As the world continues to open up from the closure brought about by Covid, and I begin to travel again, I wanted to drop a quick note about my Food and Nutrition Travel Reviews.
For any food and nutrition reviews done on airline/airport lounges or planes, I will make it very clear if the review is done during times when Covid is affecting travel. For example I will add a label to the title of the review saying something like “Covid period”. This way when you are reading reviews you can understand the situation the airlines are operating in, and whether the offerings are being affected by supply chains, cost cutting, health measures etc. You can also compare across airlines as to which ones are implementing changed food offerings (and potentially reductions in food quality and variety), and make decisions accordingly.
I will also leave my reviews on my website from prior to Covid, with the dates and times I visited clearly stated, so you can compare foods previously on offer and just how much this has changed/not changed. This can also help you see (hopefully) what food offerings may return to in time.
I know for me food quality, nutritious offerings, and variety are so important when I travel, and while I am trained in food service and so understand many of the challenges that have arisen during Covid, it is important to balance this with continuing to offer good quality food and not use food offerings as a scape goat to save some money.
I have kept my assessment the same when I am reviewing the food offerings in terms of nutrition and health, but as mentioned you can see if the review was conducted during Covid so you can understand the context of the food offerings. Unfortunately just because Covid has thrown some challenges to the travel industry, it doesn’t mean unhealthy food all of a sudden becomes less unhealthy. You still need to eat nutritious food, and in fact it has become even more important to eat nutritious food while travelling as we know good nutrition is important for the immune system.
Quick reminder on how I conduct my food and nutrition travel reviews
Here is an exert from a previous article I wrote describing how I conduct my food and nutrition travel reviews:
To conduct a nutrition review of an airline lounge, I have developed an assessment criteria that I can apply to any lounge and that provides a score out of 10 for the lounge. I use this, along with qualitative observations about a lounge to provide you with any overview of ‘What’s healthy’ and ‘Not so great- be cautious’.
The criteria have been developed to be able to be used in any lounge around the world, and without having access to any ingredients or nutrition information about the food.
I consider the type of foods that are available and what that means in terms of nutrition and health. I take into account factors such as vegetables, refined carbohydrates, fibre and wholegrains, food variety, protein sources, processed foods etc.
I hope you find this distinction between time periods for my reviews useful, and I look forward to traveling more in the coming months and getting back to my Food and Nutrition Travel Reviews!
Mel
