Whether its First Class, Coach or food you brought on the plane, there's an easy way to make it taste bettergetty“Airline food” is a much aligned punchline for frequent travelers, and in recent years many more passengers have chosen to carry their own food on the plane with them—only to find it still doesn’t taste great. While it’s true that in many cases airline meals, especially in coach, are mediocre at best, it turns out that it’s not just the food, it’s the environment. Eating things while in flight makes them taste worse. But it doesn’t have to be that way, and starting the next time you get on board, there’s a quick fix and easy secret to better airline food, whether you bring it on or are served by staff. The secret? Noise-cancelling headphones.Are Noise-Cancelling Headphones The Secret to Better Airline Food?Sound crazy, right? But not to Dr. David Agus, MD, the widely acclaimed oncologist, medical school professor, bestselling author (The End of illness) and co-CEO of the Ellison Medical Institute, a leading longevity research facility (I wrote about the consumer-facing Sensei health and wellness resorts in Palm Springs, Hawaii and Mexico which are associated with Agus and Ellison here at Forbes recently). In his Book of Animal Secrets, Agus visited NASA’s Ames Research Center to learn about the effects of space travel on the human body, and as a bonus, the in-flight headphone secret was a byproduct of this research. He wrote, “The presence of loud noise suppresses how we perceive the saltiness and sweetness of foods. You’ve probably experienced a version of this while on an airplane where the craft’s drumming noise overwhelms the brain, and as a result, your sense of taste. If you wear noise-cancelling headphones on the plane, however, you can taste better…Try the experiment. It’s pretty wild how well it works.”This traveler seems to know the secret to better taste in flight.gettyI did, and it does. But the irony to this simple travel hack is that intuitively we tend to do just the opposite—especially in premium cabins such as international Business or First where they serve much better food. Until now, when the meal comes around on an airline renowned for its in-flight cuisine, such as Qatar (which I recently wrote about here at Forbes) or Turkish which both regularly win awards for their catering, I’d stop watching my movie, take off my headphones, and devote my full attention to trying to enjoy the elaborate and luxurious meal service. But even in the back of the plane (where I usually fly), I’d usually stop my entertainment when eating, and this is exactly the wrong thing to do. Well, stopping the movie isn’t the problem, taking off the noise-canceling headphones is.MORE FOR YOUOxford University’s Professor Charles Spence, the first chef in residence at the school’s Crossmodal Research Laboratory, published a fairly detailed and thorough scientific opinion paper on the subject, noting that the reason so many more flyers order Bloody Mary mix than when on the ground, a long noted and curious aviation phenomenon, is that “umami-rich tomato provides one of the only basic tastes that is relatively unaffected by the loud background noise that one is exposed to in flight.” He noted that “recent research has now clearly demonstrated that loud noise can suppress the perception of certain basic tastes,” especially sweetness and saltiness, which are both “significantly reduced by the presence of loud white noise”—the background sounds of flying. New York Magazine’s digital food site Grubstreet.com was blunter in its assessment: “Research says airplane food may suck because of the cabin noise.”In 2010 the UK’s Independent published a feature titled “Science finds the plane truth about in-flight meals” in which the paper’s science editor wrote that, “The inexplicable blandness of airline food has been pondered at 30,000 feet by generations of travellers. Now an explanation has been offered in the form of research showing that people lose their sense of taste when listening to the sort of ‘white noise’ heard inside an aircraft's cabin.” It gets worse: because the plane’s engine noise diminishes specific senses of taste, airlines often counter this known effect by adding extra salt and sugar to their recipes, both of which are unhealthy. Culinary specialty site TastingTable.com explained this most succinctly: “No matter if it's the free salted snack mix on United or a First Class pan-fried beef tenderloin on a long-haul Emirates flight, everything always tastes a bit off up in the air. It's not because airline food is inherently bad. Rather, our perception of flavors actually changes in an airplane. And strangely, the fix for your ‘airline appetite’ isn't extra seasoning, it's actually a pair of noise-cancelling headphones.”Blocking the sound is now widely accepted as a quick fix and upgrade for airline foods, but there is mounting evidence that playing music may actually be even better and enhance your meals, just as legendary 3-Michelin starred cutting edge English chef Heston Blumenthal made headlines for having diners wear an iPod and listen to ocean sounds while eating one of his seafood dishes—and that was on the ground.The Secret to Better Airline Food Is Better Noise Cancelling HeadphonesBetter quality over ear active noise cancelling headphones make many aspects of plane travel better, from food to entertainment to privacy.Bowers & WilikinsThe good news is that most frequent travelers already know good headphones are a vital part of the flying toolbox, just like their favorite carry-on bag or comfy clothes. The keys for reducing background noise is high quality noise cancellation, which you only get from “active noise cancellation”, forget any headphone or in ear models claiming “passive.” Over ear headphones are better at clicking noise and more comfortable in general, and if it’s true that music plus noise cancellation might be even better, why not go for a pair that sounds great playing music?I fly a lot, usually several times each month, often on long haul international flights, and I am a big television and movie watcher on planes and lately have gotten into audio books. As a result, I’ve ben using higher-end noise cancelling headphones regularly for more than two decades and have tried most of the best known models on the market. My choice? I love the new Bowers & Wilkins Px8 S2 Wireless Noise Canceling Headphones. Bowers & Wilkins is a high-tech audio company that makes nothing but speakers and headphones, and they do it very well—the Px8 S2 just won a coveted 2026 IF Design Award and was named “Headphone of The Year,” by reliable technology specialist site TechRadar.com.Top of the line Bowers & Wilkins Px8 S2 headphones.Bowers & WilkinsFor travel, they start with two features that are hard to beat: a 30-hour battery life that will get you to pretty much any spot on the planet on a single charge (and quick charging USB-C just in case) and extreme comfort, with soft Napa leather earpieces that don’t start to annoy after many hours like so many models. The rest is made from die-cast aluminum for durability—something I’ve found lacking in many other pricey models that routinely get jammed in a crowded backpack. Then there are a lot of high-tech bells and whistles: Eight separate microphones provide superb multi-level active noise cancellation that is adjustable based on your environment, and this also makes for excellent phone call quality. For music they have high resolution audio with 24-bit DSP and 40mm carbon cone drive units, plus the app has direct music streaming and a 5-band equalizer. They support both Apple MFI Made for iPhone and Google Fast Pair and use aptX Lossless Bluetooth.So I’m enjoying both my in-flight entertainment and in-flight dining more these days, but no matter what your preferred headphones are, if they have good active noise cancellation you are on your way to discovering the secret to better airline food.