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Comment by kevviiinn | Hacker News Reader

Hey just bring your own food! Oh wait, I guess you can't thanks to security theatre. Guess you'll starve or fork over $15 for a shitty sandwich

Too bad we can't have nice trains. I mean Amtrak is okay but it doesn't even compare to the rail systems in other countries. Guess we're stuck polluting too. Thanks, Elon

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Food is not forbidden. I passed security gates with food multiple times on multiple airports - still sealed food like peanuts or candy bars, but also homemade sandwiches.

Drinks are the problem, but water is not that expensive, and some airports have drinkable water for free near toilets.

And in the toilets.

I’ve never been denied bringing food through security for US domestic flights. Do other areas prohibit that?

Iirc it has to be sealed and new to get past security as long as they notice it, but I may be misremembering. I've never been able to bring food or drinks

I've definitely put an entire pizza in a box through the scanner before and had no questions or pushback. If anything I've had more questions when I've flown with packaged food.

Foods I've flown with:

Apples

Two sub sandwiches

100 fresh tortillas

An entire 20lb uncooked brisket

3 loaves of bread

A frozen 8lb pork roast

I'm pretty surprised they're ok with frozen stuff, but yea, never had any issues bringing entire bags full of food, raw or prepared, packaged or not.

Hard cheese has always given me problems. The density matches that of a solid explosive like C4 on their x-ray. So I always plan for a secondary screening with a full unpacking and swab down of my bag if I’m bringing back a block of special cheese.

Yea, I've sometimes had them swab it, but that's pretty quick and not usually a big deal.

Yet my baby formula was tossed by TSA. Turns out baby formula is not a thing sold at airports either. Then again this was in a state hostile to born children, so I wasn't too surprised.

That is incredibly shitty. How do they expect people to feed their babies? Or do they expect babies to starve?

To be fair these were larger than the permitted size but according to the TSA website formula is exempt from the limit. But, I wasn't going to argue with the agent.

> they’re ok with frozen stuff

You can’t take a big jug of water through security unless it’s frozen because the rule prohibits liquids, not solids.

This list is hysterical.

Yeah, that is all false. You can bring food. The only restriction is on liquids. I have taken a chipotle burrito through (covered with sauce and guacamole, wrapped in aluminum foil) without issue. I have taken pizzas, sandwiches, and hamburgers. You are even explicitly allowed to take solid water through airport security.

I've never had problems bringing food, but drinks are banned as part of the liquids ban of security theater

Only drinks are secured. Not food. And water is free at airport and airplane.

What??? I bring burgers, sushi, homemade sandwiches, anything except soup is fair game. Just put it in a backpack or something.

And this is flying through hundreds of airports, not just major coastal ones...

Even soup would probably be possible if you had a dehydrated “just add water” version that was solid at the time of crossing the security checkpoint, and in airports with free water refill stations (or potable bathroom tap water) inside the security perimeter you wouldn’t even have to pay for water.

This idea would work best for soups that are good to eat cold, of course, but those do exist.

I once flew back with an entire brisket from Franklin BBQ in Austin. They were a bit worried about it because it looked completely opaque, but they let it theough.

I always bring a couple of burritos. No problem.

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