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Science Reveals Why Airplane Food Tastes So Bad
Hugh Pickens writes "At low elevations, the 10,000 or so taste buds in the human mouth work pretty much as nature intended. But step aboard a modern airliner, and the sense of taste loses its bearings. Even before a plane takes off, the atmosphere inside the cabin dries out the nose. As the plane ascends, the change in air pressure numbs about a third of the taste buds, and at 35,000 feet with cabin humidity levels kept low by design to reduce the risk of fuselage corrosion, xerostomia or cotton mouth sets in. This explain why airlines tend to salt and spice food heavily. Without all that extra kick, food tastes bland. 'Ice cream is about the only thing I can think of that tastes good on a plane,' says Marion Nestle, a professor of nutrition, food studies and public health at New York University. 'Airlines have a problem with food on board. The packaging, freezing, drying and storage are hard on flavor at any altitude, let alone 30,000 feet.' Challenges abound. Food safety standards require all meals to be cooked first on the ground. After that, they are blast-chilled and refrigerated until they can be stacked on carts and loaded on planes. For safety, open-flame grills and ovens aren't allowed on commercial aircraft, so attendants must contend with convection ovens that blow hot, dry air over the food. 'Getting any food to taste good on a plane is an elusive goal,' says Steve Gundrum, who runs a company that develops new products for the food industry."
PanAm used to cook four-course meals on their flights. What happened?
Just finished my airplane meal.
The modern airliner cabin is pressurized to a pressure altitude of 8,000ft.
That means that as you go from airport altitude to your cruising altitude the cabin only increases
in pressure to feel like 8,000ft.
That's below the 10,000ft where the OP claims cotton-mouth, and below the 14,000 where you
can't breath, and well below the 35,000 OP cites as cruising altitude.
See: http://tinyurl.com/brmpv3j
The original article is just pure hogwash.
E
Blame the taste buds? That's like blaming the controller when you suck at video games.
Food I've bought in the terminal and brought aboard tasted just fine to me. Way too expensive, but that's a different story.
What do I know, I'm just an idiot, right?
The food I bring to eat on the plane tastes fine...
Why is it that food I bring on board with me still tastes good given all these environmental factors? Oh yeah, cause Airline food just plain sucks...
"Let's go find some Turian and beat the shit out of him
It seems there is an alternative solution to this problem - don't serve food, and airlines have adopted it for flights that are not at least several hours long.
Can't people survive without cooked food for a flight's duration? Unless you're crew, the current solutions for cooked food look appaling.
But... this was in a documentary on TV over a year ago!
I find it hard to believe that because of high altitude, the food is going to taste bad, yet they can send food into space that astronauts say taste just fine. IMO, the reason the food tastes bad, is because the Air Lines are too damn cheap to provide good quality food!
-- By all means let's be open-minded, but not so open-minded that our brains drop out.
Indeed, some of the best peanuts I've ever had were on airlines.
a,e,i,o,u and sometimes w and y (at be if of up cwm by)
'Ice cream is about the only thing I can think of that tastes good on a plane,' says Marion Nestle
And only chocolate ice cream at that, eh Nestle?
If cottonmouth tales away your sense of taste, then why does everything taste so much better after a big doob?
Free Martian Whores!
I thought it was psychological effects? Being molested by federal agents, being treated like a terrorist, being herded like cattle at a slaughterhouse, mind numbing boredom waiting around, late of course, sounds like a fun date, what could possibly go wrong? Doesn't everyone else look forward to a full body cavity search before a gourmet meal?
Also only a tiny fraction of my travel, on ground or in airplane is for fun. Mostly its because I have to meet someone at work, training, fix something, somebody far away croaked, etc. Its almost never involves good news. Flying home because granny died last night is going to kind of ruin the dining experience regardless what they do. Or traveling to the worlds most boring, tiring, and pointless meeting while in a bad mood ruins the dining experience. I have traveled for fun, its just that I make 5, maybe 10 business-related trips for each vacation.
"Science flies us to the moon. Religion flies us into buildings." - Victor Stenger
Having flown first class before, I've had many top quality foods. I've eaten a filet mignon that melted in my mouth, champagne cocktails, and decadent pastries.
Whenever I fly Singapore, Thai or other Asian airlines the food is fine. However, on Western airlines.......Delta, KLM, BA, etc, the food sucks. Different philosophies maybe?
"The average reporter we talk to is 27 years old......They literally know nothing." - Ben Rhodes
Sous Vide would seem to be near perfect (with proper engineering of the water bath).
Precooking is trivial as is a cook/chill process.
With precooked packets all that is required is a reheat which is not terribly time consuming, especially if the meat is cut thin.
I almost always bring my own homemade food on the plane (nothing complicated, just sandwiches and a fresh fruit), and it tastes perfectly good in the air -- basically the same as it does on the ground.
I maintain that the problem with airplane food is that it is shit.
Sounds like a lot of lame excuses for cheap tasteless food. Why is it that, whenever I take my own sandwich onboard, it tastes just fine?
I bet that food on a overcrowded greyhound bus would taste just as bad.
" For safety, open-flame grills and ovens aren't allowed on commercial aircraft"
French president Sarkozy has pizza ovens in his plane.
Yes, and? This has been known for many years. Most airlines have special kitchens for their chefs to work in which artificially create in-flight atmosphere (pressure, humidity, etc.) so the chefs can taste what their food is like to the passengers.
I don't see any recent breakthroughs mentioned. So what the heck is this blogging nonsense doing on the frontpage?
Assorted stuff I do sometimes: Lemuria.org
The cabin is pressurized to 8,000 feet but with very dry air from outside. Humidifying the air would require carrying many extra gallons (hundreds?) of fresh water.
Have gnu, will travel.
Nothing tastes better. I'm not entirely sure why. But it's never quite as good back on the ground.
Not being a blue blood accustomed to first class travel, I see airplane food strictly as something to sustain me through a long flight, and relieve the boredom.
On shorter range flights (such as across much of Europe), only drinks are necessary, and anything is vastly better and more convenient on the ground, even in airport restaurants. Short layovers when connecting flights may be a problem, though, so it's good to be able to get a meal sometimes. Low cost carriers know all this, so they offer in-flight food for an extra charge.
My exception safety is -fno-exceptions.
"'Getting any food to taste good on a plane is an elusive goal,' says Steve Gundrum, who runs a company that develops new products for the food industry."
They seem to manage OK in business class, from my extremely limited experience. It's only the cattle class food that's awful.
OP says that the ten thousand taste buds (i.e. notice how there was no mention of pressure at that point) work fine as long as there is humidity. Whether at 8 thousand feet or 35 thousand feet, what the OP says is that the really low humidity inside the plane (to guarantee its structural integrity on the long run) is bad for the taste buds and thus for the taste of food.
The article may be crap, but not for the reasons you point!
Cottonmouth doesn't affect your brain's chemistry.
If this is so, why are the snacks I bought while waiting at the airport still just as tasty?
... is the reason airplane food is so bad. If you *know* you're going to pre-cook, freeze, and re-heat food, you don't use anything of the brassica family as it'll turn inedible. Broccoli, however, will turn to such a disgusting yellow mush it's an insult to anyone's taste buds. Altitude really doesn't come into play here.
That doesn't mean this wasn't a good read, mind you. But improving airplane food doesn't need science, it just needs some common sense & cooking skill.
The tastebud stuff sound like pathetic excuses..
...who LIKES airplane food. Why? Dunno. The only thing I don't like is that out of the two choices they give, the best one is always taken by the time they get to my priceline-cheap-assed seat. If it's 'beef or fish', I resign myself, sadly, to the latter before they even get to me. But on the return flight home on my first international flight, they started handing out these pretty boxes to everyone. I thought they were gifts people could buy, as they'd just mentioned the duty-free abilities we had. But the guy comes over and hands me one. Is it stupid that I got all bright-eyed, saying "What... I get one?" when all it was was a boxed lunch of a sandwich, fruit and this ridiculously-delicious shortbread cookie? I need to get out more, I suppose.
You want to know how to help your kids? LEAVE THEM THE F*&K ALONE. --George Carlin
Because your appetite is regulated by cannabinoid neurotransmitters. Your brains can't tell the difference between the external cannabinoids (from your doob) and the ones it produces itself. Maybe they should start handing out space muffins on board :)
The cabin is pressurized to 8,000 feet but with very dry air from outside. Humidifying the air would require carrying many extra gallons (hundreds?) of fresh water.
Or, cramming in a few hundred mouth breathers who are stoked on either starbucks (intensifying the dehydration) or fiji water (intensifying rehydration and wallet depletion)... Then again, the real substantial humidity bump happens after they all start complaining about their lousy in flight meal so i can see where the article has a point.
The industry for the most part has solved this problem by simply not feeding people any more.
Seven puppies were harmed during the making of this post.
I know this is easier said then done and they have reasons for skimping on the pressure. BUUUUT it would be more comfortable if the pressure slowly transitioned from the take off pressure to the landing pressure with no consideration at all for the exterior pressure.
I'm assuming the reason they don't fully pressurize the plane is that it puts strain on the airframe or the cabin or it's hard to keep the plane pressurized. If that's the case just consider making that a feature in future plane designs. Passengers would prefer it. No screaming children clutching their ears.
Just an idea.
I've decided to stop wasting my time responding to AC trolls/sockpuppets... so if you want a response from me... login.
Another study demonstrated the effect of airplane noise on diminished taste and palatability:
One quick article on the study:
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/science/science-finds-the-plane-truth-about-inflight-meals-2107130.html
Combined with the high noise level and it's a wonder they manage to make anything taste even remotely appetising.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-11525897
I'd prefer a cold bento-style lunch over the hot gloopy running-together mess they server on planes.
Occasionally living proof of the Ballmer peak.
Great food in economy and they even give you metal butter knives so they might actually cook it because they're not a bunch of wusses.
So now we know that the reason why airplane food tastes so bad. It isn't that the food tastes bad. It's just that at altitude, we all have bad taste! :-)
Of course, that doesn't explain why a fresh-caught trout sauteed with fresh-picked mushrooms tastes like heaven when you are at 10,000+ ft altitude in the Rocky Mountains...
I live at 6500 ft.
Food tastes great!
I don't read your sig. Why are you reading mine?
If you use a heat exchanger to warm incoming air with outgoing air, it should be possible to recover and reuse the moisture.
Alternatively, you could just give up and give people military rations.
Forget magic. Any technology distinguishable from divine power is insufficiently advanced.
The cabin is pressurized to 8,000 feet but with very dry air from outside. Humidifying the air would require carrying many extra gallons (hundreds?) of fresh water.
As I understand it, the main reason for the dry air is that it reduces metal fatigue (via oxidization). Planes made of carbon fiber (e.g. the 787) should (or at the very least could!) have less dry air.
I've bought sandwhiches prior to flying and eaten them on the plane numerous times, they still taste delicious. I don't know what they're doing wrong but it isn't the altitude.
I was so sure about that bad food came from my step-mother. I'm surprised she isn't responsible for the diarrhea too :)
For me it is due to the air pressure change, not the altitude. My ears plug up and my sinuses get stuffy or otherwise "off". After that I can't taste much of anything (I also feel like shit).
The thing is, it doesn't have to be that way. A few times I have had a pilot that adjusts the cabin pressure just right. I think they took more time adjusting it rather than being lazy. When done that way I couldn't even tell that the cabin pressure changed. It was awesome. Unfortunately I have only ever had pilots that did this very few times out of hundreds of flights.
...just give up and give people military rations.
One MRE should be enough to frighten the entire plane into fasting.
The original article is just pure hogwash.
That's what I came to say. I try to bring food on-board whenever I'm aloft for multi-hours, most recently National coney dogs(yes I always bring extra for my seatmate/s discretion). The vote was unanimous, they tasted awesome at 30,000ft. If at all possible, I suspect they tasted better at altitude, but I am extremely biased when it comes to coneys.
Imagination drew in bold strokes, instantly serving hopes and fears, while knowledge advanced by slow increments...
maybe that's why they serve salted peanuts.
Aegean Airlines serves (largely) excellent food. There has been the odd exception, but generally, their food is really quite good in my experience.
The issue is the amount of money the typical airline meal costs the airline to produce. I can't locate the page at present, but recall that among domestic US carriers, Alaska Air spent the most on its food. From what I recall (take that with necessary salt), the overal industry average was below $2 per meal. The average first class meal cost something like $5.
Note that I'm talking about the cost of producing the meal, not the amount that gets charged to the customer now that meal fees have been unbundled from transportation fees.
Put my fist through my alarm clock with its ding-dong death inside my ear. - The Blackjacks.
I typically get take-out the night before (Chinese, Indian). Tastes just like it does one the ground-- usually with anyone around me complaining that they didn't bring their own. The OP is crap.
I have eaten airplane food on the ground and it tastes the same (bad).
Back when I was flying a lot still, the airline food tasted like crap. The fruit or snacks that I'd bring in my bag? Tasted just fine.
If it was some weird thing with the tastebuds wouldn't my own food taste weird?
Southwest does have some good Honey Roasted Peanuts.
If something is so important that you feel the need to post it on the internet... It probably isn't that important.
Isn't Nestle a major seller of ice cream products?
"Love heals scars love left." -- Henry Rollins
On Air France they served us mini-baguettes & camembert with our meal & it was pretty damn good. Also, the alcohol & soda on planes tastes exactly the same to me in the air as it does on land.
Airplane food tastes like crap because it's crappy food.
Oversalting and spicing processed food has nothing to do with it being airline food. All processed food is heavily oversalted and often overspiced no matter where you get it.
>Humidifying the air would require carrying many extra gallons (hundreds?) of fresh water.
Because my home humidifier uses a 100-gallon tank. Yeah. And not a 2.5 gallon one. And because the cubic feet inside an airplane are 100x my home, and not, say, 1/5rd those of my house.
Idiot.
He carried out experiments on a number of British Airways flights to see if he could come up with new food that tasted better without adding more sugar, salt and bad things, without requiring anything new on the airplanes and without adding anything to the preparation time or to the cost of the food.
The best thing he came up with was a new way to do Shepard's Pie.
As for the solution to the problem, I recon they should require that the people who design/approve airline food have to taste it after its been through the same cooking process as it would undergo in the air and under the same atmospheric conditions as an airplane. That way they can come up with dishes that wont suffer so much in an airplane setting.
One thing they could do to make the food not taste so crap is to re-think the way the food is packaged and prepared so that it doesn't loose most of its moisture in the process (it IS possible to freeze e.g. a serving of mince+tomato based pasta sauce+pasta and have it taste just as good after re-heating as it did before it was frozen but if you take too much moisture out of the food and dont put it back, the flavor will suffer).
Honestly the new MREs aren't that bad. I've had worse airline meals.
I don't need a million points of light, just two points of multi-mode fiber and a 10 Gig-E router.
>The modern airliner cabin is pressurized to a pressure altitude of 8,000ft.
And moreover, the majority of metal parts subject to deterioration are not exposed to the pressurized air, and the exterior surfaces are exposed to a great deal of moisture (condensation and other environmental).
>The original article is just pure hogwash.
Agreed.
Aside from all else, someone writing "1/5rd" has no room to call anyone an idiot.
http://idle.slashdot.org/story/10/10/15/1620244/background-noise-affects-taste-of-foods
I've heard they have improved. My memory of the 1985 MRE was a packet of meat paste frozen by the German winter and some nasty crackers. That makes me think of the Fifth Element line "meat popsicle".
Commercial aircraft are maintained at equivalent pressure of about 8000 feet of altitude.
some of the newer models (boing and airbus) put the cabin pressure to 10k feet
the article is still rubbish talking about the effects on tastebuds of 35k ft altitude
I see a bunch of posts stating:
The summary (not even the article!) makes it clear it's more than just the altitude/pressure. There's cabin humidity, for starters.
cabin humidity levels kept low by design
As well as all the packaging, preprocessing, etc., that goes into the cabin food.
I fly for a living and bring my own food aboard. It tastes no more different then it does in my dinning room.
Southwest does have some good Honey Roasted Peanuts.
Careful. They were processed in a facility that processes nuts.
warm incoming air with outgoing air,
That would be nice if you could direct the outgoing air through an exchanger. It leaks out through bad door seals and other unintended openings. And it takes the moisture with it.
Have gnu, will travel.
If you use a heat exchanger to warm incoming air with outgoing air,
My understanding is that exactly the opposite happens. Because of adiabatic heating, the air being compressed into an aircraft cabin actually needs to be cooled (it's bled off of compressors for the jet engine). At least, that's what I've been told by a few people.
Yup. It's bullshit.
1. Food in the business cabins still tastes how it should.
2. Food I've taken on board still tastes good,
3. The food budget per meal, per seat in economy is around $1-$2
1 and 2 put the lie to the premise, 3 is just the reason why. Price competition has driven airlines to cut every last cent they can. Me, I'd rather have an option to pay ten bucks more for my ticket and not get fed recycled rat-shit.
agree, this is a PR piece from the airlines. Cheaper than saying the food taste shit
Between ROTC and 10 years in the Guard I've experienced the last four generations of MRE. The late 80's / early 90's version was worthy of all the disdain ever heaped upon them. They've gotten progressively better though. Other than a residual slight metallic tang to the meat, current generation MRE's are by and large no worse than most fast food (which is not to say that they're good, just not nearly as awful). The vegetarian one's are actually better IMO, the lack of meat completely removes the metallic taste and they always have fruit and granola bars as extras. The fruit is no worse than any canned fruit and the granola bars don't suffer from the heat as much as a lot of snacks.
Don't get me wrong, I'm not saying that you want a regular diet of the things; but living on them for a couple of days isn't unpleasant anymore. No worse than a travel day where you're forced to eat more fast food than you'd like.
I don't need a million points of light, just two points of multi-mode fiber and a 10 Gig-E router.
...who thinks "blast-chilled" sounds awesome?
Just as a point, you can breath just fine at 14,000 feet. Born and raised in Colorado and it's a state past-time to hike the 54 mountains that are over 14,000 ft tall. I've personally stood atop a number of them in shorts and a tshirt and breathed without problem. In fact people have summited Everest without oxygen assistance (29,029 ft).
Oh, and they come with chemical heater now. Activate the heater with a quarter cup or so of water and no more cold/frozen food. The second and third generation had the heaters as an optional extra item the unit could get along with the MRE; but now they're packed inside the bag. There's less chance of a screw-up or sadistic supply sergeant that way.
I don't need a million points of light, just two points of multi-mode fiber and a 10 Gig-E router.
This article was surely published in 1965, right? I can't even get the attendants on AirHate to whip a bag of soggy pretzels in my direction these days. What's this nonsense about actual food on a modern aircraft?
I don't need those fancy "meals"!
1. Lots of wasteful packaging
2. There's no room for my elbows in economy class to eat with a knife and fork
3. I'm stuck with it occupying the entire tray space for an hour
3. Costly for the airline means costly for me
4. Not tasty
Just give me a decent sandwich and call it a day...
The vast majority of air "leaks" out through cabin pressurization valves near the back of the plane - it's designed that way since air has to be let out in order to let fresh air in (as well as to not keep the cabin at the same altitude as the departing airport - to climb up to 8000' requires releasing air).
Correct. The pressurized air for the cabin comes from the jet engine's bleed air (located after the compressor section). It's quite warm because of the compression (from -30-50C to +50-60C), so it needs to be cooled down via air conditioners to levels humans would prefer.
It's also one reason (among many) to keep the cabin at 8000' and why air quality has declined - using the bleed air saps power from the engine.
I am always happy to see peanuts on Southwest since it means they haven't caved to the nut allergy crowd that gets up in arms whenever a product containing nuts makes it within 100 feet of them.
this is my sig
Water is a by product of combustion. Plenty of that going on during your average airline trip.
mmmmm... meat paste on cardboard
"I bring my own food on the plane and it tastes just fine"
So the only reasons left are packaging, preprocessing, etc. So in summary, airline food tastes like crap because it is.
I guess you haven't eaten in first class then.
That's correct in the vast majority of cases. The 787 being an exception, using dedicated electrically driven air compressors instead of bleed air to supply the cabin.
The problem with outside air at 35K feet is that it is cold. So its absolute humidity is very low. Warming it up lowers its relative humidity even lower.
Have gnu, will travel.
You know... I think your reply is insightful and appreciated. But I can't help but think your parent won't get it. Just typing "doob" to most doob-partakers makes them partake. Just know your reply was appreciated anyway. :)
Some of you grip about everything. Personally, I find flying to be comfortable. It is like going down in the valley below us at 7500'. And other than being heavily salted the food is just fine. Better than that bland stuff that is served in Chicago, NYC, London, or Glasgow.
According to my own experiences this is all BS.
While I don't despise airplane food as most people apparently do for some reason, I don't think it is particularly good.
However, sometimes they serve things that are quite good, usually because it's not the standard rice, chicken, salad combo that tastes like it came from a can.
The food on the airplane to/from/in asia was also quite good.
One time on a flight to canada they had hired a special chef to do some middle eastern dishes that were very good.
So airplane food can be tasty, it just needs some effort as with any other food.
Also they should really get rid of those almonds. It's like eating a bag of sea salt. I can't believe other peoples tongues are so disabled they don't notice how much salt is in there.
Air in planes are dehumidified to minimize the amount of ice and condensation that forms on the inside of the airplanes pressure skin. If this weren't done you might literally get a shower during landing.
Corporate greed is the reason.
- ahem, it's the system people live under.. continuing accumulated linear growth leads to exponential increase in a limited space.
That's what's happening - scrambling for continuous ROI with decreasing value delivery.
One can fly different airlines under the same booking airline by choosing a codeshared flight and experience different service (and food quality) of other airlines, example below, when booking under codeshared airlines the flight happens under the operating carrier.
Flying codeshared and non-codeshared identical routes allows 1:1 comparison - UA food sucks!
(UA) United Airlines 8826
Operated by (LH) Lufthansa 419
This flight marketed as a codeshare flight by the following airlines:
(UA) United Airlines 8826
(AI) Air India 8644
(TG) Thai Airways International 7711
(AC) Air Canada 9450
Give me enough booze and the quality of the food becomes less relevant.
If someone is passing you on the right, you are an asshole for driving in the wrong lane.
I haven't flown with a US airline, so I can't compare, but my experience of BA food is very positive. I think it comes from the *massive* increased popularity of "ready meals" (microwave meals?) in the UK in the last decade. All supermarkets now have a whole aisle of them, including the luxury ones -- Marks & Spencer were behind it, and their ready meals cost at least £5 a portion.
So we have an excuse for the in flight meals, what about the lousy taste of the food in the airport itself?
If someone is passing you on the right, you are an asshole for driving in the wrong lane.
I agree...The original article is definitely BS...I've spent months at high altitude (13000ft+) in the himalayas, and food tastes great there. Cabins are indeed pressurized to 8000ft, I've verified this with the altimiter on my watch (which works off barometric pressure) while flying.
I, for one, have eaten quite well on an airplane. I flew Turkish Air to Istanbul and Beijing, and I must say their food is awesome. The Chinese airliner I flew afterwards also had decent food.
Good food on an airplane isn’t an impossible feat. My taste buds work just fine on all altitudes I’ve tried them on. Food quality primarily depends on how little the airliner is willing to spend on it.
Ignore this signature. By order.
Ah, Taco Bell! Coming right up, sir!
It doesn't mean much now, it's built for the future.
I remember reading that the high volume of noise on an airplane actually makes the food taste less.
If altidue, pressure and so on effects the taste buds then why is it everytime I have flown when I eat the peanuts they still taste exactly like peanuts when I eat them at home? Thats because they are just regular old peanuts sealed in a package at the factory just like everyother peanut sold in stores in the country and unless the peanuts are ancient or had something done to them they all taste exactly the same because all peanuts are essentially the same.
The real issue is that airline food is cheap, thats why it doesnt taste very good. An airline isnt worried about having quality food, they buy food from whoever can give them lowest bid bulk deal on food. Its not like the food is brought in fresh for each flight and made from high grade pieces of fresh chicken and vegetables prepared each day for the flight. Its just bulk food bought as cheaply as possible and stored and restocked between flights. Its meant to take up as little space as possible and have the barest minimum or preperation required to be served.
I hate it when a arm chair scientist tries to give some half assed theory about something and pass it off as real scientific evident without proof and knowledge. Because if altitude and such actually did effect taste buds then my peanuts wouldnt have tasted like a peanut I eat at home, the crackers wouldnt taste like crackers I eat at a restaraunt and so on. The peanuts and crackers taste the same because they are created equally really while a chicken sandwhich will taste differently depending on if you buy it from a vending machine or a fresh deli.
Yup. And backing you up is the claim that the only thing that tastes good is the Ice Cream . . . which is prepackaged by not_the_airline. That and the peanuts. Airplane food isn't good because they don't make it well. They don't make it well because it cuts into profits. Just that.
Southwest does have some good Honey Roasted Peanuts.
Careful. They were processed in a facility that processes nuts.
You mean, like the Republican Primary?
I had the happy accident of being placed in First Class and had a meal there. It tasted great -- not by comparison, but it tasted great all on its own.
The food in coach tastes like crap because it tastes that way at any altitude.
Yes, but the (late 80's) dehydrated pork patty, when reconstituted, along with the catsup powder, was actually quite nice. But that generation of MRE also had "eggs and ham", "chicken ala king", and other barf meal components. "Spaghetti & meatballs" was pretty good (until you happened to get about 10 of them in a row) because they came with a little packet of M&M's. The freeze-dried fruit bricks were enjoyable to eat, too. And who can forget the "cheese and crackers" (as opposed to the peanut butter)?
2nd gen started coming with little mini bottles of Tabasco sauce in some of them...
At least they're not C-Rats.
Anymore odds are you're going to have at least a few military types well used to MRE's on board.
Of course, an MRE could keep me entertained for a couple hours of flight...
I don't read AC A human right
Then why isn't food on all flights equally bad? I haven't flown in about 10 years, but 10 years ago everything I ate on a domestic US flight was pretty bad. During the same time period, everything I ate on a flight to Europe or Asia was really good. I could be wrong, but I'm pretty sure everything the article mentions (taste and smell changes due to elevation/pressure/humidity) was roughly the same on all of those flights. So while the explanations in this article may be based on scientific facts, the claims they make based on them are blown way out of proportion.
In my experience, the changes in personal smell/taste on flights is not significant enough to make a real difference. It's all about the food served. I'm not certain whether the international flights I took spent more on the food, or whether they simply assumed that international travelers had a broader palate and would accept more "interesting" foods than the average American. It may have been both.
Heck, just getting all the little heavy-duty plastic sachets open would require borrowing something sharp from the nearest terrorist's backpack. Yes, they have a notch that is supposed to make them easy to tear open. It doesn't.
That's what I was going to say.
Despite all their excuses, the food that's served in first class is actually pretty decent.
After all, it's not just a question of food preparation, it's also a question of saving space, using cheap labor/ingredients, cleaning stuff up, and cutting the number of trips the passenger wants to use the restrooms (without making him/her sick).
Oops, you are out of date, another company is trying all business air travel again. Nobody really managed to do it but somewhere in Asia someone is trying... the US? Sorry, to poor.
It would be REALLY humiliating for the west if an Asian company succeeds in luxury air travel. Time to learn Chinese.
MMO Quests are like orgasms:
You may solo them, I prefer them in a group.
and below the 14,000 where you can't breath,
This is incorrect. People in good health can breathe just fine at 14,000'. You will definitely feel more aerobically challenged for a given level of exertion. Many unacclimatized people will experience mild altitude sickness (headache), and a few will get sick enough that they need to descend immediately for safety.
People routinely summit Kilimanjaro, which is 19,000', without supplementary oxygen -- in fact, I've never heard of anyone using oxygen at that altitude. The altitude where it's really impossible to breathe, even if you're healthy and thoroughly acclimatized, is more like 25,000' to 29,000' (the top of Everest). Some people do summit Everest without oxygen.
Find free books.
Oh. And now TWO people have -1 -ed the parent because I typoed "1/5th" (originally thought 1/3rd, but then considered better) and called a poster an idiot?
The interior airspace of a plane is extremely limited and easily served by a small humidifier and, in all likelyhood, you could grab the small amount of water necessary to operate from the outside air via condensation on the plane. Anyone who calls that "hundreds of gallons necessary" deserves a mocking and being called an idiot for posting it here before thinking. -1, poster is being a jerk is not an option :P
You are the one who is to cheap to pay for good quality food. Everything in life costs money and if you want the cheapest possible ticket, you get the cheapest possible food. The food budget in the cattle section is that of the cheapest deep frozen micro-wave meal you can find. Really 2 bucks would be on the high end.
People have made it amazingly clear by voting with their dollars that they want cheap, cheaper, cheapest but then whine their ass of when there are no "free" luxuries. You have to wonder if these people ever had any education involving complex math like sums. When an airline ticket costs less then dining in a decent restaurant, how can you expect decent food? What next, you pay a dime for the toilet and wonder why virgin handmaides don't clean your ass with their silky tongues? PAY up and they will, don't pay and you can eat with the rest of the cows in a space smaller then a real cow gets when it needs to be moved.
Consider yourself lucky, you might live. The cow does not.
MMO Quests are like orgasms:
You may solo them, I prefer them in a group.
I have never been on a flight that has fed me anything beyond a bag of pretzels. Even longer flights I'm lucky to get pretzels and a can of soda. I don't know who these yuppies are that are bitching about airline food, but really that is not a problem that (at least) 99.99% of the world and 99% of the USA will never, ever, encounter.
Damn_registrars has no butt-hole. Damn_registrars has no use for a butt-hole.
Do you know what the prices of those spices are?
Airlines are operating on a hairline profit margin and often go below. When you buy in bulk prices QUICKLY add up into gigantic figures. Really, basic stuff as a cherry on top is a HALF MILLION DOLLARS in hard costs on the scale of airline food for a single airline. Fresh herbs? An airline meal is 2 bucks.Maybe 3 if you are at a small airline. How much does a ground served meal cost you to get fresh herbs? I know, a microwave steam meal starts at 4.50 euro maybe 4 with a discount bought at a local low rent supermarket.
The food you get in cattle class is the cheapest food you can get. There is a reason business class is so much more expensive. People really just don't seem to get that there is a price difference between small can of soda and a small bottle of decent wine. Between a piece of meat that has to come out of 2 dollar budget and a 50 or even 100 dollar budget.
I don't get what is so hard to understand. Do the same people that complain about a airplane food while bragging about how cheap a ticket they got also complain that a free coffee refill does NOT include an Irish coffee?
Nothing you get as part of your airplane ticket is "free" EVERYTHING cost money. Free headphones? They cost money, yes, it is just a few cents but it all adds up. That is the reason when you buy a 500 dollar iPad it barely comes with anything and a cover costs an insane portion of the price considering the tech difference.
If everyone was willing to pay twice the price for a ticket, the service would be a lot better. But people are not. An asian company is trying again, many others have failed, with business only travel. Very nice seats. Good luck getting people to pay for it.
When people book a ticket, they only see the price. They don't realize just how bad 14 hours of misery is. I have told employers to either pay up for business class or forget it. I also want a day before and after off. Anything else, and you might as well get roaring drunk before going to work. Actually, that is a lot more fun but you will be just as effective.
But then someone finds out that someone bucking for a promotion is willing to sacrifice comfort and sleep and alertness and they can save a few bucks and voila, an industry that was known for luxury is now known for discomfort. All to squeeze just one more penny of the ticket price and end up at our destination more wrecked and miserable then ever before.
Good luck. Because even business class is not all that comfortable, I am perfectly happy for a younger person to go instead and save some money.
Travel has always been about paying through the nose for barely reaching the comforts of your own house. I even travel in private jets as a guest in the past. It is exciting the first time, the second time you just want to sleep in your own bed without a horrid atmosphere cramped roof and noisy engine. If you were to put a child raping puppy kicker kitten eater in couch, even the most right wing politician up for re-election would cry foul. Did it a couple of times and stopped when I learned that it was not the norm to have an entire row to yourself because it was off season... ONE seat is what you get on a normal flight? ONCE, 1 hour flight. NEVER EVER AGAIN. If I have to board a tram for 5 minutes that is that crammed, I walk.
But hey, you gotta travel and you gotta save money. Enjoy being miserable, would be fun to actually do the math of just how badly cheap air travel affects people and costs them in cranky holidays or lost productivity during business travel.
In Europe? I take the train. Yes, it is slower on many routes but the difference in comfort is worth it.
MMO Quests are like orgasms:
You may solo them, I prefer them in a group.
Give me an appetizer, a main meal including meat, a dessert and some fruit. 2 dollars. DOLLARS, not pounds.
MMO Quests are like orgasms:
You may solo them, I prefer them in a group.
As always, McGrew is the real reason to come read Slashdot! He provides the armor-piercing questions!
No sig for the moment.
If you've ever tried the food served in the first class cabin, or even business, you know that any truth to the claim that altitude is why airline food tastes bad is only a very small part of the story. Most of the food served in cattle class is mass-produced, watery, gelatinous gruel served atop freeze dried rice/noodles/generic carbohydrate source. If you were to eat it on the ground, cooked using the best methods available, it would still taste about on-par with a Kwik-E-Mart sandwich.
One MRE should be enough to frighten the entire plane into fasting.
If it's one of the new ones with chemical heater in the box, it'll sure keep them... entertained.
Oveur looks down at his dinner tray and sees skeleton of the fish he just ate.
ELAINE Just how serious is it, doctor?
DR. RUMACK Extremely serious. It starts with a slight fever.
Oveur experiences what the doctor is describing.
DR. RUMACK Then a dryness in the throat. As the virus penetrates the red blood cells the victim becomes dizzy and begins to experience a rash and itching. From there the poison works its way into the central nervous system causing severe muscle spasms, followed by the inevitable drooling. At this point, the entire digestive system is rendered useless, causing the complete collapse of the lower bowels, accompanied by uncontrollable flatulence...until finally the poor bastard is reduced to a quivering, wasted piece of jelly.
http://www.acetonestudio.com
It's "likelihood" you idiot!
You mean a facility that may process nuts.
https://www.eff.org/https-everywhere
Peanuts are not nuts. They are two completely different allergens.
I flew Swiss Air and Scandinavian Air. The food tasted just fine, in fact it tasted really good.
The author should try flying a non-US airline.
No, not the ones on the plane, but what I remember from the programme.
Heston is unbelievably awesome and the ONLY chef worth watching so if that doesn't convince you...
Yes, Heston found that the air in aeroplanes kills our sense of smell and somewhat interferes with our sense of taste too. He found that the one tastebud type which still works is umami (savoury).
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Umami
He also found the food was perfectly prepared on the ground. However, the ovens on the BA flight had two settings: keep warm and incinerate. Furthermore, the food was sealed for freshness/safety without air vents for steam produced while cooking to escape -- so any 'crusty' food would turn soggy.
Also, the 'kitchen' was only about 3x the size of the toilet with no dedicated chef. All of this seriously limits what you can do when you have to feed 300+ people in under an hour.
He ended up cooking a savoury lasagne I think.
Yes but then they couldn't keep track of your search habits.
"If you want a picture of the future, imagine a boot stamping on a human face — forever."
I have been on private jet flights and the in flight food was fantastic. No "hot air ovens to re heat" they used a microwave and a toaster oven. the steak done in the toaster oven was actually very good. They had them in aluminum foil pouches that they open the top on.
this sounds like airline executives trying to CYA as to why the food sucks.
Do not look at laser with remaining good eye.
Yup. It's bullshit.
1. Food in the business cabins still tastes how it should.
2. Food I've taken on board still tastes good,
3. The food budget per meal, per seat in economy is around $1-$2
1 and 2 put the lie to the premise, 3 is just the reason why. Price competition has driven airlines to cut every last cent they can. Me, I'd rather have an option to pay ten bucks more for my ticket and not get fed recycled rat-shit.
This depends on which airline you fly. I understand most posters are American and have never flown a proper premium airline but on airlines like Singapore, Emirates and Thai the food is actually quite good, and they hand out extra bread rolls.
However travelling on Singapore, Emirates or Thai costs a bit more then budget airlines like Easyjet or Air Asia but you get what you pay for.
Even Air Asia X's food is OK, not the best but still quite edible. You pay an extra A$7 at booking though. Up to you if you want to eat on a 5+ hour flight to Kuala Lumpur, keep in mind the best restaurant the KLIA LCCT (Low Cost Carrier Terminal) has is a Micky D's.
Oh, avoid QANTAS's food. It really is shredded arse.
Calling someone a "hater" only means you can not rationally rebut their argument.
Yes, and they also write it as though food tastes bad in all the dry parts of the world.
If it's a long flight, take some sandwiches or something. On an 8 hour flight you only need one meal.
If you're on an extremely long haul flight of 18 hours, I can only feel sorry for you, but I think the lack of tasty food would be far outweighed by the sheer numbing tediousness of the experience anyway.
To have a right to do a thing is not at all the same as to be right in doing it
Yup last time I tried it was awesome actually. Much better than airplane food. The carrot cake was nice, and heated soup is love. Damn why don't they serve soup on the plane but cup noodles are fine? I wish they serve soup in a coffee cup or something.
Just a point about LCCT - there's also a KFC, and the Old Town White Coffee isn't too bad for food either. There's another place called Taste of Asia which is also OK, in a pinch.
Warning on a bag of mixed nuts in my local pub: "May contain traces of nuts."
I shit you not.
Finally had enough. Come see us over at https://soylentnews.org/
Chezh Airlines or Estonian Air both have very tasty food.
Heh, stoners should stay away from my science fiction then. They have stratodoobers!
Free Martian Whores!
I fly Singapore whenever I can, because the food is good, the service is good, the in-seat entertainment units are modern and there seems to be a reasonable amount of space.
Yeah, you pay a bit more, but on a 12+ hour trip it's worth it.
So why is it that the food I bring aboard tastes just fine...? I think you'e being far, far too generous to the airlines.
on a plane.
Oh, wait, yes I do; it was on a flight from Boston to NC back int he late 80's. There was a just HORRIBLE smell filling the cabin, it stank like wet dog. It was the cheese omelette.
I guess this explains why the food always tastes like a salty mess. I would prefer the airline doesnt over salt their food in an attempt to bring out flavor. If Im hungry then tastless food would still satisfy me, but the food is always too salty and taste like junk food for me to actually eat.
Early April fool perhaps?
I mean “ 'Ice cream is about the only thing I can think of that tastes good on a plane,' says Marion Nestle, a professor of nutrition, food studies and public health” — seriously?
Food tastes crappy on planes because it is crappy. The food in business class tastes better because it is better. It's still for the most part closer to crappy however than better, but it's better than it used to be I think.
I used to have a better sig than this, but I got tired of it