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Airplane Food

I have been flying for many years but this is a first for me.

I flew back to the US yesterday. As I sometimes do, I monitor the incoming flight to see if there might be delays on my flight.

I noticed that a Delta flight from Detroit to Amsterdam was diverting. It had reached the point where it leaves Canadian airspace and starts to fly acrosss the pond. But this plane had turned around and was diverting to JFK in NYC. Quite a long way to divert.

No reason given.

Today I find out that spoiled food had been served and that a number of people had become very ill. Some even found black mold on trays.

https://www.cbsnews.com/amp/detroit/news/delta-flight-detroit-to-amsterdam-diverted-passengers-served-spoiled-food/

Passengers were offered free hotel rooms, food (?), and were rebooked on future flights.

Posted by
651 posts

Oh, now I wish I hadn’t left Facebook group related to Delta. They’re probably having nervous breakdowns. According to them, that’s gourmet and you can’t get better food.

I do not eat airline food. I’ve been traveling almost weekly for probably close to 40 years. I’m not impressed with three day old reheated TV dinners. I’ve never been airport anywhere where they didn’t have at least one better option. I eat before I get on the plane, sometimes i bring it on And this is true if I’m sitting in first class or business class too

Posted by
785 posts

Detroit media interviews with the passengers painted different pictures. My impression was that reports are varying wildly. Some questioned why they returned to JFK instead of Boston. I can think of a few reasons for that.

Our local media is abuzz with reader comments blaming "DEI" at DTW and the resulting flame wars are really discouraging. OMG.

We use this DTW-AMS flight quite often. Our last Delta flights however were not to or through Amsterdam.

A month ago on our Boston-Dublin RT we found a marked improvement in the food offered to Premium Select passengers. I was rather impressed with the choices offered in advance via email selection. They obviously followed those selection instructions because they delivered them without even asking us what we wanted. The quality had really improved and even my picky eater husband ate most of meals outgoing and return. The reality to me was that there really was too much food provided and one meal was overwhelmingly carb driven. Gone are those hideous wood utensils and cardboard - the china and silverware are much easier to use.

I must admit though that I wish this DTW-AMS flight hadn't reverted back to antique A330's. I much prefer the A350 they used for a time in 2018 when it was being introduced as the flagship.

Posted by
3266 posts

Delta doesn’t prepare the food, the buy it from a stepper caterer. Maybe other flights were affected too?

Why didn’t the flight attendants notice the bad odor snd black mold and not serve the bad chicken?

I hope the pilots didn’t get the bad food too.

Posted by
785 posts

Delta doesn’t prepare the food, the buy it from a stepper caterer. Maybe other flights were affected too?

Exactly - that's what triggered all of the "DEI" at DTW arguments in our media outlets.

Posted by
16118 posts

I hope the pilots didn’t get the bad food too.

The good news is that pilots are not allowed to eat the same meal. They must choose different ones just in case one of the meals is bad.

Usually, the pilot actually flying the plane, it could be the Captain or the First Officer, gets first choice.

Posted by
1849 posts

A good rule of thumb. Stay away from chicken, seafood and raw vegetables (including salads) if you have no control of the source. These are the 3 highest susceptible foods to contain food poisoning microbes.

What a nightmare for those afflicted on an airplane.

Posted by
10063 posts

I am guessing the flight attendants had no idea there was mold on the food, as they don't see the dishes. Any meal they hand out has the aluminum foil on it, and the passenger removes the foil.

Frank thanks (!) for sharing this. As Carol said, this reinforces my tendency to always eat at the airport rather than on the airplane !!!

Silas that is horrible that people are blaming DEI for bad food being put out - I really don't get the link !!!!!??!;!

Posted by
19734 posts

The New York Post later reported that the food had been covered in black mold, which caused the passengers to fall ill, citing sources close to the situation.

And they ate it? Did they think it was truffles? Apparently quite a few of the flight attendants got ill

I went out for Korean BBQ a few weeks ago and spent the next day hugging the toilet from both ends.

Stuff happens. I just regret that I will be made to contribute on all the law suit payments.

Posted by
7728 posts

The good news is that pilots are not allowed to eat the same meal. They must choose different ones just in case one of the meals is bad. Usually, the pilot actually flying the plane, it could be the Captain or the First Officer, gets first choice.

Frank, that was true decades ago, but Delta has not had the policy for over 20 years. I checked with my brother who was a pilot for Delta and recently retired. He said that they used to do it but stopped it years ago because it wasn't very practical. And quite frankly, the chance of something like that happening where both pilots would be incapacitated is extremely rare. Even on this flight, it sounds like people were not that sick and a lot of rumors got started.

Posted by
2509 posts

I’m with Carol on this one. I never eat the food on the planes. I’ve gone as far as bringing a cooler bag on the plane with a sandwich and snacks inside. We typically rent apartments, so it’s easy to bring an ice pack for the return flight, or just put some water in a ziplock and make your own ice pack.

Posted by
19734 posts

I eat it all. Mostly it's pretty acceptable ... except the truffles. My favorite is Turkish Air.

Posted by
785 posts

Silas that is horrible that people are blaming DEI for bad food being put out - I really don't get the link !!!!!??!;!

Yes, it's despicable but it's the newest way to bypass the editorial comment censors. In effect commentators are expressing commonly held stereotypes about the minority groups that compose the Detroit area work force with impunity. I hate the coded language that allows prejudicial statements. It will be another tactic when the media wises up to this one.

Posted by
400 posts

A question from the antipodes, what does DEI actually conjure up in one's mind? Never heard/read of the acronym before today.

Regards Ron

Posted by
689 posts

I had food poisoning during my 22 hours of flying (8hr+14hr) earlier this year. Two of us traveling together had the same thing except for one item, a fresh squeezed mango juice drink mixed with seemingly yogurt or cream, that just didn’t look or taste right. Was that item the culprit? I don’t know. During the eight hours before the flight we also shared the same meals for breakfast and lunch. I had nothing to eat or drink during our two hour layover between the two flights. Thirteen hours into the flying my world changed painfully. Sparing the details - it was quite a debilitating experience taking about forty-eight plus hours to fully recover. Note: This did not happen on a U.S. carrier. It was rated within the group of the top five carriers worldwide.

Posted by
400 posts

@ Pam

Thankyou. Thought the world had moved on. Has in the left leaning great south land. I get the gist of the blame game. I masquerade, with a number of my mates, as directors of a number of private companies. We are complete radicals and think that directors and senior management are completely responsible for any stuff ups. We do not need excuses or apologists to hide behind.

Regards Ron

Posted by
10574 posts

Ron, Being outside the US for three years now, I didn't know either.

Nonetheless, I guarantee you that your environment and what others are experiencing, particularly in the US, are world's apart, literally and figuratively. That's where a travel to the US would show you the current culture.

Posted by
400 posts

Betts

Actually, I was just in Michigan from 17th May to 12th June. Staying with friends. Attended a couple of functions with international attendees. Had a really wonderful time. Avoided the news media. I have read about the divisiveness, which is a shame. A couple of people asked about how the Australian system worked but nothing beyond that. I was the novelty and discussions where more about venomous snakes, spiders, sharks, and the likes. I spun the story that from childhood we are fed an ancient indigenous formula known as Vegemite that gives us an invisible barrier that repels these animals. Also told tall stories about our secret weapon against annoying tourists, the Drop Bears.

The flying of the flag everywhere, homes, cars etc, was the strange one to me.

Here tends to be only on government buildings. The Australian national flag, the Aboriginal flag, and the Torres Strait Islander flag. The latter two to acknowledge and show respect to our original inhabitants.

Was taken to all the great sites: like Soo locks, Traverse City and surrounds, Sleeping Bear Dunes, Munising, and Picture Rocks, Frankenmuth, and others. And a couple of excursions into Canada.

Enjoyed beyond words the experience on Memorial Day of sitting in a lengthy line of cars and then a snail’s pace crossing of the Mackinaw bridge. Only one lane working in each direction with speed reductions. That took some planning. Will be a reoccurring story at dinner parties. Other things were strange to me, but that is why we travel to open our eyes and be receptive to new experiences. With the right dry humour, we can have a good belly laugh with/at each other.

On airplane food, have not had a bad one yet. Have a lot of flying under my belt. Just lucky. Probably runout of luck one day. Have empathy for anyone unfortunate to be inflicted.

My most recent is on return home on American Airlines. Afternoon ORD to LAX, business, a nice penne pasta with a tomato sauce, ice cream sundae and a glass or three of Boizel Brut champagne. The American Flagship lounges at ORD and LAX are good. LAX to SYD 14 hours through the night. Pre-take-off champagne in a plastic flute type. Strange. Had a lovely flight attendant. Seared Bass with a glass of Chilian Chardonnay and champagne, in a proper glass this time. Kept filled up. Two servings of traditional ice cream sundae with the works. Cheese and fruit platter accompanied with a couple of glasses of The Glenlivet single malt. Slept for 8 hours. Nice mattress and pyjamas. One gets to keep the pyjamas to add to one’s collection.

I fly business class long-haul because my wife tells me so. I like being able to sleep. The food is a bonus. The price, I can wear it.

Regards Ron

Posted by
11759 posts

Saw a news cast that had photos of the chicken meals with 'grey fuzz' that looked like a layer of dryer lint on the meals.

I am dumbfounded people actually ate something that looked like that. One woman commented 'it smelled funny'.

Obviously something went wrong in the food prep process, but why eat fuzzy stinky food?

Posted by
10063 posts

Yeah I don't get it either, Joe. Are people THAT inattentive / non-discerning ??

Posted by
651 posts

Joe

There’s a subculture out there that believes that anything Delta serves is gourmet dining and I’m not making this up. They’re on a Facebook group called SkyMiles life I think it is If Delta put dog food on a plate in front of them and they would convince themselves that it was gourmet dining.

Then there’s another group of Americans who if it’s free I’m eating- it doesn’t matter what it is. when you put those two groups together on a plane they eat anything put in front of them.

Posted by
496 posts

We are doing this same Delta flight out DTW in 6 wks. Just a freaky thing to have happened… in my opinion! I look forward to very “clean and fresh” food when we go. I think my husband read they will be only serving pasta dishes? But to me that can go bad also…with various sauces and ingredients. Honestly we are pretty weird…most of the time fine with airline food!? I think you can be at risk eating the airport restaurant meals also? I cook most all of the time….I know what we are eating. Then its “outa my control” and mostly enjoy the food prepared when away and traveling. Reading prior comments…just not sure how this batch of meals got soooo spoiled…then got served? I would be pretty upset if I was on that flight! Esp…if sickened….how horrible…