Most flight meals come with extras we don't really want: a sealed yoghurt, a bun, a packet of butter, maybe a sandwich we never unwrap. We often leave them on the tray, hand it back, and move on. But for Anshu Bhatia, CEO of Exper, that small act of waste never quite sat right. In a LinkedIn post, the entrepreneur shared how she repeatedly asked airline crew what happens to unopened food left on meal trays. The answers she got were: "Anything unopened that comes back on the tray goes into the garbage" or "Don't know what the cleaning team does with it." Either way, it was clear that perfectly good food almost certainly got thrown away.
That realisation led Bhatia to adopt a habit: if an item is sealed, safe, and untouched, she puts it in her handbag and gives it to someone who might appreciate it - an airport restroom cleaner, a taxi driver, a homeless person at a traffic signal. Sometimes, she even carries it back home. She admitted it didn't come naturally at first. The idea of stuffing buns into her handbag felt awkward, and she worried about being judged. So she did it quietly, hoping no one noticed.
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Check out her full LinkedIn post below:
Then came a flight last week that changed her perspective. Bhatia struck up a conversation with her co-passenger, only to discover that both were travelling after losing someone they loved. When she began openly collecting her unopened food, her co-passenger set his aside as well. When the crew came to clear the trays, Bhatia explained what they were doing and asked if any other unopened items could be passed along. The staff became an "instant co-conspirator" and helped them gather more sealed items.
With a newspaper folded into a makeshift bag, the two passengers divided the food neatly and walked off the aircraft. Bhatia says she often feels like standing up mid-flight and announcing, "If you're not eating something and it's sealed, please take it with you and give it to someone who could use it." She admits she is unlikely to ever do that, which is why she chose to write about it instead.
“I don't know what the exact aviation regulations would permit, but I do wonder if one day airlines could add a gentle message in their announcements - encouraging passengers to make responsible choices with unopened items - with all the necessary disclaimers following all the rules, regulations, and food safety guidelines” she wrote.
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She even tagged the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA), asking if such an idea could be explored. For now, she sees it as an individual effort. “What is safe for me to consume, I believe if given within a certain window of time depending on what food I have carried back, I feel it will be okay,” she said.
“A sealed bun or yoghurt that ends up in your bag rather than the bin can make someone's day. It takes 30 seconds. And it costs nothing. Am sure there are many more like me and hope more people join,” she ended her post.
What do you do with the unopened food on your flight tray? Let us know in the comments below!