Italian airport relaxes liquid rules to let pesto on flights

June 22 (UPI) -- An Italian airport is willing to bend the carry-on rules, as long as you're trying to bring pesto on your flight.

The Genoa, Italy, airport issued a new rule starting June 1, which allows passengers to take up to 500 grams of pesto onto their flights. Airport security is waiving the usual 100 milliliter limit for liquids, if those passengers make a donation to Flying Angels, a children's healthcare charity.

Pesto-bearing passengers also need to get an official sticker on their jars before they go through any security checkpoint. Once at security, guards will scan the liquid with equipment otherwise used to check medicines brought onto flights.

The airport said on its website that passengers have already taken more than 500 jars of pesto since they implemented the new rule, resulting in more than 500 euro raised for the charity.

Aside from the money raised for Flying Angels, airport spokesman Nur El Gawohary told the Independent the initiative has also shifted the workload for security officers.

"Every year we were confiscating hundreds of pesto jars at security control, and throwing them away," El Gawohary said. "It was a waste of food and an annoyance for our passengers."