Snacks and security

FYI -- This does not apply to anyone who has TSA PreCheck clearance.

While the NYT reporter did not include the exemption in the above article, ABC News did report the TSA Precheck exemption when it reported the same story several weeks ago back in May.

The change will not apply to PreCheck passengers, only to those in
standard security lines.

From my own experience on TSA PreCheck lines, I've never been asked to separate any snacks/meals I've brought with me into a separate gray bin.

Good to know -- put snacks in a Ziploc at the top of the carry-on in case they need to be pulled out for screening. Much easier than digging through the whole bag for random items (and, as an added benefit, easier to make sure there's no forgotten foodstuffs festering hidden in your bag.)
I would question the pudding cups, though -- I was once required to "eat or throw out" some yogurt I had grabbed from the hotel breakfast bar because it was considered in the liquid-or-gel category.

Pudding/yoghurts are considered liquids. Eat them while you're waiting on the security line so they don't go to waste. They would have been confiscated even before foods were separated into separate bins. I've had yoghurt cups taken from me at security at Amsterdam Schiphol so it's not just in the US.

This is the kind of thing that drives me nuts (pardon the pun), and definitely parallels what I found this spring when traveling in the U.S.:

Some fliers have been tipped off by their family and friends about T.S.A.’s food request and are, in fact, going into the security process prepared. Carter Wilcox flew out of Kennedy Airport last weekend to Savannah, Ga. with her young twin sons. Her mother-in-law had recently been delayed almost 20 minutes at airport security because she couldn’t find the packet of Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups in her carry-on. Upon hearing her story, Ms. Wilcox had put her family’s lunches and snacks in a separate bag.

“I was ready, and asked the T.S.A. agent if I should put my food in its own bin,” she said. “She told me ‘no’ and asked me why in the world would I have to do that?”

When the agents don't seem to have the same information from airport to airport!! I understand from this article that it is discretionary -- but when the agents aren't even aware of something that agents at another airport insisted on, I feel like I am going crazy.

when the agents aren't even aware of something that agents at another airport insisted on, I feel like I am going crazy.

Don't worry; it's not you. It's just Security Theater.
In May, when flying out of Lyon, my wife's large handbag got searched at security. It had about 25 goat cheeses in it, and either they looked like they could be something else, or they were unrecognizable, or they were blocking the x-ray from showing what was in the rest of the bag. In any event, the woman doing the search was very pleasant, and it didn't take very long.

Thanks for the heads up. We leave tomorrow. I carry a few snacks so they are now in a seperate baggie, just in case.

25 goat cheese in her handbag! Do tell—what’s the story behind that?

Just be flexible. Different agents have different instructions. Follow instructions and make it easy for yourself.

In Oakland, CA, recently there was some sort of security issue. The check-in line waited, and waited while a sniffer dog did its work. Meanwhile, the pre-cleared passengers zipped on thru security. When regular passengers were finally allowed to proceed, the instructions to agents must have been to relax all rules. Belongings were whisked thru without much scrutiny. Passengers were whisked thru with very little scrutiny. Apparently they just wanted to get people thru and to their flights without too much ado.

This happened to me in the Charleston SC airport in April. The TSA agent inspected the entire surface area of my power bar and my apple, and even wrote notes in her clipboard. It was bizarre to say the least. This was the first time I experienced a full blown snack inspection. I thought she was going to make me throw them out, at which point I it would have gotten ugly :-). Security theater indeed. Totally inconsistent application across different airports.

So if the sniffer dog found the 25 goat cheeses...

We have learned to separate our snacks, food items what we go through screening at our home airport in Spokane because they screen food items. As a matter of fact, having pre-check at that airport is almost useless, as they make you take out our laptop and your quart bag with liquids. Meanwhile, I just went through screening with pre-check at the Phoenix airport. No separate screening of food, no removing of laptops or electronics, no removal of quart bag with liquids. I had my food separated, and, when I informed the TSA agent that I had food and asked if it needed special screening, he looked at me as if I were crazy. Said as long as it was not a liquid, it didn't matter. Funny how the smaller airport has tighter screening. Go figure...

25 goat cheese in her handbag! Do tell—what’s the story behind that?

We bought them in the Isere and Savoie and were bringing them home to eat. Most of them were small. They were finished in less than 2 weeks. Now we have to wait until our next trip to France to get such good cheese.

The TSA agent inspected the entire surface area of my power bar and my apple, and even wrote notes in her clipboard. It was bizarre to say the least.

Definitely bizarre. In our case, with the goat cheeses, once they were seen, it was clear what they were (after all, this was in France), and there was no need to inspect them. I can't imagine what they were doing with the power bar and the apple.

Terri! I have had the same experience in the Lewiston ID airport. When I flew in May I stopped at the grocery store on the way to the airport to pick up a package of bagels. Three of us traveling are vegan and even ordering veg/no dairy meals doesn't guarantee you'll get something to eat so I bring my own. Anyway, Yep, I got pulled for enhanced screening including the little pad being run over the sleeve of bagels to check for explosives.

I also had 3 zip lock bags that included bars and nuts for little goodie bags I was doing for my traveling companions. The TSA agent did not check those. Nor did they check the foil packets of Justin's Chocolate Hazelnut butter I had in my carry-on 3-1-1.

Incidentally, the woman ahead of me had a tupperware container of home-made cookies in her carryon, taking them to grand kids. It got pulled for screening as well. No explosives found there either.

Both of us are women on the other side of 65, gray hair, and both buy our clothes on the pudge side of Christopher and Banks. Hahaha.

BTW, I DO have TSA pre-clearance. I have Global Entry but even before I had that I always got TSA pre-check on my Delta boarding pass.

I ran into this issue at LAX in January and reported it here as I thought it was so frustrating. At LAX they did not care that TSA Precheck was printed on my boarding pass. They made me pull out each and every tiny snack I had collected during our travels. But then I flew in and out of LAX numerous times between March and May and never encountered it again so who knows. All flights were Alaska Air.

I flew out of MSP on June 30, and was prepared with my snacks in a separate bag. I put that bag, and liquids bag into a bin with my purse. The TSA was more concerned that all of my electronics were in one bin. Coming home from SEA-TAC, I had TSA precheck. However, my carry on was pulled aside and checked. I had put a candle in a jar in it, because I didn't want it to get broken in the checked luggage. I didn't even think about the fact that it could look like an explosive. Duh!