Three billion meals and the world's biggest dishwasher

. BA passengers out of Heathrow munch on 70,000 meals daily, including 41 tons of chicken breast, 45 tons of strawberries and 600,000 pints of milk. BA serves 500,000 cases of wine a year.

. Three billion airline meals are served annually. Yes, and if you stacked them on top of each other they would go to the Moon and back ... probably.

. AIRLINES employ inbound officials to trawl through halfeaten trays of food to work out what is popular. Approximately 300 million puddings are left untouched annually. About 75 million have one bite taken out.

. WATER boils at a lower temperature at high altitudes and airlines spend thousands of pounds trying to devise a blend of tea that can accommodate this. Most have failed.

. A TYPICAL first-class menu now reads: foie gras terrine with a fig compote; butternutsquashand-coconut soup; guinea fowl on brioche with wilted savoy cabbage; millefeuille of rhubarb.

. FLYING at altitude reduces the functioning of taste buds by a third, thankfully.

. UNTIL recently there was an unwritten policy to serve foods with a high fat content. It is cheaper, keeps better, is easier to reheat and makes people tired and sedentary and less likely to incite air rage. Because of deep vein thrombosis fears and the vogue for healthy eating, airlines now encourage passengers to move around and eat salads.

. SCALLOPS, souffles and flambes are considered the "risk" items.

. THERE are almost 30 specialised meals on offer in accordance with International Air Transport Association guidelines. These include glutenfree, low-sodium, halal and vegan.

. THE airline food industry is worth Pounds 11.7 billion worldwide a year and employs 100,000 people.

. THE website www.airlinesmeals.net was set up by Dutchman Marco Hart and has become a cult success.

It reviews almost 2,000 different meals for about 200 airlines.

. THE most popular food in Virgin Business returning from the Far East is a bacon sandwich.

. A BOEING 747 has more than 48,000 individual catering items.

. BA serves 35.5 tonnes of sausages on long-haul flights and 1.98 million tea bags are used each year.

. THE BA catering depot at Heathrow has the world's largest dishwasher.

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