They look no different from any other transatlantic passengers as they walk through into departures or enjoy a final drink at the airport bar. Perhaps they seem a little nervous and maybe their hand luggage looks a bit heavy, but otherwise there is nothing to mark them out as haggis smugglers.

But today, on the 249th anniversary of the birth of Robert Burns, an unprecedented number of otherwise respectable Scots and Americans will try to circumvent a US ban on British offal products so that they can celebrate Burns Night as it is meant to be: in the company of the “great chieftain o’ the puddin’-race”.

Growing interest in Scottish culture has prompted a surge in the numbers attending Burns suppers across the US. Record amounts of genuine haggis – complete with sheep’s lungs, heart, liver and stomach lining – are expected to make it past eagle-eyed Customs officials and sniffer dogs trained to pick out meat.

Anecdotal evidence suggests that many have already arrived in passenger luggage and that scores more were last night en route through the mail.

Background

• Haggis with clapshot

• Haggis Lasagne

• Haggis with Drambuie cream

Seasonal Food: January

Because seasonal food is fresher it tends to be tastier and more nutritious. Find recipes from Gordon Ramsay, Jamie Oliver and others

• Shades of green food

• Midwinter greens

Related Internet Links

• Real Food Directory

• Organic Box Finder

Related Links

• Lady Claire McDonald

• Scotland's west coast wonders

• Bonny fare for Burns Night

Erlinda Byrd, a spokeswoman for US Customs and Border Protection (CBP), cautioned: “We take this very seriously. If it is found, it is confiscated and destroyed.”

In a country where meat usually means steak, the idea of eating proper haggis is still too much for many to stomach. Ms Byrd added: “One thing I am absolutely sure about is that our officers don’t eat it.”

The US Department of Agriculture (USDA), which has banned haggis since the first BSE crisis in Britain in 1989, said: “USDA and CBP are aware of country-specific holidays and are on heightened awareness for products that may be smuggled in during those times.” Each day there are about 4,300 seizures of prohibited meat or plants at American ports of entry.

Although the Department of Agriculture does not have numbers for haggis smugglers intercepted, it said that seizures had been from passengers, with “no commerical smuggling incidents”.

Haggis smugglers caught in the act face a fine of up to $1,000 and the prospect of having their name “flagged” for special attention by Customs officers on future visits.

Nonetheless, reports suggest that the number of Americans and Scots prepared to take the risk is rising.

One Scot based in New York said last night that her “package” had finally arrived after 12 hours of anxiously monitoring its progress using a tracker number on a courier firm website.

She said: “It looks great, but it stinks a bit.”

At the other end of the haggis run, an Edinburgh-based butcher confessed his secret life as a haggis smuggler. Speaking from the office above his shop, on condition of anonymity, he said: “I took a couple of canned haggis over a few years ago, but even that’s illegal. I put them in my suitcase – along with three bottles of whisky – and crossed my fingers. I was fine.”

Fraser MacGregor, co-owner of Cockburn’s of Dingwall, a butcher renowned for its haggis, said that an increasing number of Americans were buying haggis with the open intention of smuggling it back to the US.

He said: “In the past six months we have had about 100 or so coming in and saying, ‘We’re going to take this home’. We tell them it’s their risk, though some ask for advice on how to look after it while they’re travelling.”

Before 1989 imports of haggis were permitted, but even then it was not allowed to contain lung, which was deemed unfit for human consumption by the Government in the early 1970s.

Instead, tens of thousands will celebrate Burns Night tonight with American-made haggis without the “pluck” – sheep’s heart, liver and lungs.

Nutty heart of a nation

— Haggis, known as Scotland’s national dish, is made from the heart, liver and lungs of a sheep and boiled in the animal’s stomach for three hours or until “warm-reekin”

— As the English edition of the Larousse Gastronomique, the cookery encyclopaedia, puts it: “Although its description is not immediately appealing, haggis has an excellent nutty texture and delicious savoury flavour”

— Haggis has been synonymous with Robert Burns ever since the bard wrote his Address to a Haggis, published in the Caledonian Mercury in December 1786 The first recorded Burns Supper was held in 1801, five years after Burns’s death, when nine of his friends sat down to toast him and recite his famous poem before eating haggis By tradition, the dish should be served with “tatties and neeps”, and a dram or two of whisky after it is paraded into the room with a piper

— During the third verse of Address to a Haggis, the person reciting the poem cuts open the haggis, releasing a puff of steam

— Macsween of Edinburgh, the haggis maker, produces about 300 tonnes – nearly half its annual output – in the three weeks before Burns Night on January 25

Explore Food & Drink

• Gordon Ramsay

• Heston Blumenthal

• Recipes

• Wine

• Real Food

• Anjum Anand

• Eating Out

• Video Recipes

Times Recommends

• How to season a wok
• Chicago Rib Shack hits back at its critics
• Gordon Ramsay: Indian barbecue