News and notes from around the interweb:
- United Airlines meal, Sydney – Los Angeles. Passenger finds a maggot in their food, and the airline determines that’s worth a $150 flight credit and 7,500 miles.
Maggot in dinner on long haul flight…
byu/rerreadit inunitedairlines - Boeing’s new safety metrics what exactly were they doing before???
- Hertz exploring options for raising financing which does not include charging EV customers for failing to refill gas tanks or PlatePass scams.
- Seat manufacturers preparing for 10-abreast on the Airbus A350
- You can now earn Alaska Airlines miles on Contour flights. American partners with Contour, but no miles. They’re a scheduled public charter that American Airlines says should be illegal but they’ll still take the business.
- Chinese government is pushing Cathay Pacific to expand flights to the Mideast and Asia, especially Belt and Road vassal countries, but the Hong Kong-based carrier remains constrained. Beijing is threatening to send mainland airlines to fly Hong Kong non-stops.
Even before mainland China’s crackdown on the once-independent city, it had effectively taken over Cathay and that was before pandemic-era subsidies.
While flying on United Airlines, a passenger finds a maggot in their food, and the airline determines that it’s worth a $150 flight credit and 7,500 miles. Inquiring minds want to know, if he finds two maggots, does United Airlines increase his compensation?
According to Healthline, “Some people choose to eat maggots intentionally. Maggots may be fried and eaten in places where eating bugs is commonplace. They can also be used to make a Sardinian delicacy. “Casu marzu” translates to maggot cheese or rotten cheese. It’s an Italian cheese that’s prepared specially to turn into breeding grounds for maggots”
Typical. United only has one maggot. Extra maggots would break the budget.
@Maryland: Instead of breaking United Airlines’ budget with more than one maggot per lunch or dinner meal, United Airlines chose to break guitars.
Hah… I was on a United flight from PHL to LAS 18 months ago and got stuck in a middle seat between an older married couple. My inflight display didn’t work and I mentioned it to a FA during the first drink service. She asked for my email addy and started tapping away on a tablet, saying they would give me a $100 UA voucher. The nice lady in the aisle seat tells me, “you can watch my screen, i.am going to read a book the whole flight.”. I thanked her and offered to switch seats with her and she could take the voucher.. win-win, right? Nope. She declined saying, “I don’t want to sit next to him.”. Hahaha… But anyways.. I would think finding live shit crawling around in my dinner would rate more than $150… I only get to fly twice a year these days and go with whichever airline has the most convenient schedule for me, so I don’t get to accrue enough FF miles with any one company to ever use them… What’s 7500 United miles worth cash or ticket-wise? I’m assuming not much…
More evidence, as if any were needed, that you should never eat the food on an airplane.
I would supposed that the rest of the people just ate their United Airlines maggot and pasta dish without complaint. I wonder if United labeled it correctly or lied or omitted the part about a maggot. Maybe it is an Australian catering thing or maybe just a United premium meal. Meanwhile, a few days ago on Asiana from LAX to ICN, I had maybe the best steak I have ever had on an airline, in upper deck coach no less and as good as most steaks I have had in restaurants. I am not actually a big steak eater but this was nicely seared outside with a reddish pink interior but no dripping blood. The flavor was great as was the texture. Disclosure: no maggots were found with the meal.
Going ten wide on an A350 will turn a good airplane into a dog. I, for one, use seat width in coach as one of my major contributing factors when deciding which airline to use for flights across the Pacific. I have never flown on a B787 because many are configured with narrow seats and would use them only on shorter flights. I have flown on nine wide A350s and enjoyed the reasonable seat width.
Didn’t around 15 years ago, United’s food facility in Denver have issues with cocker roaches? I remember it and I can’t believe I still ate the food in 1st class.
Not that it helps, but that’s more likely a flour beetle or weevil larva; anyone who has grain, flour, or pasta at home has encountered this more than once. “Maggot” typically refers to the larvae of meat-infesting flies and are considerably more gross by association.
I would also be very put-off my meal by that, and it should have been caught in QC, but I’m also not surprised given the scale and cost at which economy meals are made. These are probably made with dry bulk pasta to start, and grain beetles will happen…
I’m a bit surprised this isn’t a regular problem with Chef Boyardee and the like. I suppose those plants make the pasta from flour, combine with sauce, can, and pasteurize in a matter of minutes, so any bug bits present are thoroughly ground up.
Thanks, Gary Leff, for writing this article. According to FDA guidance, it is permissible to have less than four or more rodent hairs per 100 grams of apple butter.
Bon Appétit.
The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has different limits for the amount of insect parts that are allowed in different foods:
Flour: Up to 75 insect fragments per 50 grams
Cornmeal: One or more whole insects, 50 or more insect fragments, or one or more fragments of rodent dung per ¼ cup
Asparagus: Up to 40 thrips per ¼ pound
Frozen or canned spinach: Up to 50 aphids, thrips, and mites, or eight whole leaf miner bugs
Ketchup: Up to 30 fruit fly eggs per 100 grams
Canned corn: Up to two insect larvae per 100 grams
Peanut butter: Up to 30 insect fragments per 100 grams, or up to 136 insect fragments in a 16-ounce jar
Canned or frozen peaches: One or more larvae and/or larval fragments whose aggregate length exceeds 5 mm in 12 1-pound cans or equivalent
Ground marjoram: Up to 1,175 insect fragments per 10 grams
Crushed oregano: Up to 300 insect fragments per 10 grams
Ground oregano: Up to 1,250 insect fragments per 10 grams
For your reading enjoyment, here is the link to the U.S. Food & Drug Administration “Food Defect Levels Handbook”
https://www.fda.gov/food/current-good-manufacturing-practices-cgmps-food-and-dietary-supplements/food-defect-levels-handbook
United doesn’t prepare the food. The problem is with the Australian meals supplier. They are in dire need of an inspection by the health authorities.
Just recently I was in a French restaurant and found a snail in my food. Oh, wait . . . I think it was supposed to be there.