(Bloomberg) — Airlines that use in-flight meals provided by SATS Ltd., a Singapore-based airport services company, may start serving passengers more food that has been previously frozen.
This comes after consumers “couldn’t tell the difference” between meals that had been frozen and food prepared using existing methods, SATS said during a results briefing Thursday.
Indeed, “technological advancements now allow us to create frozen meals that taste just as good as freshly cooked ones.”
Called “fresh frozen food,” the preparation of these meals differs from existing “cook-chill” methods where food is cooked about 24 hours before serving and blast chilled. New processes and technologies have enabled SATS to serve in-flight food that was frozen well before the current 24-hour window.
The improvement in frozen-food technology means that SATS, which counts Singapore Airlines Ltd. as one of its biggest clients, will be able to provide in-flight meals to faraway carriers without needing to set up fully fledged kitchens at the airports they fly from, the company said.
Airline customers of SATS conducted a blind tasting test in the second half of 2023, said President and CEO Kerry Mok, without identifying the companies.
(Updates to provide additional context.)
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