Even after settling lawsuit, TSA agents keep taking milk from babies

Parents are crying over seized milk in the Philadelphia International Airport at the hands of TSA agents, a year after the agency promised to re-train its security officers on proper milk-screening procedures.

Steve and Susana Bunn tell Philly.com that after a trip to the City of Brotherly Love, their family of four faced unwarranted screening because their 14-month-old daughter's milk was deemed suspicious. As such, the milk was opened by agents and rendered undrinkable for baby Lily.

The TSA's own rules say that milk boxes like Lily's are totally acceptable, and not subject to the 3.4 oz. rule we all loath and live by. The PHL agents insisted otherwise, and opened the milk. Frustrated father Steve, an Orange County deputy district attorney, explains:

"We tried to explain that if we opened the milk, it would quickly get sour and not last for the time when our daughter would need it. And we wouldn't be able to pack the carton without the milk spilling once the seal was opened. I can't believe the level the TSA has stooped to, that they would ruin a baby's milk, depriving her of important nutrition."

In April of 2014, the Transportation Security Association paid a $75,000 settlement to a breastfeeding mother after Phoenix Sky Harbor International Airport agents harassed her and seized her milk, even though TSA protocols classify milk – of the human or even cow variety – as an allowable liquid.

As part of that settlement, TSA agents were to be re-trained on the agency's milk rules. But just six months later, another breastfeeding mother was harangued at the very same airport in a similar scenario. TSA agents reportedly told the new mother:

"[If she] didn't want to be treated this way, she shouldn't have brought breast milk with her to the airport."

Traveling with milk is so commonly fraught with hiccups like these incidents that California startup Milk Stork now promises to deliver the white gold to parents once they've touched down at their final destination.

Which brings us to today, and the latest milk madness from the TSA. It is of course worth mentioning (as it will continue to be for quite some time) that in June of this year the results of a Homeland Security evaluation of the TSA were published, showing a jaw-dropping 95% failure rate by TSA agents in stopping fake bombs and weapons from passing through security.

But milk, though: they're on top of that.