditasi Nasional (KAN)?

I wish there is a website where we can look up ourselves the details where the egg comes from. I tried to look up the companies/websites of the egg brands here in the supermarkets, but there is a little or no information. As for the egg brands in the States, we can use the egg scorecard https://www.cornucopia.org/scorecard/eggs/ where all the farms are ranked based on the quality of their eggs and we can also check the details of the farm.
 
Yeah that's true. I agree there are loopholes where people can make more money from the marketing. I guess we have to do our own research nowadays.

I'm not sure who regulates/certifies egg labels here in Indonesia, probably the Komite Akreditasi Nasional (KAN)?

I wish there is a website where we can look up ourselves the details where the egg comes from. I tried to look up the companies/websites of the egg brands here in the supermarkets, but there is a little or no information. As for the egg brands in the States, we can use the egg scorecard https://www.cornucopia.org/scorecard/eggs/ where all the farms are ranked based on the quality of their eggs and we can also check the details of the farm.
Wow. That is a really cool website. Nice!

Also, I now regret my post above, which really has a negative feel without presenting any real evidence of cause for that negativity. If people want to go to the trouble of researching all their food, great. If not, they don't need me to imply that their money might be wasted (when I really don't have a clue about the situation here).
 
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Slightly out of topic: I remember Bob Sadino, founder of Kem Chicks, started his business selling washed eggs to foreigners in Kemang. Kem Chicks is Kemang Chickens. They would come full circle if they begin the business of pasture-raised chickens and eggs for foreigners.
 

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