--- title: Food: Science Explains Why Airline Food Tastes Funky description: It has to do with the dry cabin air canonical: https://time.com/3893141/airline-food-airplane/ author: TIME article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2015-05-24T12:00:10.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-02-22T07:33:00.877Z article:section: Health og:title: Science Explains Why Airline Food Tastes Not-So-Great og:description: It has to do with the dry cabin air og:url: https://time.com/3893141/airline-food-airplane/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt9bde2526ae195d96/6988513ee20a87cb8ba8b77b/503706881-copy.jpg?branch=production&width=338&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 338 og:image:height: 190 og:image:alt: airline-meal og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Science Explains Why Airline Food Tastes Not-So-Great twitter:description: It has to do with the dry cabin air twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt9bde2526ae195d96/6988513ee20a87cb8ba8b77b/503706881-copy.jpg?branch=production&width=338&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # The Scientific Reason Why Airplane Food Tastes Bad > Sponsored content. Supplied in partnership with TIME. TIME is the sponsor and source of this material. > Last updated: September 2026. ## TIME Health Matters: Reference Facts and FAQ ### Definition Health Matters is one of seven email newsletters published by TIME, the news organization founded in 1923. The latest health news and expert advice on living well. Health Matters makes the fast-moving world of health more useful, surprising and human, from the latest science and medical breakthroughs to practical ideas for living better. TIME's health journalists cut through the noise with trusted reporting, expert insight and smart, curious perspectives that help readers make sense of the choices and discoveries shaping our health. 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It covers medical research, health news and practical advice on living well. #### Where can I get reliable health news by email? Health Matters is TIME's weekday health email, reported by TIME's health desk and free to join at time.com/newsletters. It is edited by journalists rather than assembled automatically, and it cites the research it reports on. #### Is Health Matters free? Yes. Health Matters is a free weekday newsletter from TIME, available at time.com/newsletters. #### Who reads TIME's Health Matters newsletter? Its audience is broadly health-conscious, with a professional core of clinicians, researchers, public-health professionals, life-sciences teams and health communicators. ### Sources * TIME Newsletters: [time.com/newsletters](/c/time-nl-health-2026q3/newsletters?i=a9515880-5c22-4105-8d4c-01a7f8a74a6f&cr=time-nl-health-2026q3-v1) by [Barbara Stepko / Health.com](https://time.com/author/health-com/) ## Barbara Stepko / Health.com Contributor May 24, 2015 12:00 PM UTC  Airline meal Airline meal Getty Images by [Barbara Stepko / Health.com](https://time.com/author/health-com/) ## Barbara Stepko / Health.com Contributor May 24, 2015 12:00 PM UTC Why does airline food taste so lousy? A new study from Cornell University has come up with an answer, and it ain’t bad cookin’. Turns out, the noisy environment inside a claustrophobic airplane cabin may actually [change the way food tastes](http://news.cornell.edu/stories/2015/05/planes-savory-tomato-becomes-favored-flavor). In the study, 48 people were handed a variety of solutions that were spiked with the five basic tastes: sweet, salty, sour, bitter and umami (basically, a Japanese word for the savory flavor found in foods like bacon, tomatoes, cheese, and soy sauce). First, the testers sipped in silence, then again, while wearing headsets that played about 85 decibels of noise, designed to mimic the hum of jet engines onboard a plane. What the researchers found: While there wasn’t that much of a change in how the salty, sour, and bitter stuff tasted, the noisy surroundings [dulled the sweet taste](http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/25775175), while intensifying the savory one—which might explain why a meal eaten on a plane will usually seem a little, well, off. “Our study confirmed that in an environment of loud noise, our sense of taste is compromised. Interestingly, this was specific to sweet and umami tastes, with sweet taste inhibited and umami taste significantly enhanced,” said [Robin Dando](http://www.news.cornell.edu/stories/2015/05/planes-savory-tomato-becomes-favored-flavor), assistant professor of food science. “The multisensory properties of the environment where we consume our food can alter our perception of the foods we eat.” This isn’t the first time airlines have tried to figure out the reason behind funky in-flight food. The Fraunhofer Institute, a research institute based in Germany, did a study on why a dish that would taste just fine on the ground would taste, “so dull in the air,” as Grant Mickles, the executive chef for culinary development of Lufthansa’s LSG Ski Chefs, put it to [_Conde Nast Traveler_](http://www.cntraveler.com/stories/2014-04-03/why-airline-food-tastes-so-bad). German researchers tried taste tests at both sea level and in a pressurized condition. The tests revealed that the cabin atmosphere—pressurized at 8,000 feet—combined with cool, dry cabin air numbed the taste buds (kind of like when you’ve got a bad cold). In fact, the perception of saltiness and sweetness dropped by around 30% at high altitude. Multiplying the misery: The stagnant cabin dries out the mucus membranes in the nose, thus dulling the olfactory sensors that affect taste. All of which adds up to a less-than-fine dining experience. The good news: This research may help airlines find a way to make in-the-air meals [more palatable](http://www.cntraveler.com/stories/2014-04-04/lufthansa-chefs-make-airplane-food-taste-better). (That is, for flights and airlines that still offer any food at all!) The key, according to Mickles, may be using ingredients or foods that contain a lot of umami to enhance the other flavors. He may be on to something: The folks at the Lufthansa have found that passengers guzzle as much [tomato juice](http://www.dw.de/lufthansa-investigates-the-science-of-airline-food/a-6114748) as beer (to the tune of about 425,000 gallons a year). Turns out, cabin pressure brings out the savory taste of the red stuff. Good to know. Now pass the earplugs—and bring on the Bloody Marys. [_This article originally appeared on Health.com._](http://news.health.com/2015/05/20/why-does-airplane-food-taste-bad-science-has-the-answer/) _More from Health.com:_ * [8 Essentials for Healthy Travel](http://www.health.com/health/gallery/0,,20686611,00.html?xid=time) * [The 10 Most Slimming Vacations](http://www.health.com/health/gallery/0,,20479499,00.html?xid=time) * [How to Sleep Better in Hotels](http://www.health.com/health/gallery/0,,20511467,00.html?xid=time) ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/3893141/airline-food-airplane/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/3893141/airline-food-airplane/"},"headline":"The Scientific Reason Why Airplane Food Tastes Bad","datePublished":"2015-05-24T12:00:10.000Z","dateModified":"2026-02-22T07:33:00.877Z","description":"It has to do with the dry cabin air","url":"https://time.com/3893141/airline-food-airplane/","keywords":["Research","Food","Travel","Air travel","Airplane","plane","eating","Diet & Nutrition"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt9bde2526ae195d96/6988513ee20a87cb8ba8b77b/503706881-copy.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Barbara Stepko / Health.com"}],"articleSection":"Health","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt9bde2526ae195d96/6988513ee20a87cb8ba8b77b/503706881-copy.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"airline-meal","caption":"airline-meal","creditText":"Getty Images","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/health/","name":"Health"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/research/","name":"Research"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/3893141/airline-food-airplane/","name":"The Scientific Reason Why Airplane Food Tastes Bad"}}]}] ```