Airline food has a bad rap, but it doesn’t completely deserve it. When we fly at high altitude we simply can’t taste as much. The main reason is the low humidity in the airplane cabin, which causes our sinuses to dry out. The humidity is kept around 4% to prevent corrosion inside the plane. According to some estimates, we can lose up to 30% of our sense of taste in such conditions. At the same time, the low humidity dries out food very quickly, which robs it of flavor. The noise of the jet engines does not help either. It has been proven that loud noises can reduce appetite. That’s why the best restaurants are kept so quiet.

With all these factors, even food that tastes good on the ground will not tastes good in the air. Moreover, since there is no room to prepare food on a plane, it all has to be prepackaged and frozen on the ground and then reheated before serving. By the time it gets to the passenger, it has been through a lot.

Recently, airlines have been working hard to overcome these problems. One strategy has been to offer food with rich spicy sauces like in Indian cuisine. Another has been the use of umami (Click here to read more about umami.) –the savory taste in soy sauce, seaweed, or mushrooms. It appears that it survives the ride better than other flavors.

So next time you are having a meal up there, you might want to be a little more forgiving and stop and think for a moment about the modern-day miracle of eating anything flying at 900 kilometers per hour, 10,000 meters above the earth.