3mo ago

In the United States; is it illegal to use a single serve wrapped slice of Kraft cheese as a postcard?

This is assuming it's sealed and has a proper stamp. Post cards are more expensive than cheese. And who doesn't like cheese right?

31 comments

This would be prohibited by the USPS:
5 Perishable Matter
51 Definition
511 General Definitions
Perishable matter is anything that can deteriorate in the mail and thereby lose value, create a health hazard, or cause an obnoxious odor, nuisance, or disturbance, under ordinary mailing conditions. Mailable perishable matter may be sent at the mailer’s own risk when it is packaged as required and when it can be delivered within appropriate and reasonable time limits to prevent deterioration. Examples of perishable matter include mailable types of live animals, food items, and plants.
Full list of prohibited items
- American cheese doesn't look like it'll ever deteriorate.
  
  When I was younger, we moved around a lot, and as side effect of that, we paid for a storage unit to hold less frequently used stuff. Around the time I started high school, we managed to buy a house, and moved everything from the storage unit into our home. In it there was a picnic basket that I had never seen before. I remember looking inside and finding a horrible smelling bag of "bread" which was actually a black liquid with lumps in it. There was also some individually wrapped cheese slices which visually speaking were indistinguishable from any I could buy in the store today.
- Does Kraft "cheese" really count as food though?
  
  I'm going to die on this hill: Cheeses like this are real food. Typically real cheese is one of if not the first ingredient. They are made from cheese, milk, and an emulsifying agent. It's literally cheese sauce with a higher melting point. You can make it yourself it's really easy, you can use non standard cheeses for it like provolone or Gouda, and the only real difference would be in preservatives
  
  It's certainly perishable, doesn't have to be food
- Interesting. So the potato thing is technically against their rules, but they just do it anyways I guess?
- Mailable perishable matter may be sent at the mailer’s own risk
  The regulation you cited does not strictly prohibit the mailing of "perishable items".
  
  Who said perishable items were "strictly prohibited?" Slapping a stamp on a kraft single would not meet the criteria laid out in the second half of the sentence you left out of your quote.
- Yet people received their Pink sauce...
- was going to say perishable was the first thing that came to my mind.
At the very minimum, this type of mail would incur the $0.46 non-machinable surcharge because it's smaller than one of the minimum USPS dimensions for postcards, namely that one side has to be at least 5 inches (127 mm exact). You may also have issues with it being too floppy for basic handling by the postal carrier, especially if it was previously left in a warm mailbox.
But perhaps a more practical issue may arise first: will stamps even adhere to the wrapping of a Kraft Cheese single? If you cannot affix postage, that's the most immediate impediment.
You can use any piece of cardstock. I used to cut rectangles out of cereal boxes and use those.
I think it does have to be cardstock or similar weight, though; cheese might not meet the requirements.
I remember seeing that people can write the address on a potato and the USPS will deliver it if it has the right amount of stamps, so I suppose its possible. Definitely not "illegal" but the chances it gets thrown in the trash are high.
- Its funny because thats technically against their rules but they do ship em.
It'll be all torn up inside one of the machines, probably rip open the package and create a bunch of plastic shreds, and ruin the day of one of their equipment technicians. USPS is not easy on lettermail, their equipment manhandles it.
Just use the back of a cereal box or something.
- You misunderstand.
  This isn't a question about making a post card, this is a question about mailing cheese.
  
  is it illegal to use a single serve wrapped slice of Kraft cheese as a postcard?
  It is literally a question of making a postcard.
  
  Its going through the mail system with only a stamp on it, its acting as a postcard. Will be shreded inside the sorting machines.
It's legal. Which probably means that ICE will show up at your door, break in without a warrant, and deport you to a central American prison because you tried.
Unknown. My aunt once mailed me a coconut (in its husk). Just gotta get the postage right...
Kraft singles have a rather low melting point. I feel like, regardless of whether they take it or not, one warm day while it's in the back of a mail truck somewhere would cause it to liquefy and escape the weird cheese condom.
AFAIK you can literally mail anything (except these things) as long as you pay the right postage and address it.
- It might not arrive safely though.
are you being cheesy op? if your postcard isn't rejected, will arrive at 10 different destinations
See W. Reginald Bray
- Good read, thanks

31 comments