Researchers have examined how the air cabin environment affects our perceptions of flavors.

Airplane food doesn’t have the best reputation. If you’ve ever sampled the in-flight meal options airlines offer, you wouldn’t be alone in finding the dishes rather bland or otherwise unappealing.

Even the meals and snacks that passengers take on board have a way of tasting less appetising at 30,000 feet. So does this mean food tastes different in the sky?

HuffPost asked travel experts to break down what happens to flavours on airplanes, how airlines respond and what passengers can do about it.

The cabin air impacts taste.

“It is scientifically proven that food does indeed taste different when you fly,” Nicky Kelvin, editor at large at The Points Guy, told HuffPost.

This phenomenon is not due to a change in the food itself, but rather the way the human body reacts to the airplane environment.

“There are various aspects to this ― first of all, low humidity,” Kelvin explained. “The air on an aircraft can be drier than the air found in a desert, and this has an effect on the sense of smell, which goes hand in hand with taste.”

He pointed to studies from the Fraunhofer Institute, which examined people’s perceptions of the way certain foods and drinks tasted while in a flight simulator that replicated the air cabin environment. (The research was conducted with funding from Lufthansa after the German airline discovered that passengers were consuming as much tomato juice as beer on board ― a surprising statistic in such a beer-loving culture.)

“Being dehydrated can impact how we taste food,” said Maggie Michalczyk, a registered dietitian and founder of Once Upon a Pumpkin. “Also factors like very dry air and lower air pressure can all impact our sense of smell and taste buds. Foods can taste blander, and the taste of sugar and salt can be muted.”

According to the Fraunhofer Institute’s data, the airplane environment decreases the sensitivity of our taste buds by about 30%, which helps explain why tomato juice might seem nicer and more refreshing at 30,000 feet.

The higher altitude and lower air pressure can decrease your blood oxygen levels and dry out your nasal passages, hindering your olfactory receptors. Some compare the experience to eating when you have a cold.

Noise and other factors play a role as well.

It’s not just the cabin air that affects your perception of how things taste. You can’t overlook the loud........

© HuffPost