Flying with frozen foods?

[Violet Parr]

Considering this for our FW cabin portion of our trip. I know I can have groceries delivered, but I don't really want to cook. (We eat a lot from scratch.) I was thinking of making my soup, pasta sauce, etc and freezing them and then simply reheating them instead of having to cook them. I'm also considering a wine airline case with our own wine/champagne (running Dopey, so we want to celebrate after) as it seems way cheaper than buying there (or having delivery.) Garden Grocer's prices just seem outrageous to me.

Thoughts? Is this insane?

VP

 

[Violet Parr]

FWIW, this would be just for a few meals. We have the dining plan, but three of us are running races and want to eat familiar foods the dinners/breakfasts before those races so as not to upset stomachs, etc. So maybe just a pasta sauce, a soup, and one or two other premade/frozen things. I'm just wondering if it is a huge pain to fly with food/freezer packs, etc. and if anyone has done it before.

VP

 

[tvguy]

I am assuming you are going to check them as baggage?

The liquid would not be allowed in the cabin. And I suspect your baggage will get a close inspection from TSA because of how the frozen food looks on the xray machine in the baggage screening areas.

 

[katie111]

We've done it before when we went to St John as food there is so expensive. We had a small rolling cooler. We brought a lot of meats and wrapped them in newspaper & the froze them. We then place everything in the cooler and brought it as a carryon. No liquids so no problems at all with security and everything was still frozen when we arrived..

 

[wendow]

I had breast milk shipped to me for months years ago. After days in transit, it was still frozen when it arrived so I assume a day of traveling would be fine. Wrap each item individually in newspaper with newspaper in between. I'd use a cooler if possible but the key is to have no open air space. Anywhere there is space left, pack in newspaper.

Your enemy will be if TSA decides to rummage through your bag and messes up the packing.

 

[Eureka]

My parents flew with a frozen cornbread in their carryon for Thanksgiving and it was flagged for closer inspection. It ended up being fine but it was a solid, not a frozen liquid.

 

[TwoMisfits]

I probably wouldn't - frozen liquids have the possibility of being tossed, destroyed by TSA, smashed by baggage splattering everywhere, or melted and ruined. Rather than Garden Grocer, I might look into Uber and/or another grocery service...

 

[adamak]

You'll have to ship on checked luggage obviously. I've checked frozen veggies, dry meat. Red wine in wine case + ziplock + bubble wrap, just in case. And they arrive frozen in winter and slightly defrost in summer. I would not take frozen non-liquid food as carry on though. Some TSA agent will trash it (or they want to take them home themselves).

 

[tvguy]

From the source:
https://apps.tsa.dhs.gov/mytsa/cib_results.aspx?search=frozen food packed in dry ice

A friend has a sister in Florida who is addicted to Tillamook Cheese. It is apparently not available in Florida. Every time she flys, she has it in her checked baggage. And everytime she finds a note in her bag that TSA inspected the bag.

 

[tasha99]

You'll just look like an Alaskan flying down (on the way up, the cooler full of fish and meat is filled with produce).

There is a limit on how much dry ice you can have, and at least a few years ago, it needed to be marked. I took my fish in carry on--and spent a little time with TSA who thought I had too much dry ice, but I didn't). Not sure you could bring sauces in carry on, as they're a liquid (though maybe if they're frozen solid? Idk)

 

[ksh1111]

yes, we have done it several times (life threatening food allergies). Easier to check, if you try to carry on it can be thrown out if your freezer packs are starting to thaw. It will trigger TSA inspection, but I don't care if they check my bags!

 

[Violet Parr]

Definitely planning on having it in checked bags! And we live on Tillamook cheese! Guess we'll have to take some with us!