WHAT'S THE REAL REASON WE DON'T LIKE AIRLINE FOOD?

摘要

Where to do your sensory test? We know context is important. A whole fish you just caught and cooked, eaten by the ocean, would be far preferable than eating the meal on public transport. This brings into question the relevance or validity of hedonictesting in controlled lab environments, where your actual experience is far from realistic (although highly controlled).Researchers from Wageningen University in the Netherlands investigated the liking of a meal in a laboratory setting, in a recreated aircraft environment, and during an actual flight. They provided two meal types from which to choose - pasta Bolognese andchicken curry with rice. Each meal had two variations, which were authentic as they actually came from two different airlines! The 242 participants were asked which meal they would like and were randomly allocated one of the meal variants. Consistent with prior research, all of the meals were acceptable but not overly liked. The meals were less liked in the laboratory setting than in the simulated flight or actual flight, which was also consistent with previous research showing that context is important. The magnitude of effect, however, was very small - differences between lab setting and plane were 4-6 units on a 100-point scale.