British airline introduces “mood food” for nervous passengers

The British airline Monarch Airlines has included a special type of food in their menu meant to improve the mood and reduce the stress in nervous passengers.

Monarch Airlines joined forces with Professor Charles Spence of the Oxford University in order to create a specially designed menu featuring items capable of influencing the passengers' mood. The airline now serves relaxing rice-cakes spiced with lavender, green tea, a herbal tea mix, seaweed biscuits and umami-rich snack bars.

Aside from savory dishes, the most popular item from the mood food menu is black ice-cream, which, as the airline claims, diverts the passengers' attention from a stressful flight.

– The black color is certainly counter-intuitive – most passengers think of white or pale colors with the ice cream. This may also help to distracts passengers from their chaotic journey whilst also surprising them – Professor Spence, who has cooperated with renowned chef Heston Blumenthal for a long time, said for The Telegraph.

The professor says that reduced air pressure, dry cabin air, and engine noise all inhibit taste perception and that umami is the only one of the basic tastes that manages to cut through these barriers.

The airline also offers other types of food not on the mood food menu, such as sandwiches, pastas, cereals...

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