The TSA website didn’t mention food, nor did any other sites brought up by a quick search.
Here’s why I ask: a local talk-radio host on Friday was talking about America West’s plan to start selling food on flights (he was pretty livid about it, BTW). I called him and gently reminded him that a plane isn’t like a movie theater-- you’re allowed to bring your own food on board. (I know you’re allowed to bring your own food own board the plane because the ticket agent at St. Louis said it was perfectly OK when I asked about it when I went to WDW a coupla months ago.)
Host said that you can bring it on the plane because you’ve bought it at the airport. I countered that the airlines could care less where you bought the food because they have no financial interest in the airport’s concessions. No no no, sez the host. You’re not allowed to take food past security check-in, becuase [get this] how do they know that peanut butter in your sandwich isn’t really plastic explosives?! I suggested that he was reaching, and the host said “thankyouforyourcall” and cut me off.
So, after all that set-up, what’s the scoop? Are you allowed to bring food through airport security or no?
IANA Airport security expert/guard or employee, but speaking from my own personal experience, I have brought food on to aircraft every time I have flown. I don’t really like the food they serve in-flight so I always pack some candy, nuts and some cans of soda and I have never been challenged.
I don’t know what they would say if you tried walking through with a sandwich/open bag of chips/open soda can in your hand though.
It was about 8 years ago but my wife and I brought a picnic with us on a Southwest Airlines flight. Sandwiches, chips, potato salad and soda pop. The stewardess couldn’t have cared less and all the passengers around us were jealous. With the hightened security today, it could be a different story. As they always say, call the airlines first for comfirmation.
Um, if they didn’t allow outside food on a plane then what was the deal with the kids who had to drink his science experiment or the woman who had to drink breastmilk to prove it wasn’t poison/explosives/whatever? If they are concerned, they will just ask you to take a bite.
I have travelled extensively to and from the Middle East, in my experience the airline personal could care less about food/non alcholic drink being brought on board. All those toddler- moms bring snacks galore and no one has been challenged. I always bring 1.5 ltr water and assorted snacks.
I usually have some food with me when boarding a plane, and on one occasion I was asked to pass a partly-eaten McDonald’s ice-cream sundae (with butterscotch sauce) through the x-ray machine in Glasgow airport. The security guys thought it was pretty funny.
The only time you wouldn’t be able to take food on board (in fact it’s more a matter of not being able to take it off at your destination) is if you’re going into a different quarantine zone. Eg I can’t take fruit and veges of an aircraft if I travel from Australia’s Northern Territory to Western Australia, I have to place it into the quarantine bins provided. If there is no quarantine issue then there should be no problems.
Call the airline(s) you are going to fly and ask. Be sure to get the name/location of the airline personnel you spoke with because I’m betting you’re gonna be challenged at checkin, security, the gate and/or aboard the aircraft.
Call the departing airport and ask. Be sure to get the name/location of the airline personnel you spoke with because I’m betting you’re gonna be challenged at checkin, security, the gate and/or aboard the aircraft.
I’ve brought all sorts of food on all sorts of flights, domestic and international, before and after 9/11. The only time anyone even mentioned it was when I had coffee in my own stainless-steel insulated mug, and then they just asked me to take a sip and carry it through the X-ray.
As far as quarantine: IME you just have to get rid of any quarantinable items before you reach your destination. Nobody will care until you’re going through Customs on the other end. (And sometimes not even then, especially if it’s commercially packaged food. I did have a nice chat about my home-baked Toll House cookies in French Customs once, though; always fun in my painful French on no sleep. I just explained that they were for my French hosts, and that I’d baked them myself, and they let me through, Ziploc baggies and all. I think they were just disappointed that I didn’t offer to share.)
If you’re that worried, just put your food in something leakproof and/or unsquishable, and stick it in your carryon. Nobody is going to care.
I go through security at least three times a week, and food is no problem. Don’t walk up to the screener with a watermelon under your arm and you’ll be fine. I frequently bring food from outside the airport (usually subs from a Wawa when I have a Philly layover!) onto the airplane, and I never have a problem. Either pack it into your carry-on or have it in a bag that you can throw into one of those little plastic containers and have it x-rayed. The only problem is with drinks (as previously mentioned - if you really MUST have Red Bull, don’t open the can until you’re on the plane).
As long as you’re not packing knives in your PBJ no one cares.
I fly a bunch (50+ times per year)
Food is OK. In fact United has quit serving meals on many flights except in First Class so you had better or it might be a while before you can eat.
Drinks are OK when they are sealed.
Many airport concession stands have signs that say that it is OK to bring their food onto the airplane.
Again the airline doesn’t care where the food came from.
I fly a few times a month, always out of Portland, OR or Sea-Tac, and it seems like a toss-up if they’ll allow me to have my food with me or not. I always have a styrofoam coffee cup with me; typically they have me sip it at the security gates, but every so often they make me pitch it out. I’ve run lunch bags with sandwiches and fruit through security, and they’ve only taken away an apple from the bag once (but I have no idea why and was in too big a hurry to fuss about it.) Oddly, later on that flight I dug into my purse to find something and discovered a pair of scissors they missed while investigating my apple at the screening area…
The security screener at Pittsburgh airport made me throw out my Cinnabon leftovers last week.
[sub]Ask me how mad I was about that one. I bet he dug it out of the trash a la Quizno’s commercials and finished it himself. The bastard.[/sub]
Notice the quote above said “most” United flights would not have meal service. Most majors have decided that three hours or more confined to our jets merits foodstuffs…if your flight is long, you will probably get fed on it.
Once again with the plastic explosives thing…I don’t know how many people try to carry a cake on board as their personal meal, but it must be very small. If you really want your grandson to get his cake all nice and neat, then bake the damn thing when you get there! An oven is an oven!
The only problem I can see is a grandma trying to fly from Seattle to New York using only her grandson’s cake as sustenance. If an old lady begins pawing at a cake to maintain consciousness on your flight, offer her a piece of cheese or something. Either that or throw her to the ground because she is a terrorist…sheesh.
If your ticket says you get a meal, you will get a meal. It may resemble the brownbag lunch you got in elementary school, but it meets the technical definition of a meal. If you are unsure, please call the reservations desk…cash-strapped airlines LOVE to get calls from people based on information they read on the internet! If you call frequently enough you may even be able to drive your own ticket price up!
Well… American has gotten very, very cheap since 9-11. I’ve not had more than a soda-pop and bag of pretzels from them since then. Even when they hadn’t a full meal service, they had the grab bag lunches. What really burns me is that drinks in the main cabin are no longer free on international flights!
In any case, in most airports I know, they sell food behind security, and I take it on-board routinely now.
When we flew back via Dallas on new year’s eve, we confessed at customs to having some Mexican carnita sandwiches that we didn’t finish. The nice customs agent said, good, we saved $200 by telling him that (I’d already filled out the declaration thinking we’d finish the sandwiches), and they incinerated our lunch! Admittedly not an airline or security issue, but airline-travel-related.
If you call frequently enough you may even be able to drive your own ticket price up!