Fly with a soft lunch bag, not a hard box.

Soft-sided insulated lunch bags are the best pick for air travel — rigid lunch boxes just waste precious space in your carry-on.

TSA is actually the easy part. Solid food (sandwiches, fruit, pastries, jerky) sails through security. The only catch is liquids and gels: anything over 3.4 oz gets tossed. So hummus, yogurt, soup, and sauce travel as small containers, or you freeze them solid — frozen items are allowed through as long as they’re still frozen when screened.

That’s why a soft bag beats a rigid one. A Bentgo or other hard-sided box is great for your desk, but it’s bulky when empty and fights you for space in a packed carry-on. A soft insulated bag squishes into gaps, and some collapsible silicone boxes roll up small. Pack your food right and you don’t need anything fancy.

For keeping things cold, skip lunch-box ice packs. Freeze a water bottle or juice box the night before — it doubles as a cold drink later and isn’t a security problem while frozen. And if you’re just eating at the gate, you don’t need insulation at all. A ziplock or your regular Tupperware works.

Don’t buy a new lunch box for a flight. The one you own is almost certainly fine.