Turkey On A Plane? TSA Offers Thanksgiving Food Transport Tips

PITTSBURGH, PA — If you are one of the 18.3 million people the Transportation Security Administration expects to screen this week at the nation's airports, you might be taking a family favorite food item to take to the holiday table.

If so, the TSA has some food for thought: If you're packing a solid food item, it can go through a security checkpoint. But if you can spill it, spread it, spray it, pump it or pour it, and it’s larger than 3.4 ounces, it should go in a checked bag.

Additionally, food items often need additional security screening, so it is best to place those items in an easily accessible location of the carry-on when packing them and then removing those items from your bag and placing them in a bin for screening at the checkpoint.

Thanksgiving foods that can be carried through a TSA checkpoint:

• Baked goods. Homemade or store-bought pies, cakes, cookies, brownies and other sweet treats.
• Meats. Turkey, chicken, ham, steak. Frozen, cooked or uncooked.
• Stuffing. Cooked, uncooked, in a box or in a bag.
• Casseroles. Traditional green beans and onion straws or something more exotic.
• Mac ‘n Cheese. Cooked in a pan or traveling with the ingredients to cook it at your destination.
• Fresh vegetables. Potatoes, yams, broccoli, green beans, Brussels sprouts, cauliflower, beets, radishes, carrots, squash, greens.
• Fresh fruit. Apples, pears, pineapple, lemons, limes, cranberries, blueberries, strawberries, bananas, kiwi.
• Candy.
• Spices.

Thanksgiving foods that should be carefully packed with your checked baggage

• Cranberry sauce. Homemade or canned are spreadable, so check them.
• Gravy. Homemade or in a jar/can.
• Wine, champagne, sparking apple cider.
• Canned fruit or vegetables. It’s got liquid in the can, so check them.
• Preserves, jams and jellies. They are spreadable, so best to check them.
• Maple syrup.