INSIDE THE FOOD FACTORY: The Emirates Flight Catering facility in Dubai is one of the world's largest airline food facilities, preparing up to 180,000 meals every day.
Chris Dwyer
Lobster pot —
Emirates Flight Catering gets through 3.6 tons of lobster each year. Other fishy statistics include 80 tons of smoked salmon and 165 tons of salmon fillet.
Aaron Darveniza
Loading the dishwasher —
Three million items of dirty equipment are sorted and cleaned each day. Each year, the facility goes through 4 million hairnets and 23 million plastic gloves.
Chris Dwyer
7,000 different menu items —
"We change our menus every month, so annually there are 7,000 different menu items," says Joost Heymeijer, senior vice president of Emirates Flight Catering. "We have 254 different soups in first class alone."
Chris Dwyer
Cold facts —
Some 24 tons of ice cubes are produced daily. That's equivalent to the weight of the bricks used in a small house.
CNN
High flavor —
Heymeijer says it's a myth that pressurized planes environments mean food doesn't taste as good. He admits "certain subtleties you'd be able to taste on the ground you won't be able to taste in the air. But you can mitigate that by cooking with bold flavors."
Chris Dwyer
Quality control —
"We taste prodigiously," says Heymeijer. "Every three weeks I taste with a tasting panel, wines from all over the world."
Chris Dwyer
Cream mountain —
Other statistics include 260,000 liters of whipping cream, 15 million croissants, 550 tons of watermelon and 620 tons of pineapple used annually.
CNN
Wine —
Emirates announced last year it would invest $500 million over 10 years to procure wines en primeur and cellar them. On a daily basis it flies 60 different wines around its network.
Chris Dwyer
Food safety —
"We have absolute traceability," says Heymeijer. "We know everything on every dish on every flight."
Chris Dwyer
72 hours —
Snacks, sandwiches and pre-cooked frozen meals are all prepared at the facility. The shelf life from cooking to eating is just 72 hours.
