Please don't touch my jerky

June 27, 2011 11:59 AM

I am flying on frontier airlines to Indianapolis in July. I won't be checking anything, just bringing a carry on bag. I was hoping to bring some vacuum sealed packs of jerky from this store with me on my carry on bag. Is this a problem? Are they going to make me open up my packages of jerky in security? I am going for a long visit and need my stuff to stay fresh so I don't want to unseal it. So basically, can I bring sealed packages of beef jerky/nuts/berries on an airplane?
posted by skjønn to Food & Drink (7 answers total)

You should be able to. They just don't want you bringing liquids through the checkpoint. Or, if you are flying in from out of the country, they have restrictions on bringing in agricultural products.
posted by elmay at 12:02 PM on June 27, 2011

I think it should be fine. Here's a link to Frontier's baggage page; if you scroll down to Food, it's a bit confusing, but it seems to say that the only restrictions come from TSA rules for liquids.
posted by cider at 12:05 PM on June 27, 2011

The only issue I've had with foods flying are things that look like liquids or jells. I got given some crap over a bag of melted gummy bears that had fused into one mass (primarily because it was open), but not over any of my sealed snacks or anything like that. They might ask you to take them out to look at it, but I doubt it.
posted by strixus at 12:17 PM on June 27, 2011

I brought Paleo Kits on the plane with me last week in my carry on without incident. You'll be fine.

On a somewhat related note, I've noticed that the most recent batches of Paleo Kits haven't had a notch cut into the plastic so it's extremely difficult to open them without a knife, which you most likely won't have on the plane. So if that's the case for you... pre-snip -- not enough to break the vacuum seal, just enough to get yourself started when you need to tear it open.
posted by telegraph at 12:19 PM on June 27, 2011 [1 favorite]

I flew with beef jerky in my carryon (and a good thing, too, since the flight ran out of food) two weeks ago out of Dulles. It was not a problem.
posted by rtha at 12:25 PM on June 27, 2011 [1 favorite]

Flying out of DFW last December, the clerk at the ticket counter admired my portable cooler. "Thanks," I told him. "It's fully of homemade tamales."

"Oh, I'm very sorry," he said, "but I can't let you take those on the plane."

I was momentarily stunned and racked my brain to come up with a plausible explanation. There'd been some security breach a couple days prior at some airport somewhere (don't remember now), so I asked if it was related to that.

"I have no idea," he said. "It's just a rule the airline faxed us about a little while ago." He then held out his hand for the cooler. Just as I was about to hand it over, it dawned on me that he was pulling my leg and all he really wanted was my tamales.

Having carried foil-wrapped, handmade tamales through security without a second glance, I can assure you that vacuum-packed jerky will not present any troubles.
posted by mudpuppie at 1:05 PM on June 27, 2011 [2 favorites]

I suppose there is a remote chance of a nitrates/nitrites setting off chemical sniffers or sniffer dogs, since both substances are both used as preservatives and sodium nitrate is an ingredient in explosives. Googled around and couldn't find anything definitive on this. I did take some bacon in a ziploc bag through last week to my flight... no problems, so who knows. Food in general though is not a big deal.
posted by crapmatic at 2:07 PM on June 27, 2011