This is the ONE thing that is so uniform across countries, races, religion and every kind of (other categories of) people, SO uniform that this question unites us all - Why does airplane food taste so(ooooo) bad? What better to do than eat-and-read or eat-and-watch-a-movie or eat-and-sleep in an airplane that you're stuck in for hours? The food almost feels like they sucked the moisture and taste right out of it - and, if we were to taste disappointment, it would taste exactly like it. *Aargh* Who should we blame? Turns out, our taste buds are the real culprits. “At 35,000 feet, the first thing that goes is your sense of taste. The quality of the food and its ingredients isn't to blame, it's the way you experience it." explained Grant Mickels, the executive chef for the culinary development of Lufthansa's LSG Sky Chefs. Now we know a Lufthansa chef giving a reason that blames our taste buds (of ALL things) multiplies our doubts and is REALLY suspicious. Lame blame, right? But relax your trust issues, looks like it has been tested and proven. (Sorry, Lufthansa guy) The dish that tastes sumptuous in a fine-dining restaurant is bound to taste dull (or like disappointment, as already discussed) up in the air. It's even been tested: The Fraunhofer Institute, a research organization based in Germany, did a study on why a dish that would be delicious in a fine dining restaurant could be "so dull in the air."

Researchers tried tasting ingredients at sea levels and in pressurized conditions and the differences in taste was astonishing!

In a mock aircraft cabin, researchers tried out ingredients at both sea level and in a pressurized condition and the tests revealed that the cabin atmosphere pressurized at 8,000 feet "makes your taste buds go numb, almost as if you had a cold."

Our perception of saltiness and sweetness also drops by around 30 percent at high altitude.

Interestingly, the study found that we take leave of only our sweet and salty senses. Sour, bitter and spicy flavours are almost unaffected.