Passengers for Lobster Thermidor gate 24

by Nicola Shepherd

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THE Univesity of Surrey has just appointed its first Professor of airline food.

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He is called Peter Jones,�he has a half a million pound budget and his mission is to get us to appreciate what it takes to get food from the kitchen to the mouth of the hungry air traveller.

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His two inpsired ideas so far�for improving airline food are to have kitchens on board the aircraft (only possible on the new Airbus) or to give people sandwiches.

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There are certain airbourne facts Jones will have to take into account when researching air food.

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• Three billion meals are consumed on planes every year.
• Food and wine lose flavour at high altitudes, and our ability to appreciate taste is impaired.
• Microwave ovens cannot be used to re-heat food on planes as they interfere with radar.�
• The food has to be cooked and chilled on the ground and then heated on board and insulated until served.
• Airline meals are often prepared up to eight hours in advance of their intended flights.
• Fried food, such as chips, always�goes soggy.
• Peas�should be avoided as they are too difficult to keep on the fork.
• Food that sticks is, therefore, preferable.
• A�car factory assembles 50,000 components a week. An airline catering kitchen assembles ten times that amount every 24 hours.
• in the future you'll choose your inflight meal when you book your ticket.
• On some long-haul flights as many as 90 different meals are on offer, including diabetic, halal, glatt kosher and low-cholesterol dishes.
• Catering companies receive complaints from airlines if the lemons for the on-board drinks are cut too thickly.
• An airline meal costs around��2 to produce.