Sky-high ambition on a plate

'Chicken rice or beef noodle?"

It may be the most familiar question for passengers on flights in China, and most frequent flyers are sick of the dull in-flight food.

The poor taste of airline food is coming under renewed criticism.

"I did not even want to smell the in-flight meals, during the period I traveled a lot," said Li Qi, a 28-year-old businessman who usually travels in North China.

Workers prepare and package cooked food for in-flight service at Beijing Xinhua Airport Catering Co Ltd, which has about 15 percent of the in-flight food market in the capital. Photos by Zou Hong / China Daily

Flight attendants serve meals on a Shandong Airlines flight from Qingdao in Shandong to Guilin, the Guangxi Zhuang autonomous region. Food companies are trying to improve the quality of in-flight food to cater to the taste of passengers. Yu Fangping / For China Daily

Business insiders attribute the bad taste to the cold-chain processes, as the meal must be made in conditions below 20 degrees Celsius.

"It is very hard to make the in-flight meal delicious, because of the production process," said Liu Zhiqiang, general manager of HNA Group's food business division, which is the largest shareholder of E-food Group Co Ltd, the only listed in-flight meal maker in China.

Hot food is cooled to below 20 degrees as soon as it is cooked and reheated by an oven in the air for service.