Aviation set to take another passenger friendly step, flyers may get big food benefit

Indian aviation is soaring in every sense, especially in terms of demand for seats and airlines are looking to improve their service as much as possible and that too fast. Although airlines themselves are not really doing well, as far as revenue generation is concerned, but that has not stopped the industry from moving forward. Now, it has been revealed that flyers may get full information about the food they get on their tray - the information will include, the food's nutritional aspects like calories, list of contents.

According to a Times of India report, India’s food regulator started examining the food served on planes as the in-flight meal quality deteriorated and became a common concern for the flyers and regulators too. This includes the transportation of meals, storage on board and then how the same is served. It is now coming out with guidelines for the entire process of the in-flight catering. 

FSSAI CEO Pawan Kumar Agarwal called a meeting this Thursday with airlines, flight caterers and airport operators to discuss these issues. “The public, at several fora, has expressed concerns about airline food, its quality and safety. Earlier we called meetings with airlinesairport operators, in-flight caterers separately who would say this is the other’s area. So we met everyone together to cover all aspects of safety, hygiene of in-flight food and are going to come out with standard operating procedure (SOPs) for each step involved to ensure what is served to passengers is perfectly safe to consumers. The process has begun and the aviation industry has been very welcoming towards this initiative,” Agarwal, a 1985 batch IAS officer of West Bengal cadre was quoted as saying by ToI. 

According to the report, India's leading hospitality chains, who cook and pack the food for the airlines might be asked to give full details of the meals and also have make the food that will be served visible to the flyers. This would ensure the flyers what exactly they are getting on their plates and whether the food is safe.

FSSAI also wants all the full service carriers and the budget carriers to sell the meals trays on board with labels that have best before date and contents, just like the way the low cost carriers sell  packaged items like sandwiches and snacks on the flight.