your best bet is to go online to the airline site you will be flying from..they give a list of what you can and cannot board with and advice on how to pack items..I did this just this morning to find out about items.. the airlines are very good about updating their info. they also well tell you how to bring items back such as liquor etc.

I'd ship them UPS or FedEx a few days before you leave. If you plan it right, they will arrive the same day you do.

Marcia, do you not have a small hard-sided suitcase that you could bring? I prefer to travel with a backpack but would make an exception to protect my jars. You could put your backpack in the suitcase if you'll need it during the trip. If not, how about putting something hard like a cardboard box into your backpack? Then you could recycle it when you get there. If you have room to spare, you could use a lunchbox or something and then bring it home with other stuff inside. You could even buy a wine gift box that holds the jars in a vertical stack, then use it to protect your limoncello on the way home (with a t-shirt for padding).

Since you had a problem last time, I would put a note to the people who unpack the checked suitcases, explaining that you worked hard to pack your homemade goods, and last time you flew they were repacked incorrectly and one broke, so would they please help you by putting them back. You could phrase it as instructions, like "each jar goes in a sock, then all the socks go in the plastic bag, which gets wrapped in the towel". You use plastic bags pretty sparingly, right? I would make an exception, and put the socks in ziplocs just in case, to protect your luggage. They don't open all the luggage, so hopefully it won't be yours again this time.

Shampoo is considered a liquid for purposes of flying, by the way. They says liquids and gels, but some airports announce "if you can spread it, it's a liquid". I've always been prepared to defend against any lip balm found in my bag that it's clearly a wax, which is scientifically distinct from a gel, but good luck with that, luckily I've never had to. Also, fyi, they are serious about putting your carry-on liquids in a one-quart ziploc bag. In Richmond they made me get out of line and go buy a bag. At LaGuardia they gave me one and were much nicer...seems like the bigger airports are focused on looking for real terrorists while the staff at smaller airports sometimes have a chip on their shoulder and yell at anyone who was unaware of the rules.

Have a great trip!

Melissa

Seems like I am screwed either way. Reading the TSA web site in detail it says that for canned or jarred goods you can take up to a 3 oz. container with you in your carryon. Who cans in 3 oz. jars?!? That would be about 7 bites of salsa. It also says that fragile items should be in your carry on. Oddly enough you can carry a small sharp metal scissors or a small screwdriver, but evidently a jar of salsa or cinnamon pear topping is too potentially dangerous.

We have a small hard-sided case, matches the rest of our hard sided luggage, but I am not about to take it to Europe and leave it there, and I am not about to carry it all over for a month, either. We will be in 4 countries, moving around a lot, and not have a car, so there will be lots of schlepping. I think my best bet is to pack up some jars in some kind of specially designed box with some styrofoam and packing inside such that it would be hard for the security checkers to screw it up. I don't have any faith in leaving them a note, obviously the glass jars last year were in socks to pretect the glass, and they couldn't be bothered to put them back in.

As I said, I am not going to pay $30 or whatever to ship a couple jars to Europe. It cost about $8 just to go across the country with 2 jars to my niece, I can only imagine what it would cost to ship it to Europe.

Marcia

Marcia,
How about wrapping each jar in bubble wrap and putting it in a box like mentioned above? I had the same problem last year when traveling home for the holidays. Because I can mail things US mail from here, I ended up sending them mostly by flat rate box.
Melly

When I flew home for christmas last year, I packed my jars in a large cardboard box with a LOT of newspaper and bubble wrap. I wrote a note asking the tsa people to be gentle on the outside of the box, but it didn't look like it had been opened. I just threw out the box when I got home.
It's so frustrating dealing with security since individual agents can decide whether or not something is ok to carry on. Salsa's not a liquid but you just can't count on the individual tsa agent accepting that.

It sounds as though you're going to Italy. Two years ago we traveled to and from Italy. The Italian Security folks were the nicest and most accommodating to a problem we had; it was the British that gave us problems... even taking away my 95 cent, Ladybug, blunt-end scissors... I think as a sop for allowing us to keep the gift that was a problem-child. It was in Dallas, Texas, USA that our suitcases were riffled, but nothing stolen.

My point: there is a BIG difference how each country handles those "special" goodies you carry. Unless It's really important that you take these things, just save yourself the hassle and leave them at home for international trips.

I wanted to take some yummy things along as a gift for the couple we are staying with in Amsterdam a few days, dear old friends of mine. In fact they are a married couple and I introduced them to each other MANY years ago. I am going to check strawberry-banana jam in a very sturdy looking half pint jar, and carry on a quart of salsa and hope for the best. It is mainly solid, and of course I could always open it and eat some to demonstrate if necessary?!? I would rather have to fling out the salsa than have it break in my luggage. ;-)

Marcia

Marcia,

I really recommend against trying to take a glass jar as carry-on. I have had a jar of homemade jam I was taking to my elderly, ill mother-in-law confiscated. (That batch had a nice, solid set, so I tried to argue it wasn't a gel and in the plaste test hadn't spread, but the agent said even the fact of it being in a glass container made it potentially dangerous. He had the good grace to be apologetic about it, at least.)

I've shlepped across Europe car-free and budget-tight, too, and can imagine your dilemma. If it were me, I would cruise the dollar stores for a plastic box that would fit the jars, to give hard sides without adding a lot of weight. I'd pack them in it with lots of paper and a ziplock. A good buffer of wadded paper is better than clothes, though it's hard to devote the room to it, I know. But if something DOES break, paper is the best defense agains broken glass (which can slice your ziploc otherwise), AND it is more likley to be seen by the airport goons as packaging that needs to be replaced than clothing is [even though, as you say, a jar in a sock is obviously there for its protetction].

Your chances are better of your checked backpack avoiding de-packing and getting badly re-packed than of getting a glass jar of something through security and on in your carry-on.

As for brining the liquor back, maybe you can buy it at the duty-free at the departing airport? Though I have successfully brought bottles of wine home in a checked backpack, wrapped in paper and a ziplock, then wadded up in cloths & placed in the centre of the backback. If the store you buy it in can supply a sturdy box, though, so much the better....

Good luck, in any case! I love the idea of bringing some homemade goodies to your overseas friends and can see why you'd want to do it despite the hassle. Good luck and have a great trip....

Zabby

I can only attest to TSA here in the USA, but I agree with Zabby about not bringing anything in your carry-on. It's my understanding no food of any kind unless you have a baby/toddler. Anytime I've traveled (for work), I've had to wait until I got on the "other side" of security before I could buy a sandwich or water to take on the plane.

I've brought bottles of wine wrapped well in my checked bags and it has always survived. If you're just taking a couple of jars, I don't know why you couldn't do as others have suggested, bubble-wrap and baggies in your checked bags. Once you're not flying anymore you can carry it normally.

It seems the obvious answer is to pack up whatever you've canned and are taking as gifts into some sort of cardboard box (with bubble wrap, styrofoam pellets, newspaper, plastic bags -- and everything else you might need for protection) and send that through as a second piece of luggage. Once you arrive over there, merely unwrap the jars and carry them any way you want until you gift them. Toss the box and don't worry about it. And then, do the same thing in reverse when return from Europe.

You can write a note on the outside of the cardboard box informing the luggage inspectors of the contents. If they open it, they'll see very well what's inside, and hopefully rewrap and retape it securely.

Don't attempt to try and fool the TSA agents, or convince them (by tasting the canned food) that it is safe. They have their rules, and even require mothers to toss out baby bottles full of milk -- allowing only two for a flight!

Incidentally, all of those scissors, nailfiles, clippers, and pocket knives that were retrieved by TSA have been sold to others. You can find people selling lots of TSA items on eBay. I "won" two auctions -- 50 sewing scissors, and 75 nail and embroidery scissors. Most of them are in great condition, and we have a supply to last for a generation or two!

Here is a link that might be useful: Search for

Boo hoo. I'm flying home for the weekend and wanted to take small jars of apple rosehip jelly to family. I don't think I should risk it. It is too much of a gell that might look flamable. I remember back in 1995 going to Europe over the holidays with a carry on duffle filled with glass jars of preserves to give as gifts to my hosts. Sigh.

Yes just watched a tsa agent confiscate partialy frozen breast milk as most were frozen the one on top partial and thry took it! felt sorry fir the trsveling mom. i said out loud if he had to pump it hed sing a different tune!