How to Buy Biltong in the USA (and Why You Can't Import It)

Published August 29, 2026 Updated September 24, 2026

Every route to buy biltong in USA stores and online leads to a domestically produced product, because importing biltong from South Africa is prohibited. Your options are direct from a US producer, Amazon and marketplaces, warehouse clubs, South African import shops, and specialty grocers.

They differ mainly on how recently the biltong was dried and how much range you get. And that import rule explains the whole American market: once you know no biltong crosses the ocean, every option below makes sense — including why the South African shop that stocks everything else from home can't stock the one thing you went in for.

Sliced air-dried beef, what you get when you buy biltong in USA stores or online

Where to buy biltong in USA stores and online

Direct from a US producer. Usually the freshest and always the most traceable. The producer knows when the batch was dried, which cut it came from and where the beef was sourced, and a real one'll tell you if you ask.

Stock turns rather than sits; the trade-off is you're buying from one range instead of browsing several. Our first choice on this route, other than ourselves: Lowfeld Soul Food in South Carolina — South African-run, made to order, no preservatives, and shipped within five days of drying.

Amazon and marketplaces. The widest selection, the fastest checkout, and the oldest stock. Marketplace inventory can sit in a fulfillment center for months, and biltong's shelf-stable enough that nothing looks wrong when it does — it just gets drier and flatter.

Listings rarely give a dry date, and third-party sellers can be reselling rather than producing.

Warehouse clubs. Costco and similar carry biltong in large bags at the strongest price per ounce of any route, and they're not shy about the bag size. The catch is that availability is regional and rotates, so what your store carried last quarter may be gone, and the range is one or two products, take it or leave it.

We looked at one of the club mainstays in Brooklyn Biltong at Costco.

South African import shops. Excellent for everything except the biltong. They'll have the rusks, the sauces, the spice blends and the sweets, all genuinely imported; the biltong on the shelf is domestically produced, because it has to be.

Many carry good local product and staff who know the difference, which makes them a strong in-person option in metros with a South African community.

Specialty and natural grocers. Convenient if you're already there, and stocking's improved a lot as biltong moved into the meat snack set. Range is thin, usually one national brand, and it sits next to jerky with no signage explaining the difference.

Comparing the routes

Route	Freshness	Range	Reliability of stock	Traceability
Direct from producer	Best	Narrow, one range	High	Best
Amazon / marketplaces	Weakest	Widest	High	Poor
Warehouse clubs	Moderate	Very narrow	Regional and rotating	Moderate
South African import shops	Moderate to good	Moderate	Varies by shop	Good, if you ask
Specialty grocers	Moderate	Narrow	Moderate	Moderate

The honest summary: buy on convenience and you pay in freshness; buy on freshness and you give up browsing. No route wins on everything, and anyone telling you otherwise is selling one of them. For a fuller walkthrough of ordering online specifically, see buying biltong online.

Best biltong online: how to judge a shop before you order

The best biltong online comes from a shop that will tell you the dry date, the cut, where the beef came from and how long it hung — in plain text on the product page, not in a reply you have to chase — and whose ingredient list starts with beef and vinegar rather than beef and sugar. Anything less than that and you're guessing.

Three quick tells, in the order I'd check them:

A dry time in days. If the page won't say, the answer's usually hours, and hours means heat.
A named cut. Silverside or topside is the traditional answer; “beef” on its own is a shrug.
A way to reach a person. An email address a human answers beats a contact form that feeds a queue.

Why you can't import biltong from South Africa

The United States prohibits import of biltong from South Africa. I've packed biltong through a lot of airports over the years and customs officials have had questions; this is the one border where the answer's simply no.

The reason's animal disease control, not anything to do with the food itself: South Africa isn't free of foot-and-mouth disease as far as US import rules are concerned, and uncooked ruminant meat products from affected regions are restricted to protect American livestock. Biltong is air-dried, not cooked, which puts it squarely inside the restriction.

That applies to personal luggage as well as commercial freight. Bringing a bag back from a trip to Johannesburg isn't a loophole, it's a confiscation and potentially a fine. We covered the detail in why biltong is illegal to bring into the US.

The consequence is more interesting than the rule. Because nothing can be imported, the American biltong category had to be built from scratch by people who make it here — mostly South Africans who moved and got tired of waiting. Every brand you can name in the US is a domestic operation, ours included: dried in South Carolina by a USDA-inspected producer for an Austin brand, not shipped in from anywhere.

What to check before you order

Vinegar in the ingredients. Vinegar is the cure. Without it you're looking at a dried beef product that's borrowed the word biltong.
No sugar near the top of the ingredient list. Real biltong has no sugar at all. Sugar high on the list means you're buying jerky with a passport.
Whole muscle, not ground and formed. Whole muscle slices show grain. Ground-and-formed sticks are a different food with a similar marketing photo.
A stated dry time. Days, not hours. Anything dried in hours was dried with heat, which is the jerky method.
How recently it was made. A dry date or batch date is the single most useful thing on a package and the one most often missing. If the seller can't tell you, assume it's been a while.

Two more worth a glance: the cut, since silverside and topside are the traditional choices and the reason matters more than the romance of it — covered in the best cut of beef for biltong — and whether grass-fed is stated outright or merely suggested by the photography.

How to judge what turns up

Open the bag and look at the cut face. You want visible muscle grain, a deep dark exterior and a slightly lighter interior, and slices that bend before they snap. It should smell of vinegar and coriander, not of sweetness or smoke.

If it shatters, it's over-dried or old. If it's wet, it was cut before it finished.

For keeping it right once it arrives, storing biltong properly is mostly a matter of airflow and resisting the fridge. And if you're comparing the national names, the best biltong brands in the US covers who does what.

FAQ

Can you buy biltong in the USA?

Yes. Biltong is widely available in the United States from domestic producers online, on Amazon and other marketplaces, at warehouse clubs like Costco, at South African import shops, and in the meat snack section of many specialty grocers. All of it is produced in America.

Where to buy biltong in the USA?

Biltong in the USA is sold direct by US producers online, on Amazon and other marketplaces, at warehouse clubs such as Costco, at South African import shops, and in the meat snack aisle of specialty grocers. Direct from a producer is generally the freshest and most traceable route; marketplaces offer the widest range.

Why is importing biltong from South Africa illegal?

Import is prohibited for animal disease control. US rules restrict uncooked ruminant meat products from regions not recognized as free of foot-and-mouth disease, to protect American livestock. Biltong is air-dried rather than cooked, so it falls inside the restriction. The rule applies to personal luggage as well as commercial shipments.

Is all biltong sold in America made in America?

Yes. Because the import of South African biltong is prohibited, every biltong legally sold in the United States is domestically produced. Many US producers were founded by South Africans and use traditional recipes and spice blends, but the drying itself happens on American soil.

Where is the freshest biltong to buy?

Ordering direct from a US producer generally gives the freshest biltong, because stock turns quickly and ships when the order is placed rather than sitting in a distribution chain. Marketplace listings tend to hold the oldest inventory, since biltong is shelf-stable and shows no obvious sign of age.

What should be in real biltong?

Real biltong contains beef, vinegar, salt and spices, typically coriander, black pepper and fennel. It contains no sugar. Check that vinegar appears in the ingredients, that no sweetener sits near the top of the list, and that the product is whole muscle rather than ground and formed.

We'll be the direct route — whole-muscle beef, air-dried for days, $15 flat anywhere in the USA and free over $250 — but the store isn't open yet and nothing's shipped. Today the only thing you can buy is the $100 Founding 50 first-batch box (50 numbered spots, full refund if it never launches); The Classic and Hill Country Heat follow, and I'm at cal@btbiltong.com for anything in between.

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