Over the years, photos and even videos of bad vegan and vegetarian meals on planes have regularly gone viral. While some airlines will carefully plan their offerings to include a meat-free option that is just as satisfying and appealing to travelers (a pasta dish is a common way to achieve this), others will treat the vegetarian meal as an afterthought.
In the spring of 2023, a vegan traveler on a six-hour KLM (AFRAF) flight from Ghana to Amsterdam through Kenya Airways said that she was given only some fruit and a packet of peanuts despite pre-ordering a full meal and the flight's departure being delayed by more than six hours.
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On the weekend of March 23-24, a photo of a small bread roll with nothing other than two slices of tomato and two pieces of cucumber in it gathered more than 29,500 likes and 3,400 comments on the forum-style social media platform Reddit (RDDT) .
On a 12 hour flight and this was my gf’s veggie sandwich around 8hrs in.
by u/pestopopcorn in mildlyinfuriating
Airline passenger: 'Even the cucumber looks unhappy...'
"On a 12 hour flight and this was my gf’s veggie sandwich around 8hrs in," wrote a Reddit user with the u/pestopopcorn username without naming the airline. He kept the description brief and let the image of the sad-looking sandwich speak for itself while commenters quickly filled in the space with quips and speculation.
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"Even the cucumber looks unhappy," wrote one commenter of the roughly-cut cucumber pieces while another added that the sandwich wouldn't get nearly as much hate if someone had thought to add just a bit of falafel or hummus.
"On Japan Airlines (JPNRF) the vegan menu is just a banana, so it could be worse," another commenter wrote in reference to a February 2023 incident in which the airline was blasted for offering a business class traveler who had ordered a vegan meal on a flight from Jakarta to Tokyo a single banana for breakfast.
"Good thing she brought sudoku," reads the most upvoted comment on the sandwich post in reference to the paper with the puzzle on it on which the sandwich lies since finishing the meal wouldn't take much time.
These airlines have some of the best meat-free meals out there
While photos of insufficient or just sad-looking vegetarian meals will periodically go viral on the internet, the industry has made some major strides to accommodate the growing base of passengers who either do not eat meat or simply prefer one meal without it.
In its own ranking, VegNews named Dubai-based Emirates Airlines as having the best vegetarian and vegan food out of any airline due to how it cuts no corners in using top ingredients and highlighting the cuisine of the destination even with restrictions — examples include Ethiopian misir wot lentil stew, North African koftas made with Beyond Meat (BYND) protein and French spinach mousseline.
While Emirates generally has a reputation as an all-out luxury airline, other airlines to score highly for their vegetarian and vegan meals include Singapore Airlines (SINGY) , Lufthansa (DLAKF) and American Airlines (AAL) — in the U.S., the airline has a reputation for offering some of the most diverse vegetarian options on long-haul flights.
A meal offered to a traveler a few months ago included rice with a spinach curry, tortilla chips, a side salad, banana chips and a brownie made with only plant-based ingredients.
