Why airplane food tastes so bland

Ever wondered why food in airplanes always tastes so bland? Now, a study at the University of Manchester tells you the reason.

Researchers have found that the level of background noise affects both the intensity of flavour and the perceived crunchiness of foods.

While louder noise reduced the reported sweetness or saltiness, it increased the measure of crunch.

"NASA gives their space explorers very strong-tasting foods, because for some reason they can't taste food that strongly — again, perhaps it's the background noise," BBC quoted Andy Woods, lead author, as saying.

In a comparatively small study of 48 participants, who were fed sweet foods such as biscuits or salty ones such as crisps, while listening to silence or noise through headphones, the researchers found that in noisier settings, foods were rated less salty or sweet than they were in the absence of background noise, but were rated more crunchy.

The research was reported in the journal Food Quality and Preference.