There is nothing worse than living or traveling abroad and being denied a favored food fix from home not because it's hard to find, but because it is outright banned.
It is true that foods are banned around the world for a plethora of reasons, some for more concerning reasons than others. In many a country, foods are banned because of legitimate health concerns; maybe one of the ingredients turns out to be a carcinogen, or maybe a new study finds that it's not great for kids. Maybe there's been a new outbreak of swine or bird flu, and the food uses ingredients from potentially infected animals.
Yet foods can also be banned from certain countries because of cultural taboos. In the United States, we consider dogs and horses to be pets, so we don't eat them -- for the most part. In many other countries, dogs aren't considered pets, but are also considered "unclean," and as such, aren't seen to be fit for human consumption. So yes, there are plenty of countries that consume both dog and horse meat without any real hesitation.
Other times, countries may ban a food because the acquisition of that food is considered unsustainable. Maybe it's a certain type of endangered fish that has had its numbers diminished by overfishing, or maybe it's a type of livestock that is particularly damaging to the environment. In other cases still, they may ban a food because the methods used to get the food are considered unethical or inhumane -- maybe they have to put the animal through some sort of torture or extreme discomfort in order to get whatever it is they want, and have decided as a culture that animal's well-being is important to them.
Whatever the reason, societies ban foods. They all do it, even if there isn't necessarily consistency from nation to nation. Some places ban pork, some ban cow, some ban eating fellow humans, others don't ban any of the above. The reasons are varied and sometimes weird. Here are some of the foods that are currently banned around the world.
Foods Banned Around the World
-Matt Hershberger, The Daily Meal