Imagine you are on a plane and are being served your favorite dish. You take your first bite, butsomething seems off. It doesn’t taste salty or sweet. In fact, it lacks any flavor and doesn’t taste as goodas it does on the ground. You might think the cooks didn’t put their heart and soul into the food, but thetruth is not because of them but you.
      How we make out flavors is through our sense of smell and taste. Sadly, those are the first things togo out the window when we fly. Inside a plane 30,000 feet above the Earth, the air is only 12% humid,which is drier than most deserts. Also, the air pressure drops to really low levels. These two togethercause our noses not to work correctly and affect our sense of taste, 80% of which actually comes from oursense of smell. In the end, how salty or sweet we think something is gets out by about 30%. On top ofthat, the loud noise coming from the plane while in flight makes this even worse. Luckily, sour, bitter, andhot flavors are not affected.
       Airline compaines know about all this, and they try their best to give customers the tastiest food.The next time you find yourself eating on a plane, remember that they are not the only ones to blame forhow your food tastes.
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