Why airline food will always be terrible

Aeroplane food is notoriously bad. Flavour struggles against pressurised cabins, dry air, and the intense storage processes. Can it ever be a decent meal?

Ruby Murray celebration for BA

British Airways turned 40 on 1st April this year (no joke). To mark the occasion, they’re offering passengers a ‘Ruby Murray’ curry (pictured left) on selected flights departing from London and America in World Traveller cabins throughout April. Ruby, of course, being the gift traditionally associated with fortieth anniversaries.

In BA's earlier days, passengers were apparently more likely to enjoy a ‘plain (shouldn't that have been plane?) omelette with grilled chipolatas and tomatoes'.

Airline food has become more sophisticated as time has gone on. But ‘sophisticated’ does not necessarily equal ‘great tasting’. For those of you who have recently flown, the still-lingering memory of tasteless green beans, bland sauces and clumps of grey rice might be enough to put you off your lunch. Let’s face it – airline food doesn’t exactly have a great reputation, particularly if you're flying economy.

To their credit, a lot of airlines do now offer various special meals to suit specific dietary requirements. Vegans, people allergic to gluten and those on low sodium diets can now also 'enjoy' full in-flight meals.

Is there a better way?

TV presenter and journalist Aggie MacKenzie is a frequent flyer, and would travel Virgin upper class when hopping to and from America for work.

“It feels that the food has been cooked fresh in upper class… [the meals] are pretty high quality," she tells me. "It's stuff that you’d actually enjoy eating rather than just filling up on.” A properly-cooked steak is one of the more pleasurable inflight meals Aggie remembers. 

Of course, an upper class return is expensive and Aggie doesn't think the food alone justifies the price. The extra money is for the “bed, treatment, and space. The food is part of the experience, but you can’t justify the cost on the food. Definitely not.”

High-flying quality

The majority of flyers will be more familiar with rubbery eggs than steak. But regardless of which class you’re travelling in, your senses of taste and smell are sapped by the pressurised, low-humidity jet cabin. And the meals are all packed, frozen, dried and stored before flights. Can you recall the last frozen ready meal that you really enjoyed?

Lovefood Editor Charlotte is adamant that aeroplane food “has, and always will be, terrible.” She recalls one flight to Spain where she was served prawn mousse, and was duly sick shortly afterwards. Worryingly for BA, she also thinks that it's “antisocial to serve curry in such a small space. You wouldn’t eat it on a train, so why eat it on a plane?”

Managing Editor Simon agrees. Despite the industry’s best efforts, plane food will remain “average at best… you can get celebrity chefs to design menus, use trendy ingredients, but it’s always going to be a question of heating up pre-prepared meals.” I too remain unconvinced that aeroplane food (in economy class at least) will ever be enjoyable. 

That said, airlines do actually want customers to enjoy their food. After all, if you’re travelling from, say, London to Sydney, you’ll be on board for almost 24 hours. So if airlines want to attract customers, the edibility of the food might be enough to sway a decision when people are picking who to travel with. 

Carry-on picnics

Gordon Ramsay opened a restaurant in Heathrow Airport in 2008 called Plane Food. The food isn't actually priced too badly (I haven't eaten there – have you?) and there's an express menu for those in a rush. More innovatively, they offer a menu of takeaway flight picnics, which come in a garish orange carry-on bag, which the restaurant tell me you get to keep afterwards.

Despite my reservations about the colour, this is actually a very cool idea, and I'd be interested to know whether Plane Food is a good alternative to plane food, or if it suffers all the same problems. Alas, no-one will send me on a free flight to test it (sigh), so we'd welcome your comments.

DIY meals

As a tasty alternative to everything mentioned above, travellers could pack themselves a picnic for the flight. We tweeted ex-Border Agency guard Mr Cake (he's now a baker having left his airport post in 2013 with the best resignation letter of all time) to find out whether or not you can take food past security. He replied: "I think so, as long as it's not liquid or wet, for example soup, stew, casserole, etc. Things like sandwiches, etc. are fine!" Have a look at Sally-Jayne Wright's article Foods you can and can't take on a plane for some more basic guidance.

Having said that, on a really long flight, any food you can carry on might not last the whole distance. Or you might prefer to have some clothes instead of a bulky lunchbox if you're struggling for space in your baggage. 

Have you eaten on a plane recently? How good was the food? Do you think it’s improved over time? Tell us all about your experiences in the Comments box below – particularly if you’ve tried BA's Ruby Murray.

Ruby Murray curry picture courtesy of BA

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