‘I’m a flight attendant and there’s a cheap item I’d always bring on the plane’ | Travel News | Travel

Do you hate plane food? Airline food isn’t the most popular and many passengers prefer to pack their own snacks.

Low air pressure and humidity tend to affect our sense of taste so even your favourite foods might taste a little different up in the air.

Most airlines tend to focus on foods that are heavy in ‘umami’ (one of the five basic tastes) which tends to be heightened at high altitudes.

Aged cheese, mushrooms, tomatoes and anchovies are heavy in ‘umami’ so you might see them featuring a lot on airline menus.

But if you’re a fussy eater, there’s an easy hack that flight attendants recommend trying on your next flight.

A Virgin Atlantic flight attendant told Velloy: “I’d always recommend bringing a sealed, just add water, instant meal such as Pot Noodles or Pasta N Sauce in your hand luggage.

“By bringing your own instant meal, it’s assured that you can have a warm meal that you’ll like mid-flight and that suits your dietary requirements.

“You’ll always have a backup snack with you just in case your meal didn’t fill up.”

Instant meals such as pot noodles require boiling water to eat and the flight attendant said passengers can access this by asking the staff who can fill it up onboard.

The flight attendant added: “Another great thing about this hack is that pot noodles are cheap, and will cost far less than all the snacks you could buy in the terminal.”

Airports are notoriously expensive so passengers who use this hack will save money on treats.