If I give you a question like “which time lately you think the taste of plane meal is good?” I am pretty sure the answer I can get is always “Never”. Every time when we complained about how awful the plane food is, have people ever concerned why? Is the bad skill of chef the only reason? Or there are actually some scientific reasons as explanation?
According to one article published in the website Travel, the biggest issue lying in bad taste of food in plane is scientific. One research did by Deutsche Lufthansa; the buds in our tongue cannot work well exposure in high altitude. The sensitivity of our taste buds would decrease at least 30% on the high altitude; plus, the dry environment inside the plane can affect buds work too. And this is one big reason why those fly companies are willing to opt salty steaks or spicy carries as main part of plane food. The other reason might be the smell problem. The high air pressure given by plane will restrict activity of smell molecule and block the way it goes to our nose, without this step, eating process can be much boring than people can think.
Besides those reasons we talked before, there’s another explanation that can also makes the taste worse: that the plane food itself is not good taste. Consider the specific environment of plane; it’s obvious that the kitchen cannot be set in the plane, so the food we ate is all come from stock. Foods from the kitchen to the plane we take have to going though a long travel, and during this process, foods would exposure to different tempters, and in this step, going bad is easily for foods. Compared to serve customers some delicious but not fresh food, most of the fly companies prefer foods with bad taste but safety qualities, like carrots and oranges.
Next time if you feel bad about the plane food in front of your face, thinking about the things we talked today might be able to let you feel little better. After all, off the plane, there are hundreds of delicious foods waiting for you.
Ciatation: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/travel/travelnews/10176098/Why-is-plane-food-so-bad.html
http://www.guokr.com/
Interesting topic! I agree with you that plane food can get disgusting. I think we deserve better plane food since we are paying tons of money for air fairs. I used to learn that there are certain types of food that airlines can’t provide. For examples, we seldom see potatoes, bananas, avocado and eggplant because these are all gas-producing vegetables. And in limited space like a plane, its better people don’t gas around, right? Here is a video about some dirty truth about the plane meals. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7Qs6fR-UYYk
This topic is really interesting because we know everyone feels the same way about airplane food. Not once have you ever heard someone say they genuinely enjoyed airplane food, unless of course you’re in first class with a gourmet steak. But generally speaking almost everyone dislikes airplane food. It’s interesting to see that the altitude could affect our taste buds and completely turn us against enjoying a meal on a plane. However, when you think about it, what about the food you purchase outside of a plane or the food you bring yourself on a plane, do they taste disgusting too? Or can it actually be the airplane food entirely and the altitude just making the food taste even more unappetizing? I agree that because it is not in a kitchen the whole idea of airplane food in generally turns one closed minded towards the food and just not as fresh as food would be from a kitchen. I think that one’s best bet when going on a plane is to purchase food outside plane and bring it on. It always works best. Here’s a link to show the behind the scenes of airplane food and to see the dirty secret of where the food is really coming from!
“You’re more likely to die from the food on the airplane than from an actual airplane crash.” Okay, so this quote is from “Orange is the New Black” so I can’t back that up with factual evidence, but Piper seems like a character who would know that kind of info. Now back on topic: I’ve been on planes quite a few times, but I’ve only actually had real meals when I flew to England two years ago. I had some Asian style chicken and rice entree and my brother had spaghetti and meatballs. That being said, the airline I was on seemed to be attempting to provide a variety of food and I have to say, it wasn’t absolutely terrible. Now that I know about the whole tastebud altitude concept, I give it even more credit. The information you found is very interesting, and it wouldn’t be a bad idea for airlines to provide that information with the meal. Maybe print it on the napkins and tell people the food is better than they think it is because of science. It would act as a psychological trick to compensate for the disadvantage the taste of the food is at from the altitude interfering with tastebuds. I’m also curious about the nutritional value of the food, since I’m assuming it’s coated in preservatives. According to this article, http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/12/17/airline-food_n_4459059.html it differs from airline to airline.
I don’t know how to edit my previous comment so here’s the link that I found the article. It points out negative facts about plane foods, but I used to support my positive ideas about it.
http://www.thrillist.com/travel/nation/airline-meals-how-your-airplane-food-is-made-thrillist-nation
I love this post and the comments. There has been number of issues about airline meals. I’ve heard people got sick from the foods, which scared me at first. However, I personally find airline meals pretty bearable though. It is true that, we lose little bit of our sense of taste in high altitude, but the article that I found said that the foods are prepared 10 hours before it get eaten. Although it is not “super fresh” I think it is good enough. Also, if the flight gets delayed and the foods have already been delivered onto the plane, they will throw the entire loaded foods and get new ones to replace them.
It was interesting to read this article because I have been on planes so many times throughout my lifetime. I have tried plane food some of the time, and obviously it wasn’t good. I agree that plane food cannot be that tasty because it is a plane, not a kitchen. I didn’t know that there was scientific evidence behind this though. It is really fascinating that your taste buds can be different at different attitudes such as on planes because you are in a higher altitude than you normally would be on land. You mentioned 30% of the sensitivity of our taste buds decrease in high altitude, which can be a strong correlation between one’s taste and plane food. I have gotten a couple snacks on the plane before and they actually were not bad. My main method is to eat something before going on the plane and avoid eating anything on the plane in general. The plane food isn’t the worst food in the world, I have had worse. The link below talks about foods you should never eat on airplanes and why! I thought it was interesting and funny to read about.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/02/04/bad-airplane-food_n_4717308.html
Agreed, great post! I find this to be hilarious, because my family and I always joke about plane food (as does everyone else, I imagine). I never thought there might actually be a scientific reason behind why the food is so shitty. I just figured the food was bad, because why on Earth would they want to give you decent food after you pay $$$ for the ticket?! I see how those reasons make the food taste bad, but I doubt plane food would taste that much better on land!
I can agree to this post completely. I never knew why, but i can never really eat full meals when it comes to getting on planes. Eating before is always my best bet, but I also cant eat too much or I start to feel sick when I’m on a plane. When it comes to the whole altitude factor I can see that being true because, whenever I fly my nose gets a little stuffy, and of course that means I can’t really taste the food as you said in the post. Maybe for some people they can handle the food, but for me personally, just sticking to simple snacks on the plane works for me. Great post!