The Unexpected Safety Reason Airline Pilots Avoid Eating The Same Meal On A Flight

Consuming an in-flight meal is typically an act of necessity rather than pleasure. We've all been there — maybe your refrigerator was cleared out in preparation for upcoming travel and there were no snacks left to pack for your flight, or maybe a tight connection prevented you from grabbing a bite at the airport. Even if you know what's served is typically far from a culinary masterpiece (unless you happen to be flying on one of the airlines with the best in-flight dining experiences in the world), eating dry chicken or fish is usually better than going hungry.

While you're free to take your chances with what's offered on board, your pilots have to think more carefully about their choices for a very important safety reason. The typical cockpit has a captain and a co-pilot, because someone needs to be able to take over in the event that the captain experiences a medical emergency — this includes food poisoning. If that's the case, airlines don't want both pilots suffering from food poisoning — which is why most airlines have a policy against pilots choosing the same in-flight meal, although this rule is not mandated by the Federal Aviation Administration. 

A pilot's schedule can vary immensely, and what they eat on the job will depend on how many flights they work in a day, as well as how long those flights are. Pilots typically have more of an opportunity to leave the plane in between flight segments than flight attendants do, and as a result, they may be able to grab a meal to-go wherever they've landed. That being said, choices can still be scarce, and relying on expensive airport food isn't always a good option.

Like flight attendants who bring their own food on work trips, many pilots opt to do the same, especially on short-haul flights. Bringing from home eliminates the risk of consuming the same in-flight meal as their co-worker. Susan Sherman, an Anchorage-based pilot for Alaskan Airlines, told traveler publication The Points Guy, "We get some interesting crew meals provided, so I often try to bring my own. I'll wrap sandwiches (rolls from Costco, lots of veggies, sometimes packed separately so as not to get soggy), cheese, sometimes turkey, in parchment paper, and they'll keep for my four-day trips." On the other hand, Starr Blum, a Cincinnati-based pilot for Atlas Air, told the publication why she tends to rely on the in-flight offerings. "As a 'freight dog,' my trips take me domestic and international. Due to the length I'm gone and the foreign countries I visit, packing leftovers from home and bringing certain foods isn't an option," Blum explains. "Every flight is catered with meals you can heat up, [like] sandwiches, snacks, and fruit."

While most passengers are prepared for the food to be less than tasty, what you may not realize is indulging in that 30,000-foot offering is not just potentially unpleasant, but also risky. Unsettling details about the safety of your in-flight meal include issues with temperature regulation and cross-contamination, among myriad other possible problems. To put it simply, in-flight meals go on quite a journey of their own before reaching your tray table, and there's a lot that can go wrong. For this reason, if you have severe allergies, it's best to bring your own food onto planes rather than put your life in the hands of reheated airline food.

From preparation and packaging in a separate facility to transport to the tarmac and eventually the airplane galley, in-flight offerings must be carefully regulated for appropriate temperature storage and sanitation procedures. The wrinkle is that these practices are only evaluated by the Food and Drug Administration once every few years. This means unsafe conditions could potentially slip through the cracks for many months on end, and even when they're identified, penalties are often not imposed. 

In 2019, NBC News reported that listeria, a dangerous bacteria that can lead to death in extreme cases, was found by the FDA in the catering facilities of both Flying Food Group and LSG Sky Chefs. Those companies represent two out of the three major companies dominating the airline catering market. The main problem with tracking food poisoning on airplanes is that depending upon the type of contamination, symptoms can take from hours to days to present. Passengers disperse, and related cases of illness may not be recorded as such. All things considered, it may be wise to heed the advice of flight attendants who recommend eating before you board your flight.