Why Doesn't Airline Food Taste Good?

If you've ever noticed that airplane food is a little lackluster, the recipe isn't necessarily to blame. Learn how a plane's altitude and even engine noise can affect flavors in this episode of BrainStuff.

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:02):
Welcome to brain stuff from how stuff Works. Hey, brain stuff, Lauren,
vocal bomb Here. The next time your taste buds revolt
at the first bite of an in flight meal, try
holding your tongue. Not literally, of course, but instead of
grousing about airlines and the food they serve. The blame
for poor tasting fair may rest squarely in your mouth

(00:23):
and the way your senses respond to the noise, pressure,
and altitude associated with air travel. It's a lesson, Julia
Buckley learned firsthand. A United Kingdom based travel journalist and
frequent transatlantic flyer, Buckley was selected by British Airways to
help choose a new onboard t She told us via email,
I was one of the judges for the final stage

(00:44):
when it was down to three potential teas on a flight.
We blind tasted four teas at various stages of the flight.
I was convinced I was selecting the same one throughout
is my favorite, but actually my choices were changing with
every tasting. Later, Buckley learned that the t should liked
best on the ground had been the one that became
unbearably acidic halfway through the flight. She was surprised and

(01:05):
a little mortified, she said, I hadn't realized how much
taste changes in the air. The two teas that felt
overpowering on the ground were the most palatable in the
air within an hour of the flight, whereas the most
delicate one suddenly lost its flavor and brought the acidity
to the forefront. It's a phenomenon. Researchers at Cornell University
witnessed as they gaged the reactions of forty eight people

(01:26):
to flavors under different conditions. They gave the participants liquids
designed to mimic one of our five taste sensations sweet, salty, bitter, sour,
and umami or savory. As participants sampled the solutions, they
did so under two different scenarios, first in silence, and
second while listening to the sound of an eighty five
decipel jet engine. The results showed the participants sense of salty, sour,

(01:51):
and bitter remained about the same whether or not conditions
were noisy. However, these same in flight sounds dulled sweet
tastes and enhanced umami tastes like tomato juice, which may
explain why tomato juice and bloody mary cocktails are so popular.
At altitude. By the way, alcoholic drinks don't actually become
more potent on planes, but they can feel that way

(02:12):
because altitude restricts your body's oxygen intake. It seems that
multiple sensory properties of our environment can change how we
perceive food and drink, and it isn't only air travel
that can have an effect. Shanty Celibert, al Los Angeles
based senior writer for Modern Hiker, spent several weeks at
ten thousand feet that's about three thousand meters above sea

(02:33):
level as she traversed the Pacific Crest Trail. She told us,
as I crept higher and higher, I noticed my appetite
changed drastically. I found my palate swaying to the extremes.
I craved boatloads of salt and the sugariest sweets I
could find. These yearnings for salty and intensely sweet flavors
fall right in line with the findings at Germany's frown

(02:54):
Hoffer Institute for Building Physics. At an airline's request, the
institute set out to study passenger perceptions of sweetness and
saltiness and discovered that both dropped by up to thirty
percent during arid simulated flight conditions. It's something to keep
in mind the next time you fly and opt for
a promising tomato based entree and beverage. Today's episode was

(03:19):
written by Laurie L. Dove and produced by Tristan McNeil.
For more on this and lots of other savory topics,
visit our home planet, how stuff Works dot com