Food tastes blander on aeroplanes than it does on the ground because our taste buds and sense of smell change at high altitudes. Taste bud sensitivity to sugary and salty food reduces by 30% due to low pressure and humidity. However Unami, the ‘fifth taste’ found in sardines, seaweed, mushrooms and tomatoes are enhanced due to loud background noise so people order tomato juice a lot more in the air than on the ground.
Would you like sugar with those fries? You’ll probably pull a face at that question but it is known that some fast food retailers add sugar to ensure their fries have a consistent golden brown colouring and a crispiness – something we’d all like to emulate at home. So it’s not just starch and fats, but sugars too in those naughty but nice fries!
In 2012 Google employees had an M&M problem! As a perk, employees had unlimited access to M&Ms but workers were eating too many. Google decided to put the M&Ms in opaque jars and put healthy foods like figs and nuts in visible areas. This resulted in 3.1 million fewer calories consumed over a seven week period in the New York office.
While 1,120 litres of water go into producing a single litre of coffee, only 120 litres go into making the same amount of tea. In fact, to produce one litre of tea takes less water than producing wine, apple juice, orange juice, or beer.
Spring clean your coffee grinder by adding half a cup of uncooked rice and running it until the rice turns to powder. Result, shiny and clean.