Mumbai: A blade-like metal piece was found in the food of a passenger on Air India's Bengaluru-San Francisco flight last week, for which the airline has apologised.
Confirming the presence of a "foreign object" in the food, the airline on Monday said it came from a vegetable processing machine used at the facilities of its catering partner TajSATS.
In a post on X, the traveler claimed that he only felt the blade-like object after chewing the grub for a few seconds, but luckily no harm was done.
"Air India's food can be cut like a knife. Its roasted sweet potato and fig chaat had a metal piece hidden in it that looked like a blade.I realized this only after chewing the grub for a few seconds. Thankfully, there was no damage,” said the passenger, Mathures Paul, a journalist by profession.
Paul blamed Air India's catering service, saying, "But this incident does not help the image I have of Air India... What if a piece of metal had been in the food served to a child? ?"
This is the second incident involving food served on the airline's long-haul flights in recent times.
It is noteworthy that both Air India and TajSATS are part of the steel-to-software conglomerate, Tata Group.
Air India's chief customer said, "Air India confirms that a foreign object was found in the food of a guest on one of our flights.After investigation, it has been identified as a vegetable processing machine used in our catering partner's facilities," Anubhav officer Rajesh Dogra said in a statement.
The airline launched an investigation after a passenger posted about the incident on Instagram.
Dogra said the airline has worked with its catering partners to strengthen measures to prevent any recurrence, including checking processors more frequently, especially after cutting any hard vegetables.
He said, “Air India stands in touch with the affected customers and deeply apologizes for this experience.,
"We have strengthened our procedures for comprehensive inspection and preventive maintenance of all our production equipment," a TajSats spokesperson said.
Earlier, a business class passenger on the airline's New Delhi-Newark flight had complained that he was served "raw" food by the airline and the seats were dirty, and described the journey as "no less than a nightmare".
Confirming the presence of a "foreign object" in the food, the airline on Monday said it came from a vegetable processing machine used at the facilities of its catering partner TajSATS.
In a post on X, the traveler claimed that he only felt the blade-like object after chewing the grub for a few seconds, but luckily no harm was done.
"Air India's food can be cut like a knife. Its roasted sweet potato and fig chaat had a metal piece hidden in it that looked like a blade.I realized this only after chewing the grub for a few seconds. Thankfully, there was no damage,” said the passenger, Mathures Paul, a journalist by profession.
Paul blamed Air India's catering service, saying, "But this incident does not help the image I have of Air India... What if a piece of metal had been in the food served to a child? ?"
This is the second incident involving food served on the airline's long-haul flights in recent times.
It is noteworthy that both Air India and TajSATS are part of the steel-to-software conglomerate, Tata Group.
Air India's chief customer said, "Air India confirms that a foreign object was found in the food of a guest on one of our flights.After investigation, it has been identified as a vegetable processing machine used in our catering partner's facilities," Anubhav officer Rajesh Dogra said in a statement.
The airline launched an investigation after a passenger posted about the incident on Instagram.
Dogra said the airline has worked with its catering partners to strengthen measures to prevent any recurrence, including checking processors more frequently, especially after cutting any hard vegetables.
He said, “Air India stands in touch with the affected customers and deeply apologizes for this experience.,
"We have strengthened our procedures for comprehensive inspection and preventive maintenance of all our production equipment," a TajSats spokesperson said.
Earlier, a business class passenger on the airline's New Delhi-Newark flight had complained that he was served "raw" food by the airline and the seats were dirty, and described the journey as "no less than a nightmare".