The science and secrets behind how in-flight meals are selected and prepared.

As Jerry Seinfeld famously asked, “What’s the deal with airplane food?” The Biscoff cookies you’re given as a participation prize for reaching cruising altitude and the warmed-up plastic container of pasta are shrouded in mystery. Most passengers don’t question where their complimentary food came from or how it got to them, despite how little information is given about the meal selection and preparation process. Would anyone stuck 35,000 feet up in the air turn down free food? Not me. The airline catering services industry is worth billions, but there’s not much behind-the-scenes knowledge bestowed on the average traveler as to how the sausage gets made. In fact, I struggled to find sources willing to explain the ins and outs of airplane food. While most major carriers have culinary design teams to brainstorm menus, they rely on catering companies to help them produce thousands of in-flight meals a day. Airplane food hasn’t always been served in a plastic-wrapped box that looks like it came straight from a Trader Joe’s aisle. As with everything related to modern air travel, meals and the logistics to prepare them are continually being fine-tuned to be more efficient and, ideally, to improve the customer experience.

A brief history of the airline meal

To recognize how meager today’s domestic food offerings are, we have to look to the late 1990s and early 2000s, when airlines served complimentary meals on domestic flights. In the aftermath of 9/11, the industry took a devastating financial hit, and most airlines had to slash costs wherever necessary. One of the first things they cut back on was in-flight meal service. Airlines completely stopped serving meals for economy passengers on domestic flights, with the exception of nonstop transcontinental routes.
Within the past decade, airlines have started to unbundle their services, meaning that passengers can choose to pay for certain, once-included amenities, like a snack pack or a checked bag. If you want anything more than what’s given to you, it’ll likely have an additional price tag.

How are plane meals prepared?

Meals are usually prepared on the ground in catering facilities close to the airport, and are then transported to the aircraft and placed in refrigerators for flight attendants to heat and serve on board. The caterers are more like the middlemen that help airlines mass-produce thousands of meals a day; the airline’s catering team is usually responsible for menu design. The meals (and the aircraft ovens used to heat them) are designed so that the food isn’t severely affected by the change in altitude and pressure. Airline chefs or catering groups usually provide instructions for the cabin crew on how to heat and even plate the food. Most airline meals contain a lot of sodium, since people’s taste perception changes in the air, that’s one of the challenges since we have to factor in the changes in altitude. People lose about 30 percent or even more of their taste for salt. Airlines don’t want to have the impression of serving bland food, so it’s likely they’ll add flavor enhancers, like salt or sugar, to make meals taste better.

Is the food (and water) generally safe to consume?

Short answer: yes.

There have been, however, documented cases of food poisoning, and the Food and Drug Administration has issued nearly 1,500 food safety citations to the three major airline caterers (Gate Group, Flying Food Group, LSG Sky Chefs) and 16 airlines since October 2008, according to an NBC News investigation. NBC found that 500 of these cases were related to contamination or sanitation violations, but none were severe enough for the FDA to shut down a catering facility. The quality of drinking water on airlines also varies, according to another 2019 study Platkin supervised. Platkin revealed that the Environmental Protection Agency rarely penalizes airlines that violate the law for providing passengers unsafe drinking water. Some airlines give guests bottled water, but if you’re drinking a hot beverage like coffee or tea, chances are the water could come from the water tank. Airlines are required to disinfect their water tanks only four times a year, and on international flights, tanks are sometimes refilled in other countries.

While these discoveries might sound alarming, it doesn’t necessarily mean that all airline food and water is entirely unsafe. When it comes to eating on a plane, ignorance doesn’t always lead to bliss (especially if you’re trapped on a metal contraption with, like, one bathroom). But 2020 is expected to be a good year for airlines globally, so it’s not too radical to hope that plane meals will get better — eventually. Source.