Then, as the plane gets higher, the air pressure drops while humidity levels in the cabin plummet. To investigate this the researchers used a special lab that reduced air pressure simulating cruising at 35, feet It even made seats vibrate in its attempts to mimic an in-flight meal experience. Interestingly, the study found that we take leave of our sweet and salty senses only.
Sour, bitter and spicy flavours are almost unaffected. We need evaporating nasal mucus to smell, but in the parched cabin air our odour receptors do not work properly, and the effect is that this makes food taste twice as bland. So airlines have to give in-flight food an extra kick, by salting and spicing it much more than a restaurant on the ground ever would. He and his fellow chefs also have the constant loud humming of the jet engines to contend with.
While you may think that flavour is influenced by your nose and mouth, psychologists are now finding that your ears can also play a part. For more on this, see this video and try out a taste experiment A study found that people eating to the sound of loud background noise rated food as being less salty and less sweet than those who ate in silence. Another twist: to those surrounded by noise, food surprisingly appeared to sound much crunchier.
For example, seasonings like cardamom, lemon grass and curry taste more intense in the sky than salt or sugar. Preparing and serving tasty food for a few hundred people above the clouds is not an easy task.
Science Has the Answer. By Barbara Stepko Updated May 20, Save Pin FB More. Credit: Getty Images. Good to know. Luckily, the Fraunhofer Institute in Germany is on it. In a paper published in , the institute had a handful of subjects take a simulated flight and tested their ability to smell and taste different flavors.
Researchers dissolved the compounds in water, in increasing concentrations, to test how much of a smell or flavor would need to be present before subjects could detect it. Research has shown that white noise in a non-airplane context suppresses some basic tastes, and considering that, as well as research that shows umami is the most intense of the five tastes, a recent op-ed published in Flavour suggests researching whether umami is a taste that withstands the white noise effect.
The Fraunhofer study recommends that airline caterers spice food more to make it more palatable—curries tend to survive well, and also follow the cardinal rule of wetness. Charles Platkin, a lecturer at Hunter College and the City University of New York School of Public Health does an annual analysis of the calorie count of foods offered on major airlines.
His analysis found that the average number of calories per food item was , down from in , and while some airlines are moving toward healthier food, he says that overall, progress has been slow.
He also notes that making the food taste better could reflect negatively on the airlines in another way. De Syon says airlines are shifting from food-as-entertainment to, well, entertainment-as-entertainment. Gordon Ramsay would never eat airplane food. Neither would fellow Michelin-starred chef Daniel Boulud — unless he was flying in business class. Both Ramsay and Boulud have a point.
Meals served on airplanes are hardly gourmet, especially for people who fly economy class on international or long-distance flights. Airplane food has a bad reputation for a number of reasons — the way the food itself is prepared and stored, the environment in which it is served onboard and the flight conditions all combine to affect the way the meals taste.
His meal received a 1 rating, out of a possible 10 on the website, which tracks airline meals every day. British Airways said it regularly reviews feedback from customers and crew members. Prior to takeoff, airlines freeze pre-made meals on the ground and thaw them out while in air, according to Charles Spence, an experimental psychology professor at the University of Oxford.
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