Written By: Sudipta Satpathy | Updated: June 18, 2015, 12:41 PM
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Lunch on board of airplane
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Altitude: At 37,000 feet, your taste buds and sense of smell that go for a toss. That is why a yummy meal on the ground tastes bland up in the air.
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Cabin environment: The WHO reports that humidity in airplane cabins is lower than 20% whereas, at home it is normally over 30%. A combination of dryness and low pressure makes you less sensitive to sweet and salty food. Also, the recycled cabin air makes the food dry.
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Background noise: A study at Cornell University found that loud noise diminishes our sense of taste making food seem bland and crunchy. In fact, they add extra salt and sugar to food to help our taste buds.
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Pre-cooked packaged meals: Food supplied to airlines is refrigerated after being partially or fully cooked. Half cooked meals are cooked all the way through on board. And fully cooked meals are blast chilled and refrigerated till it's time to serve. Obviously, you can't compare it to a freshly cooked meal.
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Reheating: Finally, the food must survive in-flight reheating before it gets served. The whole process from cooking, packaging, blast-chilling, refrigeration and reheating compromises the taste and nutritional value of food.
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Umami: Known as the fifth basic taste, Umami or 'pleasant savory taste' is unaffected by altitude. In fact, it may be enhanced in the noisy background - which is why umami-rich foods like tomato taste better on air. So next time, if airplane food makes you want to starve, try some tomato soup or virgin bloody mary - you will be pleasantly surprised!
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