Gastroenterologist Shida Haghighat flew American Airlines and was surprised to see the snack she was served had expired. In fact, it’s dated from before the start of the pandemic.
Was so excited to indulge in my free pretzel snack aboard @AmericanAir but was aghast by how stale they tasted.
Flipped over the package and the expiration date reads 2020.
Can’t help but to wonder if the aviation kerosene was also expired 🤔 pic.twitter.com/NhKSlunULF
— Shida Haghighat, MD, MPH (@DoctorShida) December 7, 2022
While the pretzels may taste stale, you’re in coach, in some sense maybe that’s to be expected! And another doctor makes the point that the age of the ingredients aren’t exactly going to be bad for you as such.
Riboflavin and canola oil doesn’t expire
— Brian Frank, MD (@DrBrianAFrank) December 7, 2022
I’ve written about American Airlines serving 16 month old curry vegetables. American told me at the time that while that was within industry norms, they were working with catering vendors to provide meals that were made within 40-60 days. Nigella Lawson says not to freeze curries more than three months.
Before the pandemic the U.S. industry standard for meals aging was that United would serve meals up to 6 months, Delta 12 months, and American 18 months.
Fifteen years ago United was known to sell expired coach buy on board snacks, and – while I still believe it was a labeling error – easyJet served a cheese sandwich that expired 10 years earlier.
I reached out to American Airlines for comment on whether they have policies around the expiration dates of snacks, and whether this was an American Airlines sourcing or outsourced catering company issue, and I’ll update if they respond.
Update: American Airlines shares,
[T]his was an isolated incident on a flight that was catered from MIA. The catering team checked last week and confirmed all pretzel packets on our fights have a 2023 expiration date. The team also confirmed that all inbound loose pretzel bags are discarded and the team will remind their teams to continue to discard loose bags in the drawers.
Smartass Brian Frank is a doctor in Florida LOLOLOLOL. Expiration is not binary. Piece of s**t, everything degrades. I bet Brian spent his time in bottom tier universities hitting on women out of his league who saw right through his assholery.
I don’t want to eat something just because it won’t kill me, I want to eat something fresh and pleasant and that goes well beyond “not expired”
Brian Frank = MANSPLAINER
I don’t see “best buy” there – it’s possible that’s a “born on” date.
I hate autocorrect. Best By.
Best by. Born on. Call it what you want. These pretzels are TOO OLD.
My elementary school served me old snacks at recess. Teachers claimed the expiration dates were just a suggestion. Well guess how I turned out. Virgin male who spends his days trolling Gary Leff.
Best by my you know what. SHAME ON AA. That was most likely not the only outdated package passed along on that flight and others. I don’t eat expired food at home and I shouldn’t be served it on a product that I paid most like hundreds of hard earned dollars for. NO it’s not likely to kill you or even cause illness, it just is a cheap trick, even more so by the company to mark the packages so that the date is harder to read over the other information. Who would notice? Maybe we should make all companies stop with the variations in dating and all be a USE BY date. That would alleviate confusion and be far more helpfu than this guessing game.
Coincidence this happened a day before FAs being instructed to not delay flights due to catering issues? Pretzels expired – just apologize!
@Weight loss
You sound like a fat, annoying Karen.
Lots of projecting. Typical left wing mental case.
Canola oil certainly goes rancid. Opened (like for cooking pretzels) expect about 6 mos. Two years in unopened bottle.
United served stale pretzels throughout the pandemic in the tragic mini-carrier bag with the micro bottle of Dasani. I tried the pretzels again yesterday, and they’re still stale. So AA isn’t alone. And Dog knows what condition the Biscoffs are in on the abominable Delta.
@weight loss not sure why you’re taking a Twitter thread so personally… You’re accusing Brian of “assholery” yet you’re calling him a “piece of s**t” for providing factual information… As expected, he’s been accused of “mansplaining,” but that’s what happens when everyone is given a voice online whether they’re mentally stable or not!
Back to the topic at hand, I believe fresh food should be served in all cabins, including free snacks. You would expect this from an ULCC, not a full service airline. This is why I’m not a fan of AA. Given AA management’s history of cost cutting, including with their employees groups, I don’t think this was unintentional…
Well if it makes you feel better rancid nuts with mold growing on them on,Alaska in First class
OH for God sakes WTF cares !!! Things happen in the world , ask for another one and move on !!! Who has this much free time in the world to post all this BS. If you have this much time go Volunteer somewhere !!~!~
I had noticeably stale pretzels on my AA flight last night, too. The flight was delayed because they didn’t load enough fuel for the 1.25 hour trip and had to call three times to get the fuel truck to come back, and then after we landed, we had to wait 30 minutes on the tarmac for a gate to become available. I think AA must be TRYING to piss off their passengers. Unsurprisingly, lots of people missed their connections.
I also had a pack in coach just last night that tasted bland, vs the crisp tasty ones I had the previous night in Flagship business from the snack tray. I was wondering why they weren’t up to par…thanks for the update. The Biscoff cookies in coach were good.
Pretty sure the macadamia nut crusted sea bass we had on AA from DFW to HNL on Thursday was packaged before the pandemic, too…we ate the exact same thing (same sauce, same green beans, same plating) on that flight/route three years ago. I thought AA was supposed to have revamped it’s menus?
I seriously doubt that this was an “isolated incident” at MIA. I just flew on AA a few days ago and passed through DFW (not MIA). Since I wasn’t hungry, I put the pretzels in my bag and promptly forgot about them until I saw this article. I just checked the date: April 2020.
Not a big deal guys. It’s a packet of four or five little pretzels. Just saying…