AIRLINES CATERING

AIRLINES CATERING

  INTRODUCTION

    It is possible to dine in five-star luxury while travelling at 600 miles per hour, six miles above the surface of the earth. To the average person, now used to air travel, this may not seem remarkable. But the average person is unaware that there may be over 40,000 separate items loaded onto a Boeing 747 (popularly known as the jumbo jet). This load occupies 60m² and weighs six tonnes and the loading time may be less than 50 minutes.

In view of this, some might say that it is not just remarkable that air travellers may dine so well; it is remarkable that they can do so at all.

Like passenger railroads and cruise lines, the first commercial airlines catered specifically to wealthier classes. These customers demanded the finest service and were willing to pay the price. En-route meals served two purposes: stay the hunger and pass the time. The airline companies also gave their thought on catering aspects. As technology advanced, so did the catering possibilities. Inflight catering presented a unique set of challenges for the cooks and crew serving the food. First airline meals was served by Handley Page Transport on 11 October 1919.

A BRIEF HISTORY

   Early commercial foodservice: former military pilots created the first airlines after World War I. Their purpose was mail delivery, not passenger transport. Passengers were gradually included on flights...Since passengers were considered an necessary evil by the pilots who ran ...the airlines, no thought was given to any foodservice for them, although the pilots and other members of the crew might sometimes share a box lunch sandwich or a thermos of coffee with them. It was not until 1936, with the development of the DC-3, that American Airlines introduced the first airplane galley. That galley was quite primitive by modern standards as there was no electrical power available for heating foods or beverages, and all hot foods and liquids were boarded at ready-to-serve temperatures and held in hot thermoses.

  Three years later, the Boeing 307 Stratoliner, the first aircraft with a pressurized cabin that permitted commercial flights above the weather, was developed with a galley no more advanced than that of the DC-3. By the mid-1930s, airlines were beginning to realize the importance of inflight foodservices and were becoming concerned about both the quality of the food products available and the high prices charged by the airport terminal restaurants where they usually bought their food supplies. United Airlines was the first airline to recognize the marketing potential of inflight foodservice as the competition of airlines increased.  United airlines build its own flight kitchens at airports where its flights landed. The first experimental kitchen was completed in Oakland, California in December 1934. Operating its own kitchen was so successful for United that it built a chain of twenty kitchens throughout the United States.

  Pioneering caterers: Marriott was one of the earliest inflight caterers as a result of innovative actions by William Kahrl, the manager of a new Marriott Hot Shoppe across the road from Washington's Hoover Airport (now Washington National Airport) in the late 1930s. 

  Around 1945, Pan American worked together with Clarence Birdseye and Maxson Company to create the convection oven, which would allow frozen foods to be heated on board the aircraft. Maxson called the first convection oven it designed the Whirlwind Oven: it had a heating element in the fort of a fan and held six meals. Soon afterward, the microwave oven was developed; it has since become the industry standard in aircraft food service preparation. The first meal trays were served on pillows on passengers' laps, until trays have been developed with lids that would serve to elevate the food in front of the passengers. Finally, foldout service trays were installed in the seat backs.

DEFINING AIRLINES CATERING

  Airlines catering is defined as the highly specialized skill, technology and quality oriented food catering for the airline passengers and the crewmembers with a greater emphasis on hygiene aspects and just in time production. This also involves an intricate planning regarding loading and off loading, the flight time schedules, lay offs and the movement and management of trolleys.

  Salient features, which makes this kind of catering different from restaurant catering:

1)    Hygiene is a very important factor in any kind of food production but as far as airlines’ catering is concerned it assumes a much more importance to the extent the entire production schedule is designed as per the HACCP requirements.

2)    Any food poisoning case can become critical, as food is consumed miles above the ground where immediate medical help will not reach.

3)    There is no opportunity of deviation or scope of flexibility as far as airlines catering is concerned as far as the weight and the presentation of the dishes are concerned. They are all pre – set and must be strictly adhered to.  There is wide opportunity in the restaurant catering to deviate and innovate.

4)    Time is another important aspect to be kept in mind. The food production is not the only task to be accomplished. it must be cooled, packed, loaded and then carried to the aircraft  before the scheduled time of departure of the flight. In a restaurant, there might be food delays and it can be compensated for in many ways but will an airliner company delay its flight just because the caterer could not reach the food on time.

  MAJOR STAKEHOLDERS

The in-flight catering industry consists of five major players:

–      The airlines or their various representatives

–      The providers, in this case specialised flight caterers;

–      The suppliers, either to the providers or direct to the airlines;

–      Those using the airline's services, passengers and distributors.

 PRODUCTION SCHEDULE

    As far as the airlines catering are concerned, hygiene is a very important factor. It must be understood that although catering is important, flying the aircraft is much more important than that as far as the Airlines companies are concerned. Food is just a part of the entire flying experience. 

Another important aspect of air catering is that it is not possible to delay the food in any way. The flight cannot be delayed on the grounds that food has not reached!!!!!!! Moreover, there is no opportunity of deviation from the pre – set weight, rotation and presentation of food. These aspects make the airlines catering much more challenging……….

  Presently in air catering 3 day cycle is followed:

Day 1-- Butchery and veg mise – en – place

Day 2-- preparation and subsequent chilling

Day 3-- packing and departure of food

To maintain this, the ordering of raw materials is done 4 days in advance and the production is done one shift in advance. The exact scheduling can be done if the time calculations are done backwards.

WORK FLOW

  The work of the Flight Catering can be broadly divided into two halves: The cooking of food and its packaging and loading. The responsibility of the caterer ends after the food is handed over to the crew on board.

  The Provisional load is placed 24 hours in advance. Exact figure can never be given as there are bound to be variations due to last minute reservations and cancellations. After an airliner specifies the initial load, revised load, if any, is also provided after a specified time gap. Buy on Board (BOB) orders are revised three to four times as per the contract between the airlines and the caterer. A KOT is raised accordingly and the food is packed from the holding. The trays are also set up as per the requirements.

  As per the trend of the consumption and the rotation to be served, the purchase-ordering sheet is filled up. With the help of proper software it reaches on line to the purchase manager. The ingredients are ordered for and duly checked at the receiving. Segregation of the stores is done. Bottled and tinned products rice, cereals, oil etc are sent to the storeroom. The vegetables are washed and sent to the veg prep area. All the items needing frozen storage are sent to the appropriate deep freezer. Egg, cheese etc. are sent to refrigerated storage. The kitchen can pick up the things as per the requirement from the store through on – line requisition. The receiving brings to the knowledge of the kitchen immediately any kind of short supply. The store maintains a par stock of approximately one week’s consumption.        

                                                        

  The food is then processed keeping in view the production schedule. At every processing point, temperature control is kept. Ultimately after the food is prepared, except certain items, they are blast chilled and sent to the holding areas from where they are portioned out in the Dish out area as per the KOT received. Weight specifications and the presentation, if any must be strictly adhered to here. After portioning, the food is again sent to the holding area. These are loaded onto different trolleys. The operations take care of the food from here. There are different coloured tags which help in easy identification as to which material, be it raw of processed belongs to which day of the week.

  The operations double check and then the airliner representative seal the trolleys. These are then loaded onto the HI loaders, which take the food away to the aircraft. In every area there are area SOPs, which are to be followed and the area CCP to be strictly maintained.

ABBREVIATIONS OF SPECIAL MEALS

•      VOML (Veg Oriental Meal)

•      GFL (Gluten Free Meal)

•      MOML (Muslim Meal)

•      HNML (Hindu Non veg Meal)

•      AVML (Asian veg meal)

•      Kosher Meal (Jewish – not served in Taj Sats)                                   

•      VLML (Veg Lacto Meal)

ABBREVIATIONS OF SPECIAL MEALS ON OFFER

•      Jain meal

•      Vegan meal (non dairy veg)

•      Child meal (non spicy)

•      LCML (Low Calorie Meal)

•      DTML (Diet Meal)

•      DBML (Diabetic Meal)

•      LPML (Low Purine Meal)

•      LSML (Low Salt Meal)

TRAY SET UP INTRICACIES

The tray set – up depends mainly on the course of meal and the items offered are general ones irrespective of the rotation followed except in some cases. An example of tray set up configuration:

BREAKFAST:

•      Cut fruits

•      Bread rolls

•      Yoghurt (in case of north Indian breakfast option)

•      Coconut chutney (in case of South Indian breakfast)

•      Tomato chutney (in case of South Indian breakfast)

•      Jam and Butter sachet

There can be significance difference in the economy class and business class set – up.

SNACKS:

•      Mint chutney

•      Cut fruits or desserts

LUNCH / DINNER:

•      Salad (as per the rotation)

•      Dessert (as per the rotation) 

TRAY AND CART DETAILS:

Normally there are three types of trays, although every caterer has its own standards.

•      Full tray (for lunch / dinner)

•      Quarter tray (snacks)

•      Half tray (These are used for several courses and are carried in flights doing more than one sector)

There are two types of carts, normally used with variations:

•      Half carts: This can hold 14 full trays, 28 quarter trays and 14 half trays

•      Full carts: This can hold 28 full trays, 56 quarter trays and 42 half trays.

These carts are put in the holding after being loaded as per the tag attached to it. These are checked, sealed and loaded on to the high loader.

FOOD HANDLING ON AIRCRAFT

    Food storage and preparation for serving takes place in aircraft galleys, which mostly have very limited space and equipment for this purpose. In common with any kitchen, a galley has to provide the following: cold storage areas, regeneration ovens, water boilers and beverage machines and the stowage of waste products. On narrow-bodied aircraft, the meals are kept chilled by using dry ice located within the trolley. Wide-body aircraft used for long-haul flights are today usually equipped with refrigerators or chiller units for trolleys.

HYGIENE CONTROL IN FLIGHT CATERING

  While choosing menus for airlines, certain foods that can constitute a health hazard should be avoided as an important preventive measure. Components of aircraft meals can be placed into four risk categories: dangerous, high-risk, medium- and low-risk items.  Products that by nature can constitute a risk as a ready meal, either as such or due to improper heat treatment on board, are classified as dangerous items. These items include dairy products containing raw milk, undercooked poultry and raw or undercooked eggs, raw meat, raw shellfish and raw fish. Neither should raw sprouts be used as components of cold meals due to known Salmonella outbreaks.

   Products that are intensively handled after heat treatment are classified as high-risk items. Such products include poultry and meat de-boned after cooking, stuffed eggs, cold cuts, glazing, cooked shellfish peeled after heat treatment. Medium-risk items have undergone a minimum of handling after heat treatment and include fermented and air-dried meats and sausages, stews, rice and pastas. Acidified foods, fresh fruits that can be peeled prior to eating, canned fruits; bread and dry bakery items are considered to be low-risk items.

Food handlers are a potential source of pathogenic microorganisms, and therefore training and practice for good personal hygiene is needed. Food handlers should have a medical examination prior to employment, and should be kept under regular medical surveillance. A person known or suspected to be suffering from a disease likely to be transmitted through food or any person afflicted with infected wounds, skin infections or sores should not be allowed to work in contact with any unpacked foods.  In order to ensure that food suppliers have implemented and maintain a sufficient control level in their production plant, flight caterers should audit their suppliers.

FUTURE TRENDS

   As airlines continue to demand higher quality inflight food offerings at lower prices, in flight caterers and suppliers are continually exploring new, innovative and diverse ways of remaining competitive.

a) More diversity of onboard offer:

Airlines throughout the world are experimenting with different ways of serving meals to passengers. These options include buy-on-board food products, buy-at-the gate options, giveaway-at-the-gate and offering a picnic bag rather than tray-set.

b) More blurring of stakeholders in the supply chain:

Suppliers have begun to eliminate some elements of the supply chain so that they can supply airlines from wherever their factories are located. This is often in direct competition with airline caterers and typically involves using disposable packaging that eliminates the need for tray assembly and even trolley assembly.

c) Process Improvement in Flight Kitchens:

With the external pressures from customers and competitors, it is not surprising that all flight-catering firms are seeking to reduce their costs by operating more efficiently.

To do this they have turned to the lessons learned in manufacturing and assembly plants – most especially the concepts of lean or agile manufacturing and just-in-time production. The approach being adopted varies from firm to firm, and from plant to plant, but some clear trends are evident.

These are:

Ø  Average cycle time (i.e, total processing time) in the industry used to be about 24 hours – some plants have reduced this to 8 hours

Ø  Reducing cycle time has been achieved by taking ‘waste’ out of the system – wasted time, wasted movement, too much stock, unnecessary transportation, etc.

Ø  An industry norm was that each aircraft need 3.5 sets of equipment (one set on the plane, one being cleaned at the point of departure, one ready for loading at the point of arrival, and a half set to cover losses and breakages). By reducing cycle time, global caterers have significantly reduced the total amount of equipment in the system

Ø  Less equipment frees up space in plants to enable revision to process layouts, simplify inventory control, and generally use space more efficiently

Ø  Inventory management is switching to the kanban system, i.e, standardised bins of each inventory item.

Ø  Non-standard catering, such as for special meals, is being outsourced to specialist suppliers