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"Is it possible? Have we been wrong all along? Could it be that airline food is actually pretty good? New research suggests that there might another reason why airline food is so disappointing: noise.  Who hasn&amp;#039;t emerged from a long flight with their head buzzing from the constant background roar of the plane&amp;#039;s engines? As it happens, a study conducted by Britain&amp;#039;s University of Manchester and corporate food giant Unilever Foods suggests that noise actually dampens our ability to perceive sweet and salty flavors. Just as interesting: that same noise may actually enhance our perception of qualities such as crunchiness. &amp;quot;Loud background noise dampens food tastes,&amp;quot; researcher Andy Woods told the Toronto Star. &amp;quot;The ability to detect saltiness or sweetness is reduced.&amp;quot; Forty-eight participants tasted sweet foods, such as cookies, and salty foods, such as potato chips, while listening to silence or noise through headphones, according to the BBC. While they ate, they were asked to rate the intensity of the flavors they tasted and how much they liked them.  Flavors tasted while subjected to the noisier background were &amp;quot;rated less salty or sweet than they were in the absence of background noise,&amp;quot; reported the BBC, &amp;quot;but were rated to be more crunchy.&amp;quot; In other words, if your attention is drawn to the noise, it&amp;#039;s drawn away from the food you&amp;#039;re eating and its flavors may seem muted, as a result. This, of course, is great news for lousy cooks who want to impress, say, a date.  Don&amp;#039;t worry about the flavor of the food; just make sure your mood music \u2013 a little Metallica, maybe? \u2013 is set to a high enough volume. "^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
<http://www.delish.com/food/news/a38250/does-silence-improve-the-flavor-of-airline-food/>