Lufthansa is said to be the only airline to do extensive testing with a decommissioned Airbus A310 to figure out why so many people in flight order tomato juice. The German scientists think cusine research must be able to find the answer.

“The flavor profile of tomato juice changes with pressure,” [Florian Mayer, the Fraunhofer Institute for Building Physics team leader] said. “So when they taste tomato juice on the ground and give it bad marks and if they do the same test under reduced pressure conditions they give the tomato better marks because tomato juice tastes better under low pressure conditions.”

Blame the altitude for poor flavor, in other words.