It’s a widely-known fact that the Thanksgiving holiday is one of the busiest travel days of the year, pandemic or not. After the wide rollout of vaccines, including booster shots, I’m guessing we’ll see a pretty significant uptick in air travelers criss-crossing the skies.
With holiday travel, you know that people will be lugging around food like “Grandma’s famous 23 cheese macaroni.” But there’s restrictions on stuff you can bring on an airplane, due to various reasons, so in order to avoid having your cranberry sauce trashed by security, we learned what’ll fly, and what won’t. I can’t even imagine the look on peoples faces when they watch their secret recipe gravy tossed into the trash, so let’s prevent that, shall we?
What types of Thanksgiving food can you bring on an airplane?
A press release from travel site Next Vacay gave us some insight on how this works. The travel experts there informed us that most food can be brought through TSA checkpoints, but some stuff does have to be put in checked luggage.
- Yes, mac and cheese is okay.
- Baked goods
- Casseroles
- Fresh fruit and veggies
- Stuffing, cooked or uncooked, in a bag or box
- Any kind of meat, frozen, uncooked, cooked
- Candy
- Spices
Notice that these are all solid goods, no liquids or gels.
Okay, then what types of food should be packed in checked luggage?
TSA rules for liquid-based items are much more strict, especially when it comes to liquids. If you’ve tried passing a TSA checkpoint with a bottle of water, you’ve probably had to chug the entire thing before crossing the threshold, to avoid a grouchy look from the security agent. So that being said, anything more sauce-like or liquid needs to be tucked into your checked bags.
- Syrups (like maple syrup and the like)
- Jams, jelly, and preserves
- Any type of gravy
- Cranberry sauce
- Canned fruit or veggies
- Booze
Basically, just remember that anything over 3.4 ounces needs to be packed away. And no knives. You know the drill. Armed with this knowledge, feel free to bring your home cooking back to your family’s house, just follow the rules and you’ll be just fine.