Flying with Game Meat

How to Comply with Flying Regulations to get your Meat Home

By Dominic Trimboli

How to maintain maximum meat freshness while flying cross-country?

We’ll assume that you’re licensed for your hunt and have already taken the first processing steps. If you haven’t, check out this article for more information about best practices for freeze packing your game. In short, you should be vacuum sealing your meat for the optimal freeze, packing space and hygiene for travel. Also, make sure your meat has been completely frozen for at least 24-hours before your flight. Don’t forget to label your bags with your name, species and the date it was harvested just in case you’re stopped for any reason and questioned about your game.

Once frozen, choose a cooler and pack it as tightly as possible with your frozen meat, lining it with fully frozen gel ice packs. Do not use standard ice, it will melt and can leak ruining other’s luggage. Most airlines do not allow normal ice in coolers. As long as your gel packs are completely frozen when going through check-in and security, there are no regulations on how many you may use.

Alternatively, you can use Dry Ice to package with your meat, but there are far more regulations to follow, and they vary from airline to airline. You’ll need a cooler than can ventilate the gas released from the dry ice and ensure you use less than the threshold set by your specific airline.

How to follow all airline, state and federal regulations for transporting game?

When flying across the country, remember you’ll have to comply with state regulations across the nation requiring you to help prevent the spread of maladies like Chronic Wasting Disease. That means boning out your game before you freeze pack it. Fortunately, this saves you weight, space and helps cut down on the number of coolers you’ll need to transport. Remember that also applies to the head of your hunted animal, you must remove the cape and skullcap if you want to take them across state lines for taxidermy purposes.

You’ll also need to comply with whatever regulations your specific airline has for travelling with hunted game. Make sure to check the baggage regulations for whatever airline you’re flying, and confirm the weight limits, labeling requirements and cooler dimensions your airline allows. If you’re using dry ice, you’ll need to declare it and comply with the ventilation and quantity thresholds they’ve set as well.

General rule of thumb, your coolers should be hard walled, weigh 50lbs. or less, be completely leakproof, taped shut, labeled and fully frozen at check-in. If you’re transporting anything in the cabin of the plane, make sure you declare to security that you’re carrying game through security. They’ll want to confirm everything is secure before transporting it into the plane.

If you want more information about making sure you comply with all state and federal regulations, then click this link for another article. You can also find other options for getting your meat home that aren’t flying at this link!