Last Updated on February 6, 2024 by Yoyo
During long-distance flights, passengers require simple meals to maintain their energy levels. For airlines, offering an excellent in-flight dining experience can allow passengers to experience the diversity of cuisines and cultures, alleviating their stress and discomfort. More importantly, it can enhance the airline’s brand image. Therefore, the packaging and preparation of in-flight meals are crucial.
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Inflight Meals Preparation
Despite having kitchens on airplanes, most of them lack cooking capabilities for safety reasons and can only perform simple food reheating. In-flight meals provided to passengers during long-haul flights are typically pre-cooked and packed in disposable containers, then reheated just before mealtime.
Airplane meals are generally prepared based on the number of passengers, influenced by both the aircraft’s weight limitations and the need to minimize wastage. While there are no refrigerators on planes, there are insulated containers that can hold ice. Hence, flight attendants might inquire about adding ice when serving beverages like cola. In-flight meals cannot be reheated a second time to prevent food spoilage, so the reheating process usually begins approximately 10-15 minutes before serving the meal.
The Requirements of Inflight Meals Packaging
Regardless of safety or the overall experience, the packaging of inflight meals plays a crucial role. Therefore, it must meet the following requirements.
Safety
The inflight meal packaging must comply with food safety and hygiene standards to prevent food contamination and spoilage, ensuring passengers’ health. It should also withstand temperature variations, pressure, vibrations, and other influences during flight, preventing damage and leakage to ensure the integrity and quality of the food.
Convenience
Airplane meal packaging must be convenient for passengers to access, open, use, and dispose of, minimizing inconvenience and hassle. The packaging should also adapt to the constraints of airplane space and equipment, facilitating storage, transportation, heating, and distribution for the airline.
Easy Reheating
Since most dishes need to be reheated before serving, airplane meal packaging must ensure food safety, preventing the release of harmful substances and odors during the heating process. Additionally, the packaging should be suitable for various heating methods, such as microwaving and steaming, making preparation more convenient.
Attractive Appearance
Meal packaging should have a visually appealing design to better attract passengers’ attention and interest, enhancing their appetite and satisfaction. Airplane meal packaging should also reflect the airline’s image and style, conveying the airline’s information and values.
Recyclability
Finally, airplane meal packaging must consider environmental impact, aiming to minimize the quantity and materials used. It should employ recyclable, biodegradable, or reusable materials to reduce waste and pollution, improving packaging efficiency and sustainability.
Disposable Aluminum Foil Airline Food Containers
The use of innovative disposable aluminum foil meal containers has been prevalent in airplane meal packaging for an extended period. These containers offer characteristics such as lightweight design, high sealing capability, food safety, ease of heating, and aesthetic appeal. Most importantly, compared to traditional plastic containers, aluminum foil containers have a distinct environmental advantage – they can be more easily recycled. This contributes to building a more environmentally friendly brand image for airlines.
Aikou is a manufacturer specializing in the production of high-end aluminum foil food containers, and we have years of experience collaborating with airlines and in-flight catering service providers.
Here, you can customize your aluminum foil inflight meal packaging in every detail, including capacity, thickness, lid type, printing, shape, etc., to meet your specific requirements. In addition to the conventional packaging for meals, we also offer a range of heat-sealed sauce cups, foil cake cups, and other products to enhance your ability to provide passengers with a variety of meal options.
