I am looking to bring a cardboard box with some tomotoes to friends in Florida (about a dozen or so). Seems that homegrown PA tomotoes are quite desireable there. Do you think that TSA will consider these a liquid or gel? And no, they are not rotten, and I don't plan to use them as a weapon.

Are you hoping to run across Mike_Asia selling headsets to the riff-raff back in coach and maybe plaster him?

I would think it would be up to the individual you happen to come across at TSA. He might be thinking you've injected it with some exotic explosive... Or, he might have enough common sense to understand that sometimes a tomato is just a tomato.

ROTFL!!

Farm goods are dependent on the airport. MSP, yes, they think your the typical farmer from po-dunk MN. If you had rotten ones I'd save them for throwing at Mike_Asia and his "assistant". Maybe he will give you a set of headphones or two to spare him from the "agony."

This thread is headed for "closure" based on the comments above.

Yes tomato and apples will go, I have done it

I don't claim to be an expert regarding TSA rules but as someone mentioned here, it really depends on the individual or group of TSA agents.

A little history of an incident: As a regular traveler at a same time same day, week in, week out, I befriended the team that worked on that day/time, including the floor lead, let say TSA agent A. She would see me a mile away and yell out my name (MR. TEXBIZMAN... ok my real last name) and embarass the heck out of me in front of other travelers in queue. But she checked my BP and ID thoroughly, each and everytime. But they were lenient on 3.2oz bottles that were not in a zip lock bag.

Then poof, one day, the whole gang was assigned somewhere else and new team where in place. Coincidentally, that was the day I was carrying a jar (more than 3.2 oz) of home made chilli paste that my mother slaved and made. The screener called the supervisor, TSA agent B and he told me that I could not carry that on. When I questioned for the reason (it was a paste and not liquidy), I was told that it had enough liquid, collectively. I challenged him that it has less liquid than the 3.2 oz mouth wash but he would not hear any of it. So I had to check-in my old tot bag.

One lower ranking TSA agent from the old group was there to witness the transaction and he mutted to me 'what a son of a gun' about his new supervisor.

So if you get someone like this, he/she might not allow the tomatoes due to the quantity of liquid it can generate. That's my two cents input.

Oh btw, I ran into TSA agent A a few weeks later and she told me that she heard of the incident (apparently from the agent who witnessed the debacle) and as a higher ranking agent, she 'talked' to TSA agent B. Now there is a different supervisor at the time I pass through, TSA agent C, friend of A. She too sees me and always intervens whenever there are some questions. She was even nice to Mrs. Txbizman and Masters Txbizman recently. Nice to welcomed - masters Txbizman were impressed: 'Daddy, you know everyone at the airport'...

OMG - I just sound like the departed (or soon to be) Mike_Asia - bragging about him/her self. Did not mean to do that

Directly from the TSA site: "Food must be wrapped or in a container. Unpeeled natural foods like fruit are okay, but half-eaten fruits must be wrapped." Now as to volume, they seem to say nothing.

Just make sure there are no maggots in them: http://www.ajc.com/news/atlanta/magg...ck-561325.html
Whole new meaning to carrion bag.

Bring a copy of the page from the TSA site.

The "wrapped" part seems to be in place to keep food gunk out of the scanners.

http://www.sadtrombone.com/

I likewise have brought approx. a dozen tomatoes (Sacramento, CA grown) back home to good-tomato-starved Alaska.

This was just a few months ago. No problems with TSA; not even a comment. .

I brought a full pulled pork dinner back from MEM to EWR on a ERJ one time... complete with a quart of baked beans. The security guys joked about how awesome it was for me to bring a taste of Memphis back to Jersey.