Aviation Fact-3: Why in-flight meals are bland?

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You're cruising at over 30000ft and your much awaited inflight-meal comes on your tray-table. Being a quality airline, you expect the food to be satisfactory as well.

When you take your first bite, much to the horrors, the food seems completely bland.

Before suing the airlines or blaming the chef here is a fact on why the inflight-meals become unappetizing.

Its not the chef who is at fault. The food and beverages really taste different when in the air compared to on the ground.
There are potential reasons for the same which include: less humidity, low air pressure, and background noise.

At cruising altitudes, as a consequence of low air pressure and lack of humidity, your sense of smell and taste starts to drift.
Studies have shown that at over 30000ft, the humidity is less than 12% which is even drier than most deserts.

According to a 2010 study conducted by Germany's Fraunhofer Institute for Building Physics, commissioned by German airline Lufthansa, the combination of lack of humidity and low air pressure reduces the sensitivity of your taste buds to salty and sweet foods by about 30%.
Contrary to that, foods that are spicy, bitter and sour don't seem to get much affected by such circumstances.
What adds to the taste buds getting numb is the improper functioning of our odour receptors (we need evaporating nasal mucus to smell) in the parched air contributing to more blandness in food.

Therefore, airlines have to make sure of sprinkling more salts and spices with respect to on ground.
“Proper seasoning is key to ensure food tastes good in the air,” says Brown at American Airlines.

Moreover, noise levels could also be influencing your taste. A study found that people eating to the sound of loud background noise rated food as being less salty and sweet than those who ate in silence.
Also the food surprisingly appeared to sound much crunchier with background noise.

So next time when your inflight-meal comes on your tray-table, be sure to add more salt!

How was your experience with inflight-meals? Would love to know in the comments below!