Can I bring honey on a plane?

On a domestic flight the 100ml liquid limit does not apply. On an international flight it does.

Domestic flights in Japan

The 100ml liquid limit does not apply.

International flights from Japan

Each container 100ml or less, all of them inside one transparent re-sealable bag of 1 litre or less, one bag per person.

Honey meets separate desks: the security checkpoint before the flight and quarantine on arrival in Japan.

Filed with baking ingredients

Japan's liquids list does not place honey with drinks or with spreads. Its row is Ingredients of Confectionery, where honey stands beside starch syrup and bean paste, and the Japanese edition adds gum syrup and cake syrup. The row covers these foods when they are canned, jarred or packed in plastic containers or tubes, so a squeeze tube is read like a glass jar.

A gel in Australia, a semi-liquid food in Britain

Authorities label honey differently and arrive at the same figure. Australia's TravelSECURE page files honey under gels, which it describes as jelly-like substances, and caps each container at 100 mL by volume or 100 g by weight. GOV.UK calls it a liquid or semi-liquid food, in the company of soup, jam and syrups. The TSA gives Honey an entry of its own at 3.4oz/100 ml.

Portion jars share the bag with toiletries

A travel column on JAL's shopping site lists jam and honey among foods limited in the cabin on international flights. It says a food sold at 100 ml or 100 g or less can stay in its retail pack inside the clear zip bag of 1 litre or less. That bag is limited to 1 per person, so the honey travels with the toothpaste and cosmetics.

Bringing it into Japan: honey and comb honey

Bees are among the animals covered by Japan's animal quarantine, but the Animal Quarantine Service publishes standards for products it excludes. Standard 58, secretions derived from honeybees, gives honey, comb honey, beeswax, royal jelly and propolis as its examples.

Bringing it into Japan: a product with bees in it

The honeybee standard carries a note. Products containing honeybees or any part of one are regarded as Designated Quarantine Items and are subject to import animal quarantine. The Service asks that the product be confirmed as made by a process that keeps honeybees and bee body parts out of it.

The carry-on answer for honey is the same in all 6 other places we checked. The limits themselves are not identical, so read the row for the country you fly from.

Each row comes from that authority's own page. Airlines can be stricter, and the screening officer has the final say.

What to do

Move honey to the bag you check in before you reach security. Narita Airport states that anything given up at the checkpoint is discarded and cannot be returned.