BENGALURU- Recently, a passenger onboard the Indian FSC, Air India (AI) Bengaluru (BLR) to San Francisco (SFO) flight found a piece of a metal blade in the meal. Following this passenger shared the incident on social media and it went viral.
Due to this, the Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI) was forced to rush to Air India’s catering facility operated under TajSATS in Bengaluru (BLR) to conduct safety and quality checks.
Air India Catering Facility Inspected
Following the inspection, the FSSAI recommended that TajSATS install X-ray machines to detect unwanted objects in packed food.
Furthermore, FSSAI ordered the facility to manually chop vegetables to avoid such irregularities, until X-ray machines are installed.
Apart from this, the FSSAI food and health officers inspected the Benaglaur International Airport facility to avoid such incidents in the future.
Sources told TOI, that the metal blade found inside the meal was part of an automatic vegetable cutter. During cutting, the blade came off and mixed with the food without any staff noticing it.
Following the incident, the TajSATS and the airline have issued notice among staff to check for such vulnerabilities. Also, management and staff at the Catering facility have implemented the corrective measures.
What was the Incident?
The incident dates back to June 9, 2024, on a direct flight from Bengaluru to San Francisco (SFO), a passenger named Mathures Paul, who was eating an in-flight meal found that while chewing some hard object hit his teeth, which he removed.
Later he discovered that an object resembling a blade was hidden in the roasted sweet potato and fig chaat meal. He was lucky enough to not get any injury or harm from the blade.
In his post on Twitter (now X), Mathures said,
Air India food can cut like a knife. Hiding in its roasted sweet potato and fig chaat was a metal piece that looked like a blade. I got a feel of it only after chewing the grub for a few seconds. Thankfully, no harm was done. Of course, the blame squarely lies with Air India’s catering service but the incident doesn’t help the image I have of Air India.”
Once came under the notice of the airline, Rajesh Dogra, the Chief Customer Experience Officer confirmed the incident. He said that foreign object found in the meal was traced back to the vegetable processing machine used by their catering partner. He further added,
Air India confirms that a foreign object was discovered in a guest’s meal on one of our flights. Following an investigation, it was identified as originating from the vegetable processing machine at our catering partner’s facilities. We have collaborated with our catering partner to enhance measures to prevent any recurrence, including more frequent checks of the processor, especially after chopping hard vegetables.”
Rajesh Dogra, Chief Customer Experience Officer of Air India
In-flight Meal lacks Quality
This is not the first time that spoiled food or harmful meals have been served on airlines. In Jan this year, an IndiGo Airlines (6E) passenger found a worm inside his sandwich. Following this FSSAI warned airlines and its catering partners to enhance the quality and safety of their meals.
However, the recent incident has revealed that the quality and safety of onboard meals are taken lightly. This is not just a case for Indian airlines, passengers flying many reputed airlines in the world have reported and experienced such spoiled food being served.
So in the end, I want to ask one question to airlines, why should passengers spend huge amounts of money just to get harmful and spoiled food?
Also what majority differentiates low-cost and full-service carriers is the quality of food served onboard. Air India really needs to step up and improve this thing, like it is doing with aircraft, because, in the end, people will remember one bad experience more than 100s of good ones.
Join us on Telegram Group for the Latest Aviation Updates. Subsequently, follow us on Google News.
The post Air India Catering Facility Inspected As Blade Found in Meal on San Francisco Flight appeared first on Aviation A2Z.