I haven’t experienced this new phenomenon yet, but I know those that have. The TSA wants to inspect your snacks separately from your carry-on bag.
The TSA, as we all know, is a circus. It’s the bane of the frequent fliers’ existence, often adding extra time, stress, and sometimes some embarrassment to your travels. Well, now things are beginning to get worse thanks to a perfect storm of airline cutbacks and TSA’s ever-changing practices. And that’s because, as the Washington Post reports, you may now be required to remove all food items from your bag for inspection too.
Food Screening
If this hasn’t already happened to you, get ready because it might. According to the Washington Post, TSA agents at certain locations are now asking passengers to remove all food items from their bag. The reason for this change isn’t because of a policy change. Instead, it appears the change is due to a recommendation thanks to the high-tech scanners employed by the agency.
You see, these scanners are used to detect organic compounds in explosives. And, unfortunately, these scanners will often give false positives when scanning food. These false positives, in-turn, triggers a hands-on bag search, which slows down the checkpoint. As a result, TSA agents at certain airports have begun asking passengers to place their food items in a separate bin for inspection. This process is supposed to help speed up the checkpoint by reducing the need for additional screening. Or does it?
Compounding Issues
Many passengers already have to remove numerous items from their carry-on bags, including most electronics. So now, in addition to removing their electronics passengers will also need to remove their food items. That’s even more things to wrestle with at the checkpoint and will undoubtedly cause the line to slow down even more. This is especially true since most airlines no longer offer free meals and charge exorbitant prices for their mediocre buy-onboard options. And even when airlines do offer free food, it’s often not substantial enough and not something you’d want to eat. I’m looking at you, Hawaiian.
If you’re bringing back food from your travels, well then this makes things even worse. I prefer to carry my foodstuffs in my carry-on if I can, as they’re safer with me. You don’t have to worry about breakage as much, nor do you have to worry about your items being stolen. But now, the only options to travelers that do this are: save the headache and check your food, or bring it onboard and have to take them all out for inspection.
TSA Wants to Inspect Your Snacks, Final Thoughts
To me, this practice is absurd. Nowadays bringing food onboard is a common practice because airlines are cheap bastards. But the TSA will make doing this money saving (and often stomach saving) practice more difficult. And they’re making bringing food back home a nightmare. That last circumstance, though, can be made easier if the TSA would, I don’t know, figure out a way to minimize thefts from passenger bags? I consider myself lucky, as I brought over $300 worth of bourbon back from San Antonio last year and none were stolen or damaged.
Or maybe get rid of this stupid can’t-lock-your-bag policy altogether. Because even if nothing is stolen, I think there are other issues at play here too. Like why the hell is Mrs. Island Miler’s bag always opened for inspection while my bag seldom is? Are there perves that like to go through women’s’ underwear doing these inspections?
And, really. How effective are any of these checks? Do you know how many times I’ve accidentally gone through the checkpoints with my Swiss Army pocket knife? Granted I was stopped once in Honolulu, but the agent was nice about it, offering to let me throw it back into my car.
If you want to minimize the madness, though, I’d recommend you get TSA Pre-Check if you don’t already have it. Or, better yet, signup for Global Entry. It’s only $15 more and includes expedited Customs Screening in addition to Pre-Check. Even better, your Chase Sapphire Reserve will reimburse the application fee too.