Qantas denies safety issue with cardboard meal boxes

Qantas flight attendants have reported finding cardboard meal boxes smouldering inside convection ovens.

The Sydney Morning Herald reports that on one occasion flames were discovered in an oven on a Qantas 737 aircraft while the plane was on the ground preparing for take-off. The cabin crew used a fire extinguisher on the food, which they say had been heated at the correct temperature of 275°C.

The incidents of scorched meal boxes have occurred on Qantas's 737 aircraft, which have convection ovens, unlike its A330 planes, which use steam-based ovens.

The national secretary of the Flight Attendants Association of Australia’s domestic division, Jo Ann Davidson, said the union had been inundated with photographs of scorched meal boxes from crew.

"Having had a meeting with senior management today, I have been given an assurance that the product is totally safe," she said.

A Qantas spokeswoman said changes had been made as a precaution to the way crews prepare meals, including reducing the number loaded into ovens at any one time, and reducing heat.

"Both the ovens and the oven-safe cardboard are used by many airlines around the world, and we've done additional testing over the past couple of months to ensure that they are safe," she said.

"We serve millions of meals in these boxes on hundreds of thousands of flights each year, so this is obviously an extremely rare event."

The ovens on Qantas's 737 fleet are designed to contain heat and fire and have a cut-off protection when they reach a certain temperature.

The airline has been using cardboard meal boxes on domestic flights for the past three years.