Quickie Audio PostCard: Why Airline Food Really IS Bad

[Kaleel Sakakeeny]

Why Does Airline Food Taste so Awful?

(Listen to the 1-minute Travel Audio PostCard)

Is it actually the food the airlines serve (when they do) that tastes so bad, or is it the flying experience make the food taste so awful?

Wired Magazine reported that a handful of brave volunteers made “the ultimate sacrifice for science” and ate airline food. Voluntarily.

Apparently a lab was set up that perfectly simulated the intense dryness, stale air and ear-irritating low pressure of airline cabins.

Germany’s Lufthansa Airlines spearheaded the experiment basically because they wanted some scientific sense of just how air travel affects the taste buds. So the volunteers were jammed into an Airbus A310 fuselage to find out.

From there, the hapless tasters were subjected to motors under the seats recreating the full sense of engine vibrations, while the ”cabin” air pressure was lowered  and humidity reduced to a parching 15%.

The “flyers” were served various meals, tasted the food and, Wired reported,  reported back that the “pressurized cabins dulled the senses,” causing food to taste as if it had 20% less sugar and salt than it actually did.

Lufthansa says it will correct the mistaste by adding more sugar, herbs and spices to liven up the flavor.

They say they’ll also add humidifiers and pay more attention to aroma.

It seems that the nose feasts before the palate so, according to one airline head of on board services: “If you serve hot brown water and fill the cabin with the aroma of coffee, people will perceive the drink as coffee.”

Of course they could just serve good coffee and let the natural aroma entice the passengers.

Now there’s a novel idea.

[Kaleel Sakakeeny]

Probably Turkish Airlines and then Mom's Airline....only kidding, Mom!

[Ed Wetschler]

Yup, I yield. And now the 50-point question for Carol, Kaleel, or anyone else who wants to stick his neck out: On which airline have you had good food lately? 

[Kaleel Sakakeeny]

Nice, Carol! Take that, Ed :)

[Carol Loftus]

Either way, Ed, it's heartburn.

[Ed Wetschler]

Hannibal Lechter would reply, Depends upon how badly your heart is cooked.

[Kaleel Sakakeeny]

Some wag asked me if the food is so bad, why re the food trolleys empty at the end of the meal service. I suggested that eating airline food was a step up from eating my heart out!

Cheers, Ed

[Ed Wetschler]

And I thought testing the polio vaccine was tough.