Why Does Airline Food Taste So Bad?

Above, an Air China jet at Narita Airport. Photo by Armand Vaquer.

Why does airline food taste so bad?

This is a question that some people ask. I raised the issue of lousy airline food recently after my trip to Japan in February. I stated that the food United Airlines served on that trip was mediocre at best.

The Huffington Post's travel blog has an article from Condé Nast Traveler on the subject of airline food and the conclusions they arrived at are surprising. Some I agree with, some I don't.

They start the article with:

It's a question every traveler has asked themselves at some point: Why does airplane food taste so bad? No matter what it is--fish, chicken, even pasta--every meal served in the air seems to taste undeniably worse than its on-the-ground counterpart. To get to the bottom of this dilemma, we consulted Grant Mickels, the executive chef for culinary development of Lufthansa's LSG Sky Chefs--who had some surprising revelations. Namely: That the food's not really the problem here.

If the conclusions they came up with (I will let you read the article in full so you can make up your own mind) is the case, then why do some airline's food is better than others?  If their "passenger's fault" conclusion as the "main reason" is true, then ALL airline food should be lousy. I had no complaints about United's meals until this most recent trip. I used to like their meals. The meals served on Singapore Air and Korean Air have been very good-to-excellent, in my opinion.

Some conclusions they came up with could be true for some people. I think the major problem is with quality control and freshness. At least the article does point out that the process of the preparation of flight meals has a lot to do with the problem.

To read more, go here.