On Board Meals Wastage

[Niallo]

Airlines used to offer onboard meals with the price included in the ticket. Most passengers consumed the meals, leaving little wastage. Now the airlines try to sell onboard meals. Since they never know how many will be sold, they must be left with lots over. What happens to them? Are they used on the next flight? Is there a lot of wastage which the airline has to pay for?

[apaddyinuk]

I work for a full service airline who still offer free meals and I can assure you, a lot of that goes to waist too!
Most of the Buy on Board airlines I have flown with however offer prepacked foods similar to what you may buy in a supermarket and would have a shelf life of a couple of days with expiration dates written on the packaging. Obviously the airline will do their best sell the ones closer to the expiration date first. Often the food may well indeed fly around the aircraft for a few days.
As regards those offering hot food. Well it has always been my experience that the offerings are generally underestimated with hots running out!

[AMEandPPL]

I can assure you a lot of that goes to waist too!

Maybe creating obesity, and therefore overweight aircraft loads ! !

[Agaricus bisporus]

What a post!

and I can assure you, a lot of that goes to waist too!


Obese, simply obese! Pearler!

Often the food may well indeed fly around the aircraft for a few days.
Bloody hell, don't they kill the chickens before they let 'em loose? Why aren't the cabin crew issued with nets/guns? But I'm intrigued, do they fly around the inside or the outside of the a/c? Sounds like a sporting opportunity to me.

Fantastic!!!

And there's yet more!

gradually cooling down, def not healthy for bacteria

Mmm. I think it is generally recognised that ovens are not healthy for bacteria, Rainboe - that is the whole point.

But you weren't implying that it is the cooling of food in an oven, rather than its re-heating that is unhealthy?

Were you?

:O

Oh dear....

Gobbldegook rules, OK?

[Scumbag O'Riley]

Long ago it was taken off for pig food, but those days are long goneAnd nowadays it's what the pigs don't eat that gets fed to airline passengers :}

[BelArgUSA]

Africa, Central/South America, South Asia...
I remember many places were beggars were waiting for the crew to get off the plane.
Carry our bags from terminal to hotel crew bus...
All that for 1 dollar, which was more than average day wage in that country.
Many were little kids... I learned that they were often "unionized" -
Little kids were headed by older kids... and money was taken to "parents"...
xxx
Cabin cleaners were well organized too.
Cleaning galleys, scavenge the meals, and sell them outside the airport.
Extra money.. right...?
To me all that sounded very unfair to some.
xxx
So our cabin crewmembers got an idea...
Why not take the meals to the kids, after all, they are the ones who are hungry.
So they carried our bags, we gave no money... but meals.
xxx
:)
Happy contrails

[The Real Slim Shady]

Bel, great idea.

In Myanmar a very enterprising young fella would open the door of our crew bus, naturally expecting a tip.

We were giving him the equivalent of a US dollar, 1000 chat,every time he provided this "service".

Then we realised that he was doing this twice for the early crew, and twice for the late crew: making 4 US dollars a day, or 120 US a month when the average wage was 30US a month.

We were distorting the local economy and his life on a temporary basis.

[BelArgUSA]

Hola Slim -
xxx
Fact is, "overtipping" is a sad problem with people from "the first world"...
It is not that these people should stop being generous.
But, if local "baggage porters" only help the foreigners, they refuse to assist their own people.
Was discussing about this problem with a Cuban in Havana, recently.
Go anywhere as a tourist, stores, restaurants, you are served first.
If you are Cuban, you are last... If not too busy with the foreigners.
xxx
Do not overtip in poor nations.
Whenever possible, offer gifts, such as a meal.
In Havana, I sometimes hire a taxi for the evening. The driver is our guest at the restaurant.
Same driver, all our crews use him. Big Chevrolet BelAir 1958...
And he gets... a small tip, i.e. $3.oo for being with us from 8 to 11 pm...
xxx
:ok:
Happy contrails

[WHBM]

Now the airlines try to sell onboard meals. Since they never know how many will be sold, they must be left with lots over.
This is a fundamental misunderstanding of Buy-on-Board. While the items with a longer shelf life like Mars bars, etc, can be on the cart for some time, the "proper" food like sandwiches is only catered in the quantity that is fairly certain to be sold, not wasted. Therefore only a limited amount is loaded, and it is normal for it to run out before all passengers have been offered it.

For those who get offered nothing, tough.

[Seat62K]

I learnt my lesson some time ago when returning one night to the UK on a "low cost" carrier. I was starving but there was no food left for sale. Since then I've always made sure that, if at all possible, I eat on the ground. It can be cheaper, too: compare the price of a sandwich from Boots at the airport with one onboard a Ryanair or easyJet flight.
P.S. I'm also somewhat suspicious about how long things like mayo can remain safe in the cooler bags some airlines use. I get the impression that these are loaded once a day, before the first flight. Why don't more airlines use fridges? (Weight, I suppose.)

[stevef]

On one long-haul flight from K******* to B*******, I watched two pax put the left-overs from their breakfasts into sick bags and then into their handbags. No wastage there!

[HAWK21M]

Out here....Offloaded food is delivered by the catering agency to the local orphanage most times.
regds
MEL

[Katamarino]

Can one takes ones own sandwiches through security? Assuming they don't contain excessive amounts of liquids :p

[PAXboy]

I agree that you can find the nicer sarnies are sold out, particularly a problem for a vegetarian friend of mine and so she normllay eats before departure.

I do enjoy the Google ads that are context sensitive, just after ...
catering agency to the local orphanageWas the advert (in LARGE CAPS):
WHY IS YOUR STOMACH FAT?
Too much good loco food?? :yuk:

[PAXboy]

By contrast, Rainboe, I would say that Norwegian is one of the very carriers where I am happy to buy their sarnies. Certainly a trip with them in August was a pleasure with good food and service.

The worst food from a fellow pax was a 'MacDonalds' type meal that someone brought onto a Lufthansa some years ago (before liquids ban). The smell was invasive and repulsive but the crew did nothing to prevent, so I guess that you can bring most any food on board..