Nasal sprays
Some of our senses, however, are unaffected by altitude, especially the so-called fifth taste, umami. It is the pleasantly savoury taste imparted by foods such as sardines, seaweed, mushrooms, tomatoes, and soy sauce. “Umami taste may actually be enhanced by loud background noise,” says Spence.
And because tomatoes are so rich in umami, “this links to people ordering tomato juice and Bloody Mary in the air in a way they never do on ground,” he adds.
Similarly, United’s McLoughlin is using umami-rich ingredients such as spinach, tomatoes and shellfish to enhance in-flight meals.
In a more radical approach, British celebrity chef Heston Blumenthal hoped to help British Airways deliver better in-flight food, by distributing nasal spray to passengers to clear their sinuses before they ate. That approach proved unpopular, though. So Blumenthal resorted to umami, for example with a recipe for shepherd's pie that featured seaweed in the crust.