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  • Airline food has been the butt of jokes for a long time.

  • The first of the year all of the airlines are going to be in a lot of

  • trouble because the FAA has now

  • passed a law that will require all airline food must taste like something.

  • People just don't expect to get on an airline and enjoy the meal they're going to eat.

  • But why does airline food taste so bad?

  • Is it that the airlines are just too cheap to put money into their food?

  • Or is there something else they play?

  • The first airline meals were served on October 11th, 1919.

  • It was aboard a Hanley page flight from London to Paris,

  • featuring a pre-packed lunch box that costs

  • interested passengers three shillings a piece.

  • Pack lunches like the original consisting of sandwiches and

  • fruit were common for decades following this first course.

  • United Airlines stepped up the in-flight service in 1936,

  • when they installed the first on-board kitchens making hot meals near a possibility.

  • Having a kitchen wasn't possible until this point because engines were much weaker.

  • So, much so that diverting power away from them towards

  • an appliance like an oven, was somewhat dangerous.

  • Back then, meals were things like egg salad,

  • crab meat cocktails, lobster and sherbet.

  • It also wasn't uncommon for planes to land where meals could be served at picnic tables.

  • There were other reasons for needing to land

  • like the need to refuel,b ut what's the rush.

  • Everyone on the board is rich. Take your time.

  • With kitchens, airlines could now serve hot and fresh meat that was repaired on board.

  • On top of that, frozen meals,

  • ones that were prepared earlier and then heated up in

  • the sky also took off and dominated the 40s.

  • By 1958, jet travel had spread throughout the US.

  • But only the wealthy could enjoy the luxury offered in the skies.

  • People certainly paid for that luxury.

  • When adjusted for inflation,

  • a TWA flight in the late 1950s,

  • from Boston to L.A., cost $896.

  • A quick google flight search and I found tickets for that same trip

  • going for 120 in January of 2019.

  • Just look at how comfortable these people appear in this Pan Am commercial

  • intended to introduce people to the opulence they can expect on board.

  • This is the atmosphere on a jet clipper flight.

  • Delicious food adds to the enjoyment.

  • It's prepared in full of simultaneously operating galleys,

  • where dishes can be cooked in five minute ovens.

  • During the late 50s,

  • the 60s and early 70s,

  • passengers could expect to see items like lobster, caviar,

  • ham, Cornish game hens an things along those lines.

  • Sometimes, meals were several courses and would last as long as two hours.

  • In 1978, president Jimmy Carter,

  • signed the Airline Deregulation Act.

  • The law altered the course of the entire airline industry. Pan intended.

  • Before the airline industry was deregulated,

  • the Civil Aeronautics Board told which airlines could

  • fly what routes and even set prices.

  • Prices that congress had deemed to be inflated.

  • With the Airline Deregulation Act,

  • the government abolished the CAB creating

  • a free and open market for airlines to decide what routes they want to fly,

  • and what price they'd like to charge.

  • This gave rise to the low cost carriers which are exactly what you think they are.

  • The southwest of the world.

  • The ramifications of the law still being felt today as

  • airlines try and keep their overhead down as much as possible.

  • But it seems to work for profit margins.

  • Airlines like allegiant, spirit and frontier,

  • they charge a low upfront fares and then hit you with fees are among

  • the top in terms of their operating margins between costs and profits.

  • So, is that it. Can we blame the 1978 Airline Deregulation Act and the fact that

  • airlines try to keep their costs down as much as

  • possible for the reason that airplane food is so bad.

  • Well, no.

  • That doesn't tell the whole story.

  • Today, airplanes fly in the sweet spot of 35,000 feet where lower

  • air pressure offers maximum fuel efficiency at a height above most weather events.

  • The air inside the cabin is pressurized to simulate air at six to 8,000 feet in altitude.

  • That's about the same height as Mount Olympus, in Washington state.

  • Meanwhile, the air within a plane is that 20 percent humidity. Really dry.

  • In fact, the Sahara Desert hovers

  • around 25 percent humidity and there's a simple reason why.

  • Over the course of their trip,

  • planes recycle about 50 percent of their air.

  • If they didn't, oxygen could become scarce with everyone filling it with carbon dioxide.

  • Air pulled in at, let's say,

  • 35,000 feet is really thin,

  • meaning, there's not a lot of moisture.

  • In fact, the air at that altitude can have as little as one percent humidity.

  • The plane takes this air in and is able to pressurized it

  • to feel like the air pressure of 68,000 feet,

  • and then hydrated to 20 percent.

  • But as I've said that's still extremely dry.

  • So, what does this have to do with food on planes?

  • The lack of humidity is an issue because it affects your ability to taste.

  • Let's also remember that food can go dry,

  • because it's under that same lack of humidity.

  • Your sense of smell works with the moisture in the air and if that moisture is not there,

  • you won't be able to taste things as well as you can on the ground.

  • Germany's Fraunhofer Institute, studied the dulling of our taste buds on planes and

  • found that on planes your ability to taste is about the same as someone with a Colt.

  • Meaning, even if you're eating a meal prepared

  • by the best chef in the world using the best ingredients,

  • you wouldn't be able to taste it.

  • But that's not all. A 2014,

  • study conducted by Charles Spence,

  • a psychologist from Oxford,

  • found that constant loud noises such as a plane engine,

  • also dulls your sense of taste.

  • Spence's, quoted as saying in order for things that

  • taste the same on the ground as they do in the air,

  • airlines would need to add 30 percent more sugar or

  • 30 percent more salt which sounds awful for your health.

  • Airlines are looking into it,

  • especially for their first class passengers,

  • where they're trying to create a luxury experience.

  • Lufthansa, reports that cinnamon, ginger,

  • chilly and curry, don't need as much help to taste normal.

  • Same with oranges and tomato oils,

  • which probably explains why tomato juice is so popular on planes.

  • So, we'll see if airlines can overcome our dull taste buds.

  • Actually, let's be honest,

  • most of us are not first class travelers

  • and we're never going to have to worry about this.

  • We'll just have to stick with our airport diets of fast food and candy.

  • God bless America. Everyone, thank you so much for watching.

  • If you like what you saw please like, comment,

  • subscribe and make sure you hit that little bell,

  • so that you get notifications for when cheddar posts its new content.

  • We have so much fun stuff coming. Please keep watching.

Airline food has been the butt of jokes for a long time.

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為什麼飛機上的食物味道這麼差?- 切達探索 (Why Does Airplane Food Taste So Bad? - Cheddar Explores)

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    Sophie 發佈於 2021 年 01 月 14 日
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