News / Nation & World

Study ranks healthy airline food options (Hint: Bring your own)

By Kate Silver, Special To The Washington Post

Published: December 27, 2017, 9:26pm

Airplane food tends to be more of a punchline than a pleasure. And yet, at 35,000 feet, even a forlorn-looking tray can serve as both entertainment and sustenance for a captive audience. With that in mind, Charles Platkin, PhD, director of the New York City Food Policy Center at Hunter College, sought to uncover just how healthy or unhealthy airplane food is, and the results are published in the Annual Airline Food Investigation, a survey he’s conducted since 2000 (it became annual in 2009).

For the survey, Platkin reached out to representatives with 12 major airlines to inquire about their meal and snack options. He ranks them based, in part, on calories, nutrition, menu innovation and transparency (some airlines are more candid than others about what’s in their food).

“They call me an airline food bully,” says Platkin, who is also founder of the site DietDetective.com. “I’m aggressive about it. People have choices about what airline they fly, but they don’t have choices about what they eat on that flight,” he says.

Each airline is given a “health score” on a scale of 1 to 5, with 5 being the highest. This year, Delta and Virgin America tied for the lead, with each scoring 4 points, and Air Canada tied for second with JetBlue. Hawaiian Airlines came in last.

Airline Food Ratings

Here’s how 12 airlines scored in the Annual Airline Food Investigation. For the full survey, best bets to munch and nutritional information, go to dietdetective.com/annual-airline-food-investigation-2017-18.

Delta

•Cooperation in providing nutritional information: Excellent.

• Health score: 4 stars.

• Average calories overall: (meals, snack boxes and individual snacks): 480.

Delta was notable for its willingness to share nutritional information, its variety of offerings and the fact that the average calories in the snack boxes, meals and individual snacks decreased from 2016’s 527 to 480, and meal calories decreasing from 628 calories to 559. Delta has also begun offering complimentary meals in economy class on select flights.

Virgin America

• Cooperation in providing nutritional information: Excellent.

• Health score: 4 stars.

• Average calories overall: 340.

Charles Platkin, director of the New York City Food Policy Center at Hunter College, says that healthier options and openness about calories and nutrients have all been a part of Virgin’s approach since the airline launched (although it has since been purchased by Alaska Airlines).

Air Canada

• Cooperation in providing nutritional information: Very helpful.

• Health score: 3.75

• Average calories overall: 320.

JetBlue Airways

• Cooperation in providing nutritional information: Somewhat helpful.

• Health score: 3.75.

• Average calories overall: 337.

Alaska Airlines

• Cooperation in providing nutritional information: Extremely helpful.

• Health score: 3.5.

• Average calories overall: 479.6.

United

• Cooperation in providing nutritional information:Somewhat helpful.

• Health score: 2.75.

• Average calories overall: 416.

American Airlines

• Cooperation in providing nutritional information: Below average.

• Health score: 2.5.

• Average calories overall: 446.

Frontier Airlines

• Cooperation in providing nutritional information: Very helpful.

• Health score: 2.25.

• Average calories overall: 372.

Southwest Airlines

• Cooperation in providing nutritional information: Very helpful.

• Health score: 2.

• Average calories overall:125.

Allegiant Air

• Cooperation in providing nutritional information: Very helpful.

• Health score:1.75.

• Average calories overall: 402.

Spirit Airlines

• Cooperation in providing nutritional information: Helpful

• Health score: 1.75.

• Average calories overall: 316.

Hawaiian Airlines

• Cooperation in providing nutritional information: Terrible/unresponsive.

• Health score: 1.

• Average calories overall: 568.

Platkin says that the airline representatives didn’t share nutritional information, so he and his team had to estimate in their findings. Hawaiian Airlines offers free meals, and the high calorie counts associated with them, which he found averaged 971 calories, worked against them in Platkin’s ratings.

— Kate Silver

It’s telling that no airline scored the highest rating of 5. “The airlines still have a tremendous amount of room for improvement,” says Platkin. “No airline blows me away, like, ‘Oh my gosh, they got it.’ ” To that end, he was more inclined during our interview to use phrases such as “not awful” when describing a meal or snack, rather than showering it with praise. While a handful of those surveyed serve complimentary meals on select flights (Delta, American and Hawaiian), Platkin is more inclined to encourage health-conscious passengers to eat a full meal before they fly and to carry their own snacks (nuts, fruit, vegetables, hummus) onboard.

Airline Food Ratings

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