Airlines meals may taste as good as home meals.

Noise, low pressure, dry air, plastic cutlery and cups are largely to blame for airline meals that taste less than appetising.

According to Charles Spence, a professor at Oxford University who advises airlines on food said background noise on the plane suppresses sweet and salty taste. Our sensitivity to sweet and salty foods drops by about 30 percent in the air, compared to when we’re on the ground.

Some airlines have experimented with what Spence called “sonic seasoning,” like playing tinkling music or offering plates and glasses that make that sound, because it brings out the sweetness in meals.

At 30,000 feet, cabin air is drier than the air in most deserts. That impairs our sense of smell, from which most of our taste is derived.

Out of many test, carbon dioxide is taken out and put into Champagne bottles, which can resist air pressure better than normal bottles.

Soon you will experience the true “Shirt sleeve dinner table environment” at 35k feet.