Are Qantas Menus Becoming Too Healthy?

If you’ve flown Qantas lately, you may have noticed an increase in healthy food options like salads and celery sticks. But are Qantas in-flight and lounge menus becoming too healthy? While health-conscious frequent flyers may be rejoicing, others believe there is too much kale, polenta and cabbage slaw appearing on Qantas menus.

An AFF member flying Qantas to Los Angeles next week has posted a copy of the menu for their flight, and it’s not pretty reading for carnivores:

Salad of smoked salmon with kale and cabbage slaw.

Vegetable lasagne with spinach and béchamel.

Southern style chicken with polenta, kale, broccoli and onion gravy. 

This member is unimpressed that both non-vegetarian meal options contain kale, the “superfood” loved by hipsters…

Kale with both non-vegetarian options. One cannot escape the kale, except by going vegetarian (which is somewhat ironic!).

It seems that many AFF members actually agree…

With that menu I’d go hungry. Nothing appeals to me at all.

Kale should be treated with Glyphosate at every opportunity.

And kale isn’t just appearing on Qantas aircraft. It’s also being served in Qantas’ lounges.

Noticed that the breakfast plate du jour in the PER J lounge this morning was some kale containing concoction. Stuck with the usual scrambled eggs.

But other members welcome some healthier choices on Qantas menus, both in-flight and in the airline’s airport lounges.

Kale is one of the most nutritious vegetables! Great to see meals getting healthier and better balanced. You could easily push it to the side if it’s not to your taste?

The amount of kale on this particular Qantas menu is probably just a coincidence. But Qantas has announced that it will make a deliberate effort to offer healthy meal choices to travellers on its 17-hour, non-stop flight from Perth to London which begins in a few weeks. With the airline promising that the catering will help to reduce jetlag, meals on this flight will include fresh fruit and tuna poke salads. But there will also be some options for meat-lovers, with roast chicken and beef appearing on the menu.

Virgin Australia also recently changed its Business class menus to include more healthy and lighter options. An example of one of the new dishes was posted recently in our Virgin Australia Business Class Catering thread.

Are you a fan of healthier meal options when flying? Join the discussion on the Australian Frequent Flyer forum: Too much kale?

Matt Graham

The editor of Australian Frequent Flyer, Matt's passion for travel has taken him to over 70 countries… with the help of frequent flyer points, of course!
Matt's favourite destinations (so far) are Germany, Brazil & Kazakhstan. His interests include economics, aviation & foreign languages, and he has a soft spot for good food and red wine.

You can connect with Matt by posting on the Australian Frequent Flyer community forum and tagging @AFF Editor.