As people turn to thinking of preparing their Christmas parcels to send, An Post is advising customers of new rules which mean certain items can no longer be mailed to the United States.
Prohibited items include teabags, crisps and chocolate.
Julie Gill, Marketing Director, said that "small amounts" of chocolate is okay to send, once it is commercially produced and sealed in its wrapper.
"A couple of bars [of chocolate], totally fine," she said on RTÉ's Drivetime, not "boxes and boxes of chocolate, because then the customs in the US might think that was for onwards commercial sale".
"Crisps are a little bit tricky, so it's all around the flavour of the crisps."
She said salt and vinegar and ready salted flavours, for example, are "absolutely fine" to post to the US.
The problem with sending crisps to the US arises with smokey bacon flavour and cheese and onion, Ms Gill said.
"Smokey Bacon, because it could be derived from meat or meat flavouring, is not allowed - so don't send smokey bacon crisps," she advised.
"These are the rules, we're all trying to work within them, but we would just say, if you were sending a six-pack of smokey bacon [crisps], it's likely that it'll get stopped."
Similarly, cheese and onion crisps are also off the trans-Atlantic menu because they could contain or be regarded to contain dairy, Ms Gill said.
She said An Post is not preventing items being posted, but "it's the US customs rules, and their Department of Agriculture don't want any products that are coming in derived from meat or meat substances that haven't been made in the US ... or a dairy product".
They could be intercepted and disposed of by the US authorities, she said.
