Are you the one who likes tasty food full of flavors? Sometimes, while traveling you can’t get the foodstuff that makes your mouth full of delicious piquant taste. Hotel kitchens or restaurants out of the hometown can’t appetize you the way your kitchen does.
In such situations, packing up some spices to make the food flavorsome is a great option. But can you bring spices on a plane? Spices can be in a paste, powder or solid form so all of these categories must have different rules to pack in hand luggage.
Let’s dive into the details altogether.
Can you bring spices on a plane?
TSA allows you to pack powdered or paste form spices in a carry-on without any restriction. The paste spices have to follow the TSA liquid rule that says you can only carry 3.4oz or 100ml of spices in your bag.
For ground or dried spices, you can pack as much as your luggage allows. If you have a spice jar of more than 12 oz or 340gm, remove it from the bag for extra screening.
What does the TSA have to say about it?
Mostly the TSA and the airlines don’t restrict the spices in hand luggage. You just have to remove the larger jar as they become obstacles in the X-ray images so security officers can’t detect the items clearly. Screening them separately makes screening easy for the officers.
TSA also suggests the passenger pack the big jars of spices in checked luggage instead of carry-on. So that you don’t need to wait at the checkpoint for the screening process.
Randy asked the TSA about his spice jars to which the TSA gave him the following reply.
Can you bring spices on international flights?
Before boarding on international flights checks the customs rules of your destination. Every airline has different rules for imported food items. Food or spices with whole seeds are not allowed to be packed either in hand or checked luggage.
Before packing any spice seed, check the airline’s restrictions, especially if you are traveling back to the US. As they don’t allow seeds that are not native to the country because of biological devastation.
Here TSA shows greenlight to Mezzy when he asked about chili powder in hand luggage.
Chris asked about dry rub. Let’s see what TSA replied
Can you bring paste spices on a plane?
You can take paste spices in your carry-on but you have to follow the 3-1-1 liquid rule. You can’t take the paste spice jar of more than 3.4 oz on a plane.
Can you bring spices in checked luggage?
Spices of any kind without any limitations are allowed to be packed in checked luggage. You can take the larger jars without any restriction.
You just need to consider that your spice boxes don’t consist of any whole grains so that security doesn’t remove it from your bag. It is more convenient to bring spices through checked luggage rather than carry-on if you are taking a huge amount.
Do spices need to be declared before packing?
If you are taking spices that are not in their original packaging and the jars are standalone, then you have to declare the name clearly on a jar. It makes it easy for the inspectors to detect the spices without undergoing investigations.
Conclusion
Can you bring spices on a plane? Yes, you can if you follow the guidelines properly. Powdered spices have no limitation on amount. Now you can make the tasty food of your choice even on vacations.