AIRLINE MEALS
ABOUT THE AUTHOR Steve Osborn is business innovation manager at Leatherhead Food Research in the UK. His organisation delivers scientific expertise and international regulatory advice to the global food, drink and related industries. An analytical chemist, Steve worked for Nestlé, Northern Foods and Ashbury Confectionery before becoming a part of the Food Innovation research group at LFR. Here he shares enlightening recent research conducted among airline passengers to gain insights into their onboard dining views
www.leatherheadfood.com
taste and texture, different nutritional needs and relative hunger. In a dining context, people are there for different reasons; they are emotionally different and so whether you run a greasy spoon or a fine dining restaurant, the context of your diners is well established – you know what they want, why they want it and when they want it. That’s why they are there and they have a menu to choose from. This idea of a diner context is important when
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considering the provision of airline food, and underpins some of the success measures required to satisfy the clientele. The promise of this is that regardless of the reason for travelling (business, holiday etc.), as long as the meal solution meets the interaction of value and expectation, then the consumer will be satisfied. Consider this from both ends of the food service spectrum – a high street fast food chain and a Michelin 3-star celebrity chef restaurant. At one extreme, the customer will spend a small amount on a somewhat basic meal offering, yet will be completely satisfied as the quality meets the expectation and value. The same level of satisfaction is exhibited at the other extreme, where for a costly sum a dining experience is expected and delivered. Since this was the expectation the level or degree of ‘satisfaction’ could be considered equal at both ends of the spectrum.
Pictured: Airmeals offers a vegetarian option
Airline meals This is an essential consideration when scoping an airline meal proposition, with the underlying message that should you manage and meet your client’s expectations, they will not be disappointed with what they consume. Airlines present a unique dining experience, and it is well known that external influences have a marked impact on stress, which in turn impacts on the mood of the flyer. When you consider the extremes of a young couple travelling for a romantic break to a stressed executive returning from a busy week travelling on business, the gulf between their needs is broad and a difficult scenario to manage.
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ood is an emotive topic and for that reason provision of a meal that satisfies everyone is extremely difficult. The complexities are layered when you consider preferences of
Sensory perception is also holistic, that is when
consuming a food product all of the senses are employed to enjoy it. Whether it is the ‘greenness’ of the greens, the ‘crunchiness’ of the crisps, or the aroma of the sauce, they combine to deliver the sensory delight that is expected; this is where the challenge is taken to the extreme. In-flight settings present a compromised sensory environment; there is the noise from the aircraft, the dryness of the re-circulated air, the confined environment, the back of the chair in front of you, the vocal child behind, and even the overpowering perfume of the lady sat next to you. The situations are difficult to remove and so can impact on the enjoyment of the food presented. This effect was reported in a recent study which detailed how sounds unrelated to the food being consumed diminished sensory perception of that food. This has direct implications to the enjoyment of airline food as the sounds of that environment are somewhat different to a normal dining environment.
Leatherhead’s airline study It would be easy to dismiss this as unavoidable, but a 2013 survey conducted by Leatherhead Food Research on 1582 recent flyers showed that
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