Airline Meals

[MMEMatty]

I've just eaten a rather nice Roast Lamb Dinner, complete even down to the Roasties and Yorkshire Pudding. Lovely it was.
It was a Frozen meal like, and this set me wondering, this meal was nicer than some Airline meals ive had (not naming any names).
As i understand it, Ailine meals are cooked 12-24hr before the flight, then freeze dried and loaded on the plane, before being cooked in a giant oven type gadget on the plane.

Now why in this day and age dont they freeze them some weeks before? presumably this would be cheaper, plus this meal i had was very tasty. It microwaved in 7 minutes, so it would save time on the flight?

Airlines, you can thank me with a big fat cheque


Matty

[Momo]

Airlines use a couple of different types of ovens. I think the good ovens rely on hot air, which provides uniform heat distribution, and avoids the hot and cold spots that would be inevitable with a microwave. I think there would be issues with trying to microwave 200 meals in a short time. On top of that, microwave ovens work on the same frequencies as the dreaded mobile phones. I don't know whether they are allowed in aircraft.

Professional views?

Momo

[Unwell_Raptor]

I did some work with airline food suppliers some years ago. One of them supplied several US airlines, and that really spooked my insurers, but that's another story.

In my experience most airline food is fresh, and I have never seen any freeze-dried (not the same as frozen, of course). It is easy to keep chilled food for the 24 hours or so from production kitchen to passenger. It is fiendishly difficult to produce a dish that still tastes good 18 hours and five thousand miles away from being cooked, and, most important, is served at a cabin altitude of 8000 feet or so. That is why First and some Business meals are actually cooked on the aircraft.

The biggest problem in economy and charter is cost. I went to a meeting where one of the agenda items was whether the hordes on their way to the sun could be given the 6 pence chocolate mousse or whether the budget would stretch to 7 pence. The difference, I recall, was how much of the product was bubbles.

If it was that simple to produce delicious food for not much more than a pound a passenger, someone would be doing it right now.


By the way Matty: I think that your choice of dinner says more about you than mere pruneing ever can!

[newswatcher]

I seem to remember seeing an article about the cost of providing British Airways inflight meals, but can't find it again now that I need it! :mad:

From memory, the cost bands were something like £3.00 for Economy, £5 for Club and £8 for First. Peversely, the cost of Concorde was slightly less than First, due to restrictions in space and therefore carrying less items!

An interesting site describing the whole process, and yes some meals are frozen prior to consumption, may be found at

http://www.ifcanet.com/book/default.asp

but this looks as though it might be describing a "mid-90s" scenario, since it originally appeared in 1995.

[OzPax1]

I came across this site the other day.....! www.airlinemeals.net (http://www.airlinemeals.net/) :p Why whould you want to take a photo of your meal..? :rolleyes:

Interesting to see the difference between what type and style the F, B & Y Pax get and also the difference between different airlines too. :O :D

[Ozzy]

well, to my knowledge (and I'm sure someone will correct me!) no US airlines offer meal in coach on internal US flights. So quality is not a problem, ahem ;)

The best meal I've ever had is the British Airways chicken curry together with mini nan bread. It travels well and is excellent. But I never, ever order the "beef" dish....:}

Ozzy

[Crowe]

SAS meals in C - excellent! Not over fancy, just good meats, cheeses and booze.

Let's face it a souffle's never going to work at FL370 - keep it simply & tasty say I.

Other airlines (BA in particular) could learn from the SAS approach I reckon.

[PAXboy]

SAS might well have learnt this from Swiss ...

When I was using the old SwissAir a lot in 96/97 they started to introduce organic food and the simpler/cleaner style. The snacks and evening meals on the LHR/GVA route were fab. That project cam eto an end and I did not travel Swiss again. As yet, not sampled the new/old Swiss.

[Rwy in Sight]

Although it has been some time since I flew Olympic Airways on internatinal routes their food even on economy was excellent since it included often a generous portion of smoked salmon...

BTW I love airline food and I wish I could savour it on the ground as well..


Rwy in sight

[MarkD]

My main problem with BA food is there is so much packaging it's hard to make room for easy access to the food itself. That said I am looking forward to my LHR-YYZ on Friday 18th... ooerr, I wonder if they'll have fish, being a good Catholic as I am :D :D

BA in C is nicer than Y but nothing heartstopping, that said I am open to upgrades!

[Airbus215]

All UK charter carriers tend to use frozen main entrees both for cost and quality control reasons.

The scale of economy that can be made with production runs in excess of 10 000 meals is staggering and of course if all main meals are being produced at 1 production unit (Frequently off airport) then quality is the same at LGW as it is at EXT or ABZ.

The main producers of these frozen entrees are the same producers of supermarket ready meals and in many cases the product is identical to supermarket xyz own brand or famous high street names!

The entrees roll off the production line with a shelf life of 1 year but are normally consumed within a week or so of manufacture.

Everyone benefits as quality and cost is consistent for the airline .
And the manufacturer gets an opportunity to put its products (Unknown to the passenger) in front of a captive audience.

You need only look at the UK carriers to see how tastes have moved on..... Rarely will u find the often-staple charter airline fare of shepherd’s pie or meat pie ... You’re more likely to find Chinese chicken or Chilli on the menu! fruit sorbet or branded ice cream rather than fruit pie ending the meal with cheese and biscuits.

Indeed 1 major UK scheduled carrier has moved totally to mass-produced off site catering items from high street suppliers .... (No coincidence that its sandwiches come from the same supplier as high street stores sandwiches or its salads share a factory with M&S salads)

At some airports you will be hard pressed to actually find an airline kitchen but you will find an assembly unit simply placing items on trays freshly delivered en masse!

So next time you tuckin to sweet and sour chicken with egg fried rice and you suddenly think of a certain brand of home cook in sauces.... You were supposed to.....It was made with that sauce in the manufacturers own factory just a few days ago deep frozen and delivered to the airport, loaded on to your aircraft still frozen. And when you step in to your local shop and buy that sauce the manufacturer has achieved his goal! And the airline hopes you recall fond memories ......








;)

[Parapunter]

In a previous life, I was the Delivery Manager for one of the airline caterers at LGW. The main reasons for airline meals being the way they are come down to the obvious economic factors touched on here by other ppruners.

Number one, cost. Airlines love to save money, so menu meetings really do bang on about saving a penny here & a gram there.

Number two, cost again. The caterers work on tiny tiny margins, so they mostly don't have the opportunity to build massive warehouses full of chill chambers with a years worth of food in them at minus twenty five degrees. Besides, why would you want to do that when your supplier can batch run a flight & deliver 300 economy covers three hours before departure so that you as the caterer don't have to store them at your expense?

Number three, space. Planes are small. If the airlines could get rid of galleys with heavy cooking ovens they would. Hence, meals are modular - the trays are always small, regular shaped & based on componentry (a square dish, a small roll, plastic cutlery in a bag) This allows up to twenty main dishes to be cooked in one oven, then added to the meal trays that are stowed 15 to a cart in a galley stowage - it's all about the space available & the assets needed to process meals.

Number four - safety. Some courses can't be frozen - bread for example. On charter flights which rotate on as little as forty minute turnarounds, it would be difficult to ensure that the right amount of bread was available defrosted to load on the a/c in time for the meal service. The obvious answer is to have big reserves of defrosted bread, but then you either don't use it, or it goes out stale. Hence, most caterers mix frozen availability with daily production runs to ensure the right presentation and also that product doesn't spoil prior to delivery. Remember that flight times are fluid & I have witnessed many 200 cover flights go in the bins because a delayed a/c meant that temperature regs would have been breached & the pax put at risk as a consequence.

Demand changes at very short notice - most caterers will keep stocks of gluten/wheat/lactose free meals in storage for late requests & some airlines order late quantities of one line product - Maersk for example would reliably require extra bread for their pax, since it is a popular item in Scandy countries.

Despite the obvious complexity of a catering operation, I still raise a smile when I think of the number of Captains I would speak to when we were delayed & therefore delaying an a/c who truly believed it was all some old fishwife stirring a huge pot in her kitchen! I really miss the airport, it was good times.

[newswatcher]

Parapunter, mock ye not.....

If I remember correctly, the original in-flight meals for Suckling Airlines, when they were just based out of Cambridge, were prepared by Mrs S herself, in her kitchen at home!

[Parapunter]

NW,

I suppose experience beats youth every time!! At risk of sounding defensive, It really does raise a smile, I would love the reactions from flight deck when we explained what goes on. Still, if I was so clever, I'd be flying the plane...

[Tinstaafl]

What is it with BA and the those bloody awful curvy dishes & trays in economy??? :* :*

As if we don't have minimal space available sitting in the seat so they choose to use space wasting oval dishes & weird trays.

[MarkD]

Normally don't have a beef with them (fnar) but was displeased that they couldn't have a fish choice on Big 93 on Good Friday. Plenty of Catholics in UK etc. fly Big! The one day of the year we're not supposed to eat meat and it's a choice of chicken or beef. I don't think a fish course (such as that served on Big 98 last night) is too much to ask once a year, and surely some Romans work in Catering somewhere?

[Wot No Engines]

MarkD,

simple answer - book a special meal on religious grounds - they do it for others.

Have any of the UK airlines looked at the meals that Qantas are doing for their short internal flights ? Meals are all cold and packed in boxes - easier to store and give out, and easier for the passenger as items don't fly off of the overpacked tray.

The breakfast is also the best economy breakfast I have had from any airline.