Originally Posted by
chollie
The problem isn't the scientific v. colloquial use of the term 'organic' (or 'sharp' or 'food'). The problem is that instead of training 45K employees to use 'organic' the same way, TSA prefers to hound and harass millions of flyers for not understanding the many different ways TSOs use the word 'organic'.
The problem for pax is that you never know when you're going to encounter an aggressive TSO who, with the full support of his/her co-workers, LTSOs, STSOs and supervisors, uses a particular interpretation of the word to harass and bully pax.
The best tactic I have found is to grovel, ask what exactly the TSO in front of you means by 'organic' or 'sharp' or 'food', and then over-declare anything and everything I can possibly think of. If worse comes to worse, I'll say I didn't have my bag in my sight at all times and it's possible someone in the family could have slipped something in unawares. That will likely get me a punitive extended bag search, but AFAIK, it's not illegal yet to have someone in the family slip something into your bag without your knowledge. I can't be accused of failing to disclose something I didn't know was in my bag.
In PHL today, I asked the TSA agent that went through every corner of my bag (that has been with me for five weeks through probably more than 15 airports without problem overseas), what exactly should I not bring next time that might be concerning. She said, "organic matter." I said, "what does that mean." She said, "I can't tell you." My jaw dropped...so you're violating my property...opening personal gifts I have brought for people without my consent, but can't tell me why?
Can someone please point me to official documentation as to why? You can read the ingredients on the food package? Why open the entire thing so that is no longer sanitary? I have had TSA break zippers and even glass items in my bag and shrug before walking away...someone with no educational background should not be given this power. It's beyond insane...they feed on it.