Love it or hate it, many passengers would have had memorable experiences when it comes to airline food over the years. While the quality varies massively between airlines and cabin classes, handling and cooking are very similar. This article takes a look at how food is prepared on aircraft.

Preparation on the ground

It probably comes as no surprise that most of the preparation of airline meals takes place before the flight, on the ground. Airlines will either prepare their own meals or, more commonly, contract a manufacturer to supply them.

This, of course differs between countries, with numerous companies offering such services. One of the largest is LSG Sky Chefs, and an article by the Airline Passenger Experience Association (APEX.aero) sheds some light on its scale.

The group explain how the Frankfurt location alone, which caters to several airlines, produces 85,500 meals each day. It also operates the largest dishwashing facility in Europe – serving equipment is reused, but all food items that are not used are disposed of.

Plane food is designed to be reheated. These on the ground facilities will prepare, cook, and package large quantities of meals. Depending on the type of food, after cooking, it will either be chilled or frozen until it is reheated onboard (usually within ten hours of preparation). A lot of food, including most meats, are carefully partially cooked. The reheating process will then take over the final part of the cooking.

Still, there were some changes following the rise of the pandemic in 2020, but the principles remained the same. Many airlines shifted to simpler menus and fewer items. However, in this period of recovery, we have seen some classic treats return to the fold.

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Loading onboard

Once prepared, usually at an on-airport site or certainly close by, the chilled food is loaded onto the aircraft. This sounds simple, but it is a huge logistical challenge. With thousands of meals across hundreds of flights, all needed to be loaded in a short turnaround, you can imagine the challenges!

Re-heating during the flight

Once onboard, the chilled food needs to be heated using the aircraft ovens. Each type of dish will have instructions for its re-heating and preparation. For most economy meals, reheating simply takes places in the provided tray. For more luxurious premium cabin meals, they will often be reheated in a provided tray and then transferred to other dishes for serving.

The ovens on an aircraft are specialized convection ovens with food heating using hot air. Microwaves are not used (although some early 747s did have them onboard). The meals are loaded on trays into the oven. Most meals take around 20 minutes to heat, and of course, they are heated and served in batches.

On board chefs

Several airlines market onboard chefs for their business or first-class cabins. While you may think that there is a kitchen onboard where they can prepare fresh meals, this is unfortunately not the case, as a post by One Mile At A Time discusses.

Chefs (usually specially trained flight attendants) will prepare meals using the same ovens but with a wider choice of ingredients and options. Some airlines offer fresh eggs cooked onboard, but that is about as far as it goes!

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Bland tasting food?

Many passengers complain about airline food tasting too plain and bland. This is only partly true. While it makes sense to avoid overly strong or spicy flavors out of the need to cater to all passengers, there is also influence from the cabin atmosphere. With the pressurized cabin and the low humidity, perception of taste, and salt and sweetness, can diminish significantly.

Maintaining moisture is a key concern with airline meals. In the low humidity cabin environment, it can easily dry out. Food will be designed (and tested) with this in mind, and modern aircraft convection ovens help to maintain moisture.

And what about leftover food?

And as a final thought, have you ever wondered what happens to unused airline food? According to IATA research, there was 1.14 million tonnes of food waste from in-flight catering in 2017. The organization highlights that 20-25% of cabin waste is unused food and beverages.

The default option remains, sadly, sending leftovers to landfill. Yet, many nations and airlines are engaging in programs to recycle or donate reusable food items. Overall, there is also more work being done to predict better (or ask passengers beforehand) and optimize loading.

Nonetheless, severeal innovative waste reduction initiatives have been launched over the years. For instance, Ryanair works with Amazon Web Services to help predict onboard demand. Meanwhile, Austrian Airlines last year began promoting for passengers to take unsold food home. Fellow Lufthansa Group airline SWISS also began slashing the price of unsold food in a bid to avoid waste.

Notably, airlines lose $4 billion of untouched food and drink every year. Thus, they will be keen to address these challenges from both a financial and sustainability perspective.

Would you like to share any thoughts on airline food and preparation? Do you know of any airlines that prepare things slightly differently? Or examples of airlines that do it especially well or badly? Let us know what your overall thoughts are in the comment section.

Sources: APEX.aero; One Mile At A Time