Traveler Fined Nearly $1,900 After Discovery of Undeclared McMuffins
Written by SOURCE on August 2, 2022
A passenger on a flight to Australia from Indonesia was met with a hefty fine after officials discovered an undeclared assortment of McDonald’s items, including two McMuffins.
Per a report from the Guardian, a “detector dog” by the name of Zinta (pictured below) ultimately sniffed out the inadvertently expensive fast food, which Australian authorities said was originally purchased in Bali and later found in the traveler’s luggage upon arrival at Darwin Airport.
“This will be the most expensive Maccas meal this passenger ever has, this fine is twice the cost of an airfare to Bali, but I have no sympathy for people who choose to disobey Australia’s strict biosecurity measures, and recent detections show you will be caught,” Murray Watt—who serves as Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries, and Forestry—said in a firmly worded statement shared on Monday.
Per officials, the not-publicly-identified passenger’s fine-spurring haul of would-be consumables including “a range of undeclared risk products,” including a pair of McMuffins with egg and sausage and a ham croissant.
The concern here, as Watt explained, is a push to keep Australia free of foot-and-mouth disease.
“Biosecurity is no joke,” he said Monday, adding that maintaining an “FMD-free” environment assists in the protection of regional farms and thus helps the economy.
For the trouble, this particular passenger was fined a reported $2,664 AUD, i.e. roughly the equivalent of nearly $1,900 in American dollars. The McDonald’s items, meanwhile, are set for destruction after each is tested for FMD.
