Backtrack, Why should Police refuse to allow food in? No reason that I can think of.
Pleased to hear it,
BJCC. Iwas only interpreting what was written which was " refused access to food, drink and only limited access to toilets etc." (N.B.: REFUSED ACCESS).
You have, however, missed the point; it is not about 'refusing to allow food in', but allowing people out to provide for themselves.
I agree with you that the police are not a division of 'Burger King' - a bit flippant - and , in such circumstances, I'm not sure who is 'responsible' (laws on contract & tort notwithstanding). It doesn't appear to be the airline's fault the flight had to turn back.
Something else that puzzles me. If the a/c had been airborne for 20 mins, why did it have to return to EMA? After this amount of time, it would have been about 100nm from it's departure point, so if there was a serious security breach/suspicion/cock-up etc, why not land at the nearest suitable aiport? I don't know where the flight was heading, but a 100nm radius around EMA brings in a heck of a lot of 'suitable airports'.