Traveller from Bali gets fined US$1,874 for bringing McDonald’s to Australia

Typically, a meal at McDonald’s shouldn’t cause you to empty out your wallet. But one traveller found out the hard way that even the simplest McDonald’s food items can cause you to break the bank – even if only to pay a massive airport fine. In late July, 2022, it was reported that a traveller coming into Darwin, Australia from Bali, Indonesia was charged AU$2,664 (US$1,874) for bringing in a few undeclared McDonald’s sandwiches bought on the island, namely some McMuffins and a ham croissant (along with some other contraband items found in their luggage).

The heavy penalty can be attributed to Australia’s no-tolerance stance against foot-and-mouth disease, which has had an outbreak recently in the island that many Australians seem to love to visit. As a result, the Australian government has committed to invest millions into keeping the problematic illness away, with heightened biosecurity measures (sniffer dogs, sanitizing stations, etc) placed in airports throughout the country. The illegal McDonald’s food items in question were caught by a sniffer dog at the Darwin Airport, and was dubbed “the most expensive Maccas (slang for McDonald’s in Australia) meal this passenger ever has” by Murray Watt, Australia’s minister for agriculture, fisheries, and forestry.

“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,” he added. In the end, it was confirmed that the unfortunate passenger was handed a “12-unit infringement notice for failing to declare potential high biosecurity risk items and providing a false and misleading document”, while the contraband McDonald’s burgers were seized and tested for the disease before being destroyed. “Australia is FMD (foot-and-mouth disease) free and we want it to stay that way,” Wyatt said.

Sure, the penalty may seem pretty harsh on the surface, but when you consider the more extreme consequences of having FMD spread in a region, it may end up making a little more sense. While FMD isn’t really serious nor fatal to humans, the disease can cause widespread and serious complications in cultivated animal breeds such as cows, sheep, goats, and pigs – all of which make up a significant portion of Australia’s agricultural economy. In the worst cases, the disease in such animals can end up causing complications such as lameness, losing the ability to eat or walk, and eventually death.

As the disease is quick-spreading among animals, many farmers would need to resort to killing off entire herds – an extremely costly but necessary solution. In 2001, an FMD breakout in the UK ended up causing 6. 5 million animals to be culled, costing the country U$16 billion in losses.

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