Eating and Drinking at High Altitude

There has been a great deal of talk recently about airlines making a big effort to better the quality of their inflight meals. On board meals are notoriously awful and people dread being given awful food, especially on long haul flights.

Apparently the issue with food and drink on a flight is that the function of our taste buds alters when at high altitude, making the food we eat taste flavourless and bland. The industry has commissioned a great deal of scientific research in this area, because airlines are dedicated to improve the quality of food they provide passengers, especially on business and first class trips.

Research has revealed that the atmosphere within an aircraft, with low humidity levels, can dehydrate passengers before the plane has even taken off and indicates that when at high altitude, approximately one third of a person’s taste buds stop working well. Food can be injected with more flavour through adding more seasoning than would be usual. Full bodied wines are affected far less than others so airlines tend to stick to these varieties.

New research has found that noise can significantly affect the way our food tastes. White noise created by the engines, lowers our response to the flavour of sugar and salt in our food. These reasons could be the answer to why airline food is so tasteless.

It has to be said, that in terms of food presentation, many airlines have a lot to answer for. It is bad enough that the taste is so poor without contributing to the problem by making it look awful too.

Poor food presentation has a negative impact on how we perceive food that has been presented to us, because it is part of the experience and delivers a strong message. Anybody would feel uninspired when looking at a tray of food that is unidentifiable. Many people lose their appetite because of the presentation alone. 

It is important to keep in mind that several reputable airlines have consistently served food, snacks and beverages that taste great. Other companies produce food that would surely taste equally bad anywhere!

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