Have you ever wondered why airplane food tastes different from what you eat on the ground? In this edition of ‘Everyday Explained,’ HT Lifestyle spoke to Nishikaa, a clinical nutritionist and UK certified advanced fat loss and metabolic health coach, to understand how altitude, dry air and cabin pressure affect taste.
“One of the biggest factors is the dry cabin environment. When the nose and mouth are not functioning at their best, our ability to pick up aromas and subtle flavours can also be affected. This is why something that tastes perfectly balanced at home may feel slightly different when you eat the same thing on a flight. Then there’s the cabin noise , which is a factor we rarely associate with food. Aircraft-like noise can actually influence taste perception. Sweetness tends to be perceived less intensely, while umami, that deep, savoury flavour found in foods such as tomatoes, mushrooms, cheese and certain broths, can become more noticeable. There’s also a simple behavioural aspect. Flying can disrupt our usual eating routine. All of these things can influence how enjoyable a meal feels. And interestingly, this helps explain why tomato juice has become such a popular in-flight drink . Its naturally savoury, umami-rich character can stand out when some other taste sensations are muted.
Because the meal has been served rather than because we are genuinely hungry, we may be eating at an unusual time, sitting for several hours, feeling tired, or simply eating.
Aircraft cabins have relatively low humidity, which can leave our mouth and nasal passages feeling dry,” said Nishikaa.
When we’re on an aircraft, the combination of low humidity , cabin pressure and constant background noise can change how we perceive taste and smell. Nishikaa highlighted that food doesn’t actually change its recipe when it reaches 35,000 feet, but our ability to experience its flavour does. Because a huge part of what we experience as ‘taste’ actually comes from our sense of smell, food can suddenly seem flatter, less aromatic or simply not as flavourful as it would on the ground, and.
