With all the talk about the need for more advanced security systems at airports, there’s something that may have been off the radar screens of security technology developers: Fruitcake. However, the unpopular holiday gift has become unpopular with Canada’s airport security authority, which calls it a security threat.
The Canadian Air Transport Security Authority (CATSA) has added fruitcake to the list of items to be confiscated at security checkpoints that includes scissors, switchblades and toy guns according to CTV. The move has nothing to do with fruitcake’s scorned reputation as much as it has to do with the fact X-ray machines can’t see through the holiday desert.
Security officials fear fruitcakes could be used to hide weapons. “I guess you would be wondering why we have something against fruitcakes,” CATSA president Jacques Duchesneau told a news conference Dec. 10, holding a fruit cake aloft. “When seen through an X-ray machine, it might represent something we might need to check. It’s very dense. We don’t take any chances.”
The Transportation Security Administration (TSA) in the U.S. hasn’t chimed in on fruitcake, though it is not on its current prohibited that was last updated on Dec. 2.
