For the average traveller, a flight delay is a test of patience – irritating but not usually critical. A last-minute change of plane model might go unnoticed, and a shorter than usual wait on the ground before the flight takes off is usually good news. But minor events such as these manage to create crises every day for airline caterers like Gate Gourmet, one of the largest companies that supplies in-flight meals.

Airline food is an easy target. The meals are often the butt of jokes because of their reputation as the most unsavoury fare that travellers – confined to a cabin thousands of miles above ground – have little choice but to eat. But don’t turn your nose up too quickly. Behind the delivery of every in-flight meal is a sophisticated operation that takes food safety to an extreme, battling everyday logistical nightmares and a myriad of crises waiting to happen.

The first challenge is designing the meals. It is not uncommon for airlines to consult famous chefs or restaurants as selling points. But no matter who plans the menu, the Gate Gourmet chefs and assembly personnel are still the ones who prepare the dishes. More commonly, these in-house chefs are the ones designing the menus based on the airlines’ specifications.

A frequent request from airlines is dishes that reflect the region’s food specialities. As a Hong Kong-based operation, the company has made Chinese fare of all kinds, ranging from decadent abalone soup to the typical Cantonese wonton noodles. “If the airlines want to serve Chinese food, then they might have these types of dishes. We have had requests for barbecue pork buns, even dim sum,” says Peter von Huene-Chan, commercial manager of Gate Gourmet in Hong Kong. Based on the clients’ requests and input, the caterer presents meals to the airlines for sampling. Tastings are also performed frequently within Gate Gourmet, with a weekly food tasting panel screening the dishes for quality.

One major hurdle to designing good meals is the need to reheat meals during the flight, which can affect the food's taste considerably. Specific serving instructions are provided to crew members, but as many flyers can attest, pasta dishes may still emerge dry on the edges, and meat might become tough from overheating. At least that is von Huene-Chan’s explanation. “We try our economy-class food, and it’s really not bad. It really is frequently overheated, which turns a good meal into a bad meal,” he says. And remember, your vote counts: passenger complaints about food often make their way back from the flight attendants to the caterer, and form the basis for re-evaluation of meals.

But taste is a secondary factor when food hygiene and safety is considered. “When people are on a plane, they are stuck there, so we can’t allow them to get sick,” says von Huene-Chan. “If 300 people suddenly get a stomach ache, that would be terrible for them – there are only so many toilets. So we follow up on every little issue.”

Concerns about spoilage significantly limit the range of food that can be served. Don’t expect to ever find a runny eggs Benedict with hollandaise sauce on your long-haul. “To us, the most important thing is food safety. Therefore, raw foods like sushi are restricted items. Some airlines want to serve regional foods that use raw eggs or unpasteurised cheese, but we won’t do that,” says Bonnie Leung, Gate Gourmet’s unit quality and hygiene coordinator.

These safety concerns explain why the caterer’s entire facility is as spotless as an operating theatre. Colour-coded stickers date the food, while colour-coded cutting boards avoid cross-contamination. Food samples are regularly tested in the in-house laboratory for bacteria. Food preparation rooms and fridges are kept below specific temperatures and closely monitored, and employees’ temperatures are taken before they can walk through the front door.

The workers who make these meals are part of what is essentially a production line. Amid the grey walls, steel equipment and chilly environment, 11,000 meals are prepared each day for the flights of 20 airlines departing from Hong Kong. Vegetables are pre-soaked, tumble washed and disinfected. Meats stew in enormous pots. Sweet smells emanate from the pastry kitchen. The largest room is for portioning, where the cooked food is divided on to dishes and plates. At every work station, a small stand props up instruction sheets with a picture of the finished product – creativity is not encouraged.

Some menus are changed as frequently as every 15 days, while other menu cycles may last three months. These changes give frequent flyers more variety, and allow ingredients to be adjusted for seasonality and to reflect food trends. Yet, trends can emerge all of a sudden. “During a previous bird flu epidemic, some airlines wanted to remove poultry items from the meals. When there was the tainted milk scandal, we had to check the origins of our milk supply. We have to respond to the airlines when these types of unexpected situations arise,” says Leung.

The dishes are loaded on to the proper airlines’ trays which are slotted into aircraft-specific trolleys, then trucked onto runways and moved into the planes. Gate Gourmet also supplies and delivers other necessities such as toilet paper, blankets, slippers, amenity kits, headsets, magazines – all spelled out in minute detail by the airlines, with each flight’s supplies different as can be. These items are bundled and loaded on to hundreds of flights departing from one of the world’s busiest airports. What could possibly go wrong?

When there is a plane waiting to depart, a few dozen missing cups becomes a fiasco – and just another day at the office for Gate Gourmet. With products stored in a sprawling warehouse that reaches three storeys high, keeping the inventory in order is a daunting task. Even with checklists, spec lists, records and codes, the operation is bound to run into a few hiccups.

“It’s never easy. There are always challenges, whether they are delays or typhoons or airlines requiring a meal change, or a change in plane model, such as from a 747 to a 777. Things get hectic,” says von Heune-Chan. In the case of delays, the prepared meals must be consumed within 24 hours of production, or else they will have to be thrown out. When the flight time changes the meal from, say, dinner to breakfast, or if 20 passengers are suddenly added, then new meals need to be assembled and supplied immediately.

As Leung says simply, “the strangest things can go wrong.” Perhaps there is no normal day at Gate Gourmet, unless the norm is handling crises. The best way to look at the task of keeping a flight full of people fed, comfortable and entertained, is to expect the unexpected.