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It Started With Your Shoes, Then Your Water. Now The TSA Wants Your Snacks.

Transportation
FILE: TSA Lines Image: askthepilot.com

  They came for your laptops. And for your liquids, and your shoes. Now, the Transportation Security Administration is coming for your snacks.

Passengers at airports across the country — including all three of the Washington region’s major airports — are reporting a rise in TSA agents instructing them to remove their snacks and other food items from their carry-ons and place them in those ubiquitous plastic bins for a separate screening.

It’s not part of the agency’s standard policy, according to TSA spokesman Mike England. It’s simply a recommendation issued by the agency last year to help speed the bag-check process. Screening supervisors at airports have the discretion to decide whether, and when, to demand that passengers proffer up their pretzel packs for a solo trip through the X-ray machine.

But the “recommendation” appears to be gaining steam and moving rapidly into the territory of de-facto protocol, according to travelers who have received snack-related notices from their airlines, and who have been informed by rank-and-file TSA screeners that the snack checks are now standard practice.

[vc_btn title=”Continue reading” style=”outline” color=”black” link=”url:https%3A%2F%2Fwww.washingtonpost.com%2Flocal%2Ftrafficandcommuting%2Ftraveling-via-air-expect-to-remove-your-snacks-and-place-them-in-a-bin%2F2018%2F06%2F29%2Fea0bede2-796c-11e8-aeee-4d04c8ac6158_story.html%3Fnoredirect%3Don%26utm_term%3D.050b29f7fff5%26wpisrc%3Dnl_most%26wpmm%3D1||target:%20_blank|”][vc_message message_box_style=”outline” message_box_color=”black”]WashingtonPost.com, excerpt posted on SouthFloridaReporter.com, July 1, 2018[/vc_message]