Food on the Plane?

[Mousefanz]

I recall around the holidays that the TSA had an advisory about packing food for airline travel. They strongly advised against it as, for reasons they didn't explain, it triggered alarms.
I checked their site and don't see anything anymore. Has anyone flown to Florida with food in their luggage? We usually pack micro popcorn, boxes of mac and cheese, PB&J, S&P, etc.
Any problems? It's such a money saver, I'd hate to find I couldn't do it this trip.

TIA,
Sheryl

 

[Chuck S]

Probably some of the packaging set off sensors, like the foil packet in the Mac & Cheese mixes. If you'll have a rental car, or use a towncar with a grocery stop, I'd just buy the stuff in FL. Publix in Kissimee has good prices, there is also a Wal-mart somewhere (I'm not a Wal-mart shopper )

 

[yasuern]

This past December we went to WDW and had 1 very large suitcase full of food -

Cereals & cereal bars
Microwave mac & cheese
tuna fish
Micro popcorn
peanut butter
crackers
handi-snacks
non refrigd pudding cups
and some other stuff - made it just fine no problems -

 

[Doctor P]

They have never prohibited the items, but rather highly recommended against packing them in your luggage. Cheese and chocolate products, among other things, trigger the dogs and other screening devices to give a false positive for explosives.

 

[wdwstar]

we just got back in feb. from wdw and we always buy candy from all the counrties in epcot, well when we got home there was a little note inside our suitecase telling us that our suitecase was search because of the food, and when carrying , they gave a list of items, the suitecase will be search and they are not responsible for any loss or damage, that might accur. now when we were on our trip down, i brought snacks for the plane ride, kept them in my carry on, had no problem, peanuts are not enough for my kids, or me. there is a winne dixie, and a walmart not to far, you follow the road out of the market place like your going to goodings($$$$) or crossroad plaza, instead of driving straight into the plaza take a left, 10 min. is the win dix, or instead of the straight or left, go right and 15 min is the walmart.
and dont forget if you your going to pack the food in a suitecase, your also taking a chance of it getting crushed, unless you bring it on in a carry on, your aloud 2 per person, and your purse counts as 1.

 

[DebbieB]

How about boxing it up and shipping it to your resort? Then you'll have a box if you want to ship stuff back at the end of your trip (if you go overboard on souveniers ). I was on a trip with 3 friends last month and 2 of them bought alot of big stuff. We went to a mailboxes etc by the Premium Outlet and they shipped their stuff. They charged $20 alone for the packing materials. I heard Disney will ship from your resort if you provide a box.

 

[sgtdisney]

As Dr. P has mentioned, bringing food is not, nor has it ever been prohibited. The TSA has strongly recommended not bringing it because the more dense food items set off false positives in the bomb detection machines that they use and therefore they have to open your luggage and hand search it. If you don't mind them opening the luggage with your food in it and searching it by hand, there will be no issue. I have heard that Peanut Butter will definately set off the machine as well as dense items like fruit cakes (does anyone still eat those) and other similar foods. The other thing to remember is most of the major carriers are charging now if your luggage goes over 50lbs (including the suitcase) and dense food items can add weight and bulk to your luggage very quickly.

 

[GAIL HAYDEN]

I brought some food items down with me and many more on the way back. Two of our bags were checked (nothing came up missing), there is no prohibition about it and since I dislike waste, I brought it home.
SWA allows 75# per bag and one of mine was clearly over that, but, the sky cap just ran it through with a "heavy" tag on it.

 

[LisaR]

I was worried about this for our trip in late January. My kids drink a special milk that is hard to always find in Orlando. So, I went ahead and packed their milk in a suitcase. The only other thing in that bag was their Nebulizer. We had other suitcases filled with clothes and toiletries. On the way down, the bag with the milk and Nebulizer was searched. It had a note saying they had gone through the bag. It was a form letter so it didn't say the reason that bag was picked. None of our other luggage was searched.

On the way home, I had one left over milk, the Nebulizer and a few boxes of unopened snacks all in one bag. Plus, I stuffed a few other bags of snacks in with our regular luggage. Not one single bag was searched! In my opinion, the bag with the Nebulizer should have been searched. I would think that would be suspicious on their x-ray machines. Guess not! The point is, I think they just randomly search every few bags. JMO

Lisa

 

[Mousefanz]

Thanks everyone for your replies, advice and suggestions.

I think we'll do more shopping than bringing this trip, I can think of worse things! lol

See ya at the pool,
Sheryl

 

[queenof4hearts]

sgtdisney,

I thought that was funny about the fruitcakes! My mom made a very pretty fruitcake this year. I asked her the who is going to eat it?? They are pretty, but yuck!!

We brought a large suitcases jam packed with all sorts of food this past Feb. and had no problem. I would definately do this again.