Keeping food chilled throughout a duty.

[Mooneyboy]

I work for an airline and looking at the crew food provided I'm starting to think it might shorten my flying career.

I'm looking at bringing my own food more chilled food not frozen. Does anyone have any good ideas or tips on keeping the food chilled throughout the day without ice packs etc without being taken away through airport security?

[parabellum]

First, make sure your food is vacuum packed. Does your airline carry dry ice? Of so ask the CC, very nicely, if they will store your food for you. When you want to eat make sure the CC don't need the aircraft ovens for the pax, again, if you ask nicely they may heat it for you.
You don't say type of aircraft or facilities available. What is so bad about crew food that you think you might get ill? (I ate it for over 36 years!).

[Flying Wild]

Why not frozen? It's acceptable to take through security and the best way to keep the rest of your things chilled in a lunch bag. On a long duty covering lunch and dinner I'll take a salad/sandwich for lunch and have a frozen homemade foil tray for dinner. Our cabin crew never have a problem with reheating stuff for us.

As to the problem with crew food, I'd rather know exactly what was in the food I'm consuming.

[noflynomore]

Why do you need to keep it chilled? If it is freshly made it won't come to any harm over the length of a duty, and anyway you don't eat at the end of a duty but somewhere in the middle. There isn't a necessity for chilling at all. In the 737 and airbus anything kept in a flight case by your seat was chilled regardless of cabin temp.

[Mooneyboy]

Thanks for all the replies. I fly the Airbus so yes there are certainly some cold areas on the flight deck. Especially behind the sliding window although my lunch box is too big. Yesterday just gave it to the senior who put it in a cool bag. I have to admit I'm not sure what the necessity of keeping food chilled is but would prefer to be on the safer side.

Probably will get into bringing frozen food at some point. Was just wondering if there was any cool packs or similar that I can get through security but as long as I can pass on my food to be put into the cool bag shouldn't be a problem.

[Metro man]

You could argue that ice is a solid and not subject to the LAG ban, or try a number of small packs 100ml or less. I use an insulated bag with a slim ice pack which works well.

The ice draw in the galley is another possibility.

[Amadis of Gaul]

This is what I use. It's basically two bags in one, a laptop/iPad bag and a lunchbag.

https://www.aerocoast.com/aerocoast-cooler-laptop-accessories-organizer-flight-attendant-bag.html

I do carry an icepack, because my trips are usually 4 days (I don't do day turns), but it would work for a day without an icepack.

[Uplinker]

One only has to look at the long list of chemical ingredients on the lid to see that crew food is not very healthy.

Your own food made daily and stored in a tupperware style box with the four lid locks, won't go off in a day.

I fill an appropriately sized one of those, depending on where I am going, with salad, olives, peppers, mushrooms etc, (chopped up so I can eat it with just a fork, which is easier on the flight deck), and I often put frozen prawns in. I put the tupperware box into a small insulated bag with a couple of apples or oranges. Using kitchen scissors to do the chopping up makes it all very quick and easy. The frozen prawns keep the salad contents chilled and by the time I eat it the prawns have defrosted. I make it up the night before and keep it in the fridge overnight, which works very well.

Or you could make a big pot of something like pasta or curry at the beginning of your week and divide it into a number of heatable containers and stick them in your freezer. Take one or two of your frozen meal(s) to work each day and ask the crew to put them in an oven for you. Again, they will defrost during the day, but will be safe as long as you keep them somewhere cool and away from sunlight.

By the way, I used to put olive oil on my salads, but this can leak past the box seal, causing a mess in the flight bag.

[PoppaJo]

Ive been taking protein shakes recently, add ice to milk before I walk out the door, or use water but the milk tastes better. It's a great energy and hunger booster if your strapped for time during duty, which we always seem to be. I tried the frozen food thing but it never worked as I could never pinpoint a rough time we could get a chance to eat. 4 sectors days, short flights, slot congested airports, other aircraft waiting for you to get off the bay! Who has time to eat!

[Amadis of Gaul]

Can't get used to the texture of protein shakes. Feels like drinking liquified putty.