I’m going to get more in the habit of sharing and addressing reader questions on the blog. It seems to be something people enjoy reading about, and I always like hearing the perspectives of others. Please let me know if you do or don’t enjoy these kinds of posts, and I’ll adjust content accordingly.
Along those lines, here’s a reader email I received today…
In this post:
Passenger served moldy food in Avianca business class
A reader sent me an email about an awful experience he had flying in Avianca’s Boeing 787 business class from Bogota to Madrid last week, and he’s frustrated by Avianca’s lack of responsiveness. Here’s part of his email, along with the pictures:
I flew Business Class from Bogota to Madrid last week and since the crew served our breakfast in a completely dark cabin, I unfortunately didn’t see that the fruit was moldy until I had only one strawberry left (of which I attached a photo). I didn’t bother speaking to the stewardess at the time since she did not speak English. I did however get pretty sick the next day (I’ll spare you the details), which hindered me from working. I am quite annoyed that Avianca hasn’t responded to my email yet.
It really annoys me how much the quality has gone down across the board even though prices continue to explode.
My take on this moldy meal situation
Let me start by saying that I’m no expert on mold, so I obviously can’t personally vouch for whether the food was actually moldy, or what exactly was going on..
Would I be extremely annoyed if I got sick because of the food I was served on a plane? Absolutely. Would I expect a whole lot from Avianca, and that the airline would make me whole? Just being realistic, probably not.
Let me start by sharing how I’d approach this situation:
- I’ve seen way too many stories of airplane food being moldy, having pieces of glass in it, or otherwise being inedible; I am cautious with all airplane food, and always make sure I inspect it to some extent by turning on a light, looking through each dish, etc.
- Even if there’s a language barrier, I’d always recommend immediately letting the crew know of what you see, so that it can be documented, as that maximizes your odds of the airline taking the situation seriously (admittedly the passenger probably didn’t know he’d get sick the next day, so might not have initially viewed it as a huge deal)
- In fairness to airlines, they typically contract out catering to third parties and use the same facilities as other airlines, so that fruit could have just as easily ended up on an American or Lufthansa flight (and while airlines have different budgets, hopefully no airlines are intentionally purchasing expired food)
- While I’d absolutely want to make sure that airline customer relations documents this and passes on the feedback to the catering facility to ensure it doesn’t happen again, I wouldn’t expect to be compensated beyond some “gesture of goodwill” (some bonus miles or a voucher), and wouldn’t expect to be made whole for lost productivity, etc.
The crux of the reader’s frustration is totally warranted. Airlines are charging much higher prices, but are largely delivering a much lower quality product. And that doesn’t just apply to catering, but also applies to the responsiveness of airline customer relations.
It’s frustrating to not only feel like you got sick because of what you were served on a plane, but to also feel like an airline isn’t even acknowledging what happened.
Bottom line
An OMAAT reader was served moldy fruit in Avianca business class, which he believes made him sick. That’s a really unfortunate situation, and a good reminder to always inspect your airplane food for everything from mold, to any other object that shouldn’t be in there. If you do have a food safety issue, immediately alert the crew.
Avianca owes this passenger a timely response with some sort of a tangible apology. However, to be realistic, I wouldn’t expect more than a small voucher or some bonus miles.
What’s your take on this moldy business class meal situation? How would you have handled it, and what would you expect from the airline?
I had a _quite_ moldy bun in Lufthansa business class a while ago, reported it to cabin crew, and ... nothing. Literally nothing apart from "Oh, sorry".
In hindsight I should have posted on social media after such a lukewarm reaction to at least make sure Lufthansa looks into it.
I agree with you about "inspecting the food" and notifying the flight attendant. I also think it would be worthy to photo it and document that it happened in flight for a complaint later.
Columbia is a rather poor 3rd world country, so things like that are norm. PAX was probably some 1 percenter, super entitled. By the way, mold is used in production of penicillin, a super medicine. It can't hurt.
Don’t eat it. Tell flight to not eat it. Take a picture. Ask for compensation.
(1) Don't eat anything you can't see, (2) you don't need to know the spanish word for "mold" to point at the offending fruit, (3) did I mention the part about not eating anything you didn't look at first?
Higher prices and Less everything. Called "Shrinkflation". Same thing on the Cereal isle at the grocery store. Same brand, same size box, less product inside, higher price! 2023 in a nutshell!
Not sure it's any different on a plane than in a restaurant (except that this person ate in the dark rather than turning on a light). We had a dinner at Bone Fish Grill a number of years back where all of us became violently ill over the ensuing 24 hours. None of us had shared other meals that day so the cause was apparent. I called and emailed multiple times and never even received...
Not sure it's any different on a plane than in a restaurant (except that this person ate in the dark rather than turning on a light). We had a dinner at Bone Fish Grill a number of years back where all of us became violently ill over the ensuing 24 hours. None of us had shared other meals that day so the cause was apparent. I called and emailed multiple times and never even received a response. Such is life, we all survived and lived to tell people not to eat at Bone Fish Grill.
I had this in BA Club World...they didn't give a damn, enen complained to UK customer services...mine was a proper mouldy salad, not a strawberry gone off haha
I found a rubber band in my broccoli on a SAN-LHR biz class flight on BA. I didn’t say anything but now definitely inspect my food before eating
nothing personal..... while the picture your proved is wrong, that should NOT be enough to make a healthy person sick!!!!!
"Too dark to see", so how does anyone know there was a speck of mold on the eaten strawberries as opposed to the one uneaten one? Am I the only one who considers this to be whining? I flew on an AM flight from BKK to Tokyo and after eating my first meal since the night before, I landed ok in Tokyo. About 8 hours after eating, I had cramps, a fever and the unmentionable...
"Too dark to see", so how does anyone know there was a speck of mold on the eaten strawberries as opposed to the one uneaten one? Am I the only one who considers this to be whining? I flew on an AM flight from BKK to Tokyo and after eating my first meal since the night before, I landed ok in Tokyo. About 8 hours after eating, I had cramps, a fever and the unmentionable explosive movements. I spent most of the flight to ORD in the john. I had a medically diagnosed case, after testing, of food poisoning that stayed with me for two more days. I chalked it up to sh*t happens, pun intended, and I moved on, also intended. To think that the airline owes me anything, without proof of some negligence, is unreasonable in my opinion.
yeah people should stop being so sensitive. I hate it when we blame food poisoning on anything other than our weak digestive systems. Food poisoning? Skill issue
Sometimes if strawberries are sitting out of refrigeration or even in refrigeration, they seem to get molded. so do make a mole........
Nicely ask for a different plate and move on with your life. Is it more complicated than that?
From the closeup photo of the offending strawberry, it is not displaying any mold. It does appear to be bruised however, which over, say, 12-24 hours leads to it breaking down and therefore inedible. I could have left a catering kitchen within that timespan which would account for its appearance.
Wisely the passenger did not eat it but had found the rest of the fruit salad palatable. This could have just been one rogue...
From the closeup photo of the offending strawberry, it is not displaying any mold. It does appear to be bruised however, which over, say, 12-24 hours leads to it breaking down and therefore inedible. I could have left a catering kitchen within that timespan which would account for its appearance.
Wisely the passenger did not eat it but had found the rest of the fruit salad palatable. This could have just been one rogue strawberry.
Stomach upsets while travelling are common and could have come from anywhere, and not necessarily food or drink, in the preceding 24 hours or so.
Absolutely bring it to attention of crew in the galley, and not in the cabin. Also agree with need to inspect food before eating - anywhere.
Moldy food can sometimes be very dangerous though in the short term rarely fatal. Personally, I wouldn't bother because for one thing you really can't trace your illness back to a moldy strawberry that you ate within 24 hours without lab work. In fact it could have been anything you had eaten in the last 72 hours and unlikely what you had eaten within 24 hours.
Well, the pax should have complained instantaneously. All AV flight attendants understand English and also speak it - of course with an accent. But enough to handle the situation when you show them a strawberry with mould.
"In fairness to airlines, they typically contract out catering to third parties"
Why don't you say airlines award meal service to the lowest bidder. Sort of like hospitals and prisons...
Eating a moldy strawberry has a very very very low chance of making you sick. And if it did, it would be almost immediate. It would not do it the next day.
The berry looks Ike it might have been bruised in handling. Bruised spots are more susceptible to molding. If the plane has very low light, then the flight attendants might have never seen it.
Food poisoning happens very rarely before 8 hours and typically 8 - 36 hours after consumption. The bacteria/virus must grow exponentially before it is a problem
In most cases, food is contaminated by bacteria or a virus like:
campylobacter – the most common cause of food poisoning.
salmonella. - second most common
Escherichia coli (E. coli)
norovirus. - favourite cruise ship event
listeria.
That strawberry is on its way to fully rotten. Rot is brought about by bacterial and fungal action.
It does not speak well for the airline, especially in Business class !!!
As to service on the plane, this is where I unload my frustrations -
I have been flying with Air Canada, in Business, for quite some time.
I am a Vegetarian ( lacto-Ovo), my frustration knew no bounds that after checking in...
That strawberry is on its way to fully rotten. Rot is brought about by bacterial and fungal action.
It does not speak well for the airline, especially in Business class !!!
As to service on the plane, this is where I unload my frustrations -
I have been flying with Air Canada, in Business, for quite some time.
I am a Vegetarian ( lacto-Ovo), my frustration knew no bounds that after checking in multiple ways before the flight and CONFIRMING in multiple ways that YES, I was getting my special meal I would board and find NO special meal nearly 100% of the time.
While I appreciated that in the minority of cases, the FA in Business would attempt to provide me a meal by scraping vegetables off the meat of partially eaten meals of other passengers, as a vegetarian I would not touch anything that had touched killed animals. Though the salads , untouched by the meat eating passengers was acceptable in this unacceptable bad no win situation. After many many many years, Air Canada did finally improve service so that instead of 100% failure in providing me with my meal it is now less than 10% failure.
Generally I find FA's on European and North American flights are more educated and more aware but they are also less concerned with providing good service and are more arrogant. On Lufthansa Business long ( ~9 hrs ) flight recently I got up hungry and found the FA ( no response to the call button) for a snack. They were in a group having an enthusiastic discussion. Upon my request for a snack I was Happily informed that there was no Night service at night and NO snacks have been placed anywhere for Business class passengers and the FAs went back to their conversation with laughter. NOT MUCH can be done.
Unfortunately this is all to common in the air spoiled or out of season fruit.
Most the 3d party airline caterers suck with some rare notable exceptions.
As someone in the culinary world years ago I can say the mold wasn't that bad as was the fact that the strawberry was out of season and waterlogged before serving which led to this sad offering.A fresh berry shouldn't be that hard but all to...
Unfortunately this is all to common in the air spoiled or out of season fruit.
Most the 3d party airline caterers suck with some rare notable exceptions.
As someone in the culinary world years ago I can say the mold wasn't that bad as was the fact that the strawberry was out of season and waterlogged before serving which led to this sad offering.A fresh berry shouldn't be that hard but all to often they prepare to far in advance and overcook food holding the product to long
We all know that food and produce is perishable
Unfortunately airlines and even hotels have gotten to the point where they don't care about details like this and try to get rid of the complaining customer as everyone has a gripe about something these days.I've learned to eat before I fly and not take any chances unless I know the carrier and their overall performance.
I've given up complaining about food and just don't fly the worst offenders.They aren't fooling anybody with high standards!Advice don't sweat the small stuff and save your complaints for something serious or you will be even more likely to be ignored.I haven't complained in years except perhaps in social media just to vent.Its good to have a clean record.Nit picks lead to bad a relationship.Move on!
One has to understand that Columbia is a somewhat poor South American country. We have to stop behaving like spoiled entitled 1%,. Besides, mold is a precursor to penicillin, which is a very helpful medicine.
Penicillin is a mold but NOT ALL MOLDS are penicillin!
I had a pubic hair on my pickle and complained vociferously to the United FA. I was told I was fortunate that my special meal had been loaded and it was unlikely to be pubic.
If a strawberry has gone bad, one will taste it. And typically one will not get sick from eating a strawberry gone bad. Of course, the berry should not look like that, but the pax getting sick afterwards is most likely unrelated. You can get stomach bugs from an elevator button...
I was in the lavatory 7 times a couple months ago after eating an entree on United economy to CDG. I complained but they did nothing.
Hey - it's AV Business Class. You should be impressed that you even got a meal, molded or not.
That's just the AV way these days.
Mold on a strawberry will not make you sick.
This one got bruised probably when loading and developed a bit of mold. It happens. There is no need fur compensation other than an apology
Oh please - that's not enough mold to hurt a flea!! How does this person know that this very small amount of mold caused the sickness?? Trust me, if a person eats any type of fast food from any type of fast food joint, you're eating far worse than this little bit of mold. BTW - who still calls FA's "stewardesses"?
Cooking destroys most of the harmful germs from food. Fast food is mostly cooked and safer than raw fruits or salads.
That's not what I mean. For example, do you actually know what comprises a "meat" patty at McDonald's? Trust me, you don't want to know and hint, it ain't meat from a cow. No amount of cooking will make what's in a McDonald's meat paddy good for you.
You really think all the garbage that goes into fast food is safer than raw fruits?.....
Don't confuse quality with safety.
Properly cooked food has no risk.
The most dangerous food in a nice meal is often ROMAINE LETTUCE (Salmonella or E-coli) which kills many people a year. All California lettuce was banned for almost a month because of it one year.
That's perhaps NOT a moldy strawberry. It looks more like an up-&-coming bespoke type of high-end, hand shaped French Strawberry Cheese that's also well aged as evidenced by the vintage mold on its rind. Besides being infrequently served on Avianca, this unique, up-&-coming connoisseur fromage also makes surprise appearances on the buffets of many well known, brand-name mega cruise liners (sailing from Florida) along with several "other" service/food oriented airlines.
That's perhaps NOT a moldy strawberry. It looks more like an up-&-coming bespoke type of high-end, hand shaped French Strawberry Cheese that's also well aged as evidenced by the vintage mold on its rind. Besides being infrequently served on Avianca, this unique, up-&-coming connoisseur fromage also makes surprise appearances on the buffets of many well known, brand-name mega cruise liners (sailing from Florida) along with several "other" service/food oriented airlines.
I’m sure showing her the spoiled fruit she would have gotten the message. Obviously not the FA fault but they would write it up.
Years ago on Delta domestic when food still in economy I ordered a gluten free meal. It has the GFML label but was a regular sandwich. When I told the FA she was the one rude snd said “I’m not the one who made it”. This was the early 90’s
Mental note - always LOOK at your food before eating.... That said, I've never been served anything that was spoiled or contaminated in any way.
Sharing about flying with your kid, answering reader questions.... much welcome! Feels like a callback to a smaller, more personal style blog.
Now if we could only get the airlines to give us a callback on award availability!
Cheers!
Oh please, please, please, no questions about travelling with kids. This topic is covered ad nauseum by mummy bloggers on other sites.
Got a really funky shrimp salad
out of Chicago on United. Didn't eat it after I smelled, was last to get
Meal on Polaris cabin, warned the very friendly flight attended but the damage sure was done...
Similar happened to me rrrr....riding PolArus too.
Bad meal, massive crank in the neiner then bled all over the seat.
Shame for days
A colleague flew first class on a major carrier from Europe. Mould on fruit.
He said the crew were very apologetic.
They must have sent a report as within 2 days he received a call and a eur400 voucher !!!
Unfortunately, stories like this compels a lot of opportunist to complain about every little thing in hopes of getting some compensation.
I always find amusing when people complain about others who "don't speak *MY* language" instead of saying "I don't speak their (another) language". This is especially interesting considering that this was a flight between Colombia and Spain.
Not really a complaint, more so an explanation as to why I didn’t bring it up then and there. My first language isn’t English either, and I was tired, so I thought I’d just bring it up with the airline directly. It’s not like it’s the crews fault anyways
English, not Spanish, is the universal language on board whether you like it or not. Are you trying to say we all must learn another language before we take Bangkok to Hanoi flight? Or Tokyo to Seoul?
I would say that when it comes to an international flight, this is kind of BS and fwiw I am *not* a native English speaker. It's one thing if we were talking about domestic flights or even a flight to a neighbouring country where the same language is spoken, but not having any English-speaking FAs (not even with a basic level of understanding) on a transcontinental flight seems rather odd to me.
And you believe that a crew flying international don’t speak english at all? I’ve flown AV domestic and they spoke english. Announcements in english. So not believing it.
You had me at Avianca…lower expectations and don’t expect a response.
I was flying in Polaris on an international United flight about 5 years ago and was served a curry that had a jagged piece of hard plastic in it that was about 1.5 inches long. Luckily, even though I bit down hard on it, I bit down on the flat part - if it had been rotated in any other direction, it would have pierced my tongue/cheek/palate/etc. I notified the flight attendant and she was...
I was flying in Polaris on an international United flight about 5 years ago and was served a curry that had a jagged piece of hard plastic in it that was about 1.5 inches long. Luckily, even though I bit down hard on it, I bit down on the flat part - if it had been rotated in any other direction, it would have pierced my tongue/cheek/palate/etc. I notified the flight attendant and she was horrified (the piece looked like a little spearhead). She offered me compensation on the spot (I believe the maximum she was entitled to offer) and contacted ground operations at ORD while we were in the air. When we landed, someone was waiting for me on the jet bridge and offered both me and my wife a decent flight credit (she had no issues with her meal). I was very impressed by the promptness and attention to the matter (without me demanding it or making any sort of scene).
Would you mind saying which airline?
"Polaris on an international United flight"
she already done has her moldseseses
Sharing Personal experiences and service, good or bad, are interesting to me
I also enjoy these types of posts.
Also, how can we contact you if we have a story we would like to send you?
I do like this type of post, so please keep it up. Maybe more entertaining than informative, but nothing wrong with that...
As for the food...is that mold or bruised? I'm sorry that the pax got sick, but the actual cause can't definitively be the fruit. That said, BOG is the home airport for Avianca, so they should do better with the catering, contracted or not.
My experience with berries is that if they get bruised, so that water/juice gets on the surface, the mold will follow quickly, in a matter of hours.
I'd rather be shocked if someone had fruit on a commercial flight and it was delicious. By the time they're done selecting the cultivars for minimum spoilage, and treating/packing them to last a couple days ready-to-eat, the fruit is not going to be amazing.
First world problem ; there is an unprecedented heat wave in the Southern US. My strawberries went moldy this week too.
@D3Kingg;
That's not at all a "first world problem." Not to mention you pay a disastrous amount to fly Business, this is unacceptable! Not even in Economy or i.e. in Cargo.
That strawberry is well on its way to fully rotten. Rot is brought about by bacterial and fungal action.
It does not speak well for the airline, especially in Business class !!!
As to service on the plane, this is where I unload my frustrations -
I have been flying with Air Canada, in Business, for quite some time.
I am a Vegetarian ( lacto-Ovo), my frustration knew no bounds that after checking...
That strawberry is well on its way to fully rotten. Rot is brought about by bacterial and fungal action.
It does not speak well for the airline, especially in Business class !!!
As to service on the plane, this is where I unload my frustrations -
I have been flying with Air Canada, in Business, for quite some time.
I am a Vegetarian ( lacto-Ovo), my frustration knew no bounds that after checking in multiple ways before the flight and CONFIRMING in multiple ways that YES, I was getting my special meal I would board and find NO specoal meal nearly 100% of the time.
While I appreciated that in the minority of cases, the FA in Business would attempt to provide me a meal by scraping vegetables off the meat of partially eaten meals of other passengers, as a vegetarian I would not touch anything that had touched killed animals. Though the salads , untouched by the meat eating passengers was acceptable in this unacceptable bad no win situation. After many many many years, Air Canada did finally improve service so that instead of 100% failure in providing me with my meal it is now less than 10% failure.
Generally I find FAs on European and North American flights are more educated and aware but they are also less concerned with providing good service and are more arrogant. On Lufthansa Business long ( ~9 hrs ) flight recently I got up hungry and found the FA ( no response to the call button) for a snack. They were in a group having an enthusiastic discussion. Upon my request for a snack I was Happily informed that there was no Night service at night and NO snacks have been placed anywhere for Business class passengers and the FAs went back to their conversation with laughter. NOT MUCH can be done.
Well said! Besides, this kind of complaint is based on a very faulty causal inference which would only be believable in the absence of any other food comsumption whatsoever during a carefully monitored observation of no lesser duration than a whole digestive cycle.
Be kind. It’s just a rotten strawberry. It was made in an assembly line by an unskilled worker and catered onto your plane. Yes , I can understand being upset and factoring in jet lag because that is not an acceptable meal for the money being spent. Fair enough but let’s be reasonable here.
I personally do enjoy these posts.
You should have seen the food we were served on a Cubana flight out of Mexico City back to Havana back in 1988. When we removed the plastic cover, we noticed that the entire plate containing vegetables around a piece of chicken was covered with thick dark velvety mold!
Oh hell no