The TSA has a virtual encyclopedia of things you can and can’t bring with you when you go through the security checkpoint. Most things make perfect sense and they’re virtually all in the name of safety. Guns and ammo are a no-no, as are axes, hatchets, and baseball bats. Waffle irons are fine, as are radios and selfie sticks.
What You Can (and Can’t) Bring
And then there are the things you can bring, albeit with some caveats. You can bring unused syringes with you, but you have to declare them to the security officers. Utensils are fine, but knives must be plastic or a round-bladed butter knife. You can even bring a screwdriver but it has to be under 7 inches long.
Food items may or may not have their own rules.. Any sort of powder, including protein powder, is limited to 12 ounces (here’s why). Most liquids are limited to 3.4 ounces or smaller, unless it’s breast milk or for the use of toddlers, and you can bring those (but make the TSA officer aware). Fresh fruit is fine for domestic flights…but if you’re flying from Hawaii, Puerto Rico, or the U.S. Virgin Islands to the U.S. mainland cannot take most fresh fruits and vegetables due to the risk of spreading invasive plant pests.
And then there’s cheese
Of course, if you’re bringing soft cheese that can be spread (i.e. cream cheese, boursin cheese, cottage cheese, etc.), you’d be limited to the 3.4 ounce rule and it’d have to be in your 1 quart bag.
But you’d think that hard cheese – say, a chunk of cheddar or a wheel of provolone, would be fine, right? You don’t want it melting in the belly of the plane, but surely it’ll be OK in your carry-on, right?
Well, maybe.
Apparently, depending on its size, solid cheese can cause even more issues when it goes through the scanner, because of its density. The density of certain cheeses, under certain conditions, makes them look like a certain type of explosive that the TSA officers are trained to look for when they’re surveying what comes up on their screen. And if they think they’re potentially looking at explosives, you KNOW you’re going to be delayed. They’re going to want to go through your bag and there’s a good chance they’re going to want to swab your hands, too, to ensure there isn’t any explosive residue on them (here’s more info on how to avoid a false positive when being swabbed).
And chocolate, too
You don’t really have to worry so much about that Hershey bar in your bag. But if you have a chunk of chocolate (like a brick that you’d use for melting), its density can make it look similar to explosives on the TSA’s scanner screens.
Be prepared
TSA technically allows both cheese and chocolate to go through the scanner – they’re not illegal in any way and you’re definitely allowed to have them with you. But IF you do have either or both with you, you may want to keep them towards the top of your bag, so IF they pull you out of line to search your bag, they’ll find what you’re looking for sooner rather than later.
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