A Visit to the Hermolis Factory

Photos: Hermolis

I was waiting at the gate in the airport, watching a catering company load a plane with airline meals. This made me wonder about what goes into preparing airline meals. Luckily, I knew just who to ask!

If you’ve ever traveled by plane to or from England, chances are you were served a Hermolis meal on your flight. Hermolis has been providing Jewish travelers with some of the best tasting kosher meals for more than 60 years. Hermolis COO (Chief Operation Officer) Avi Lisser very kindly gave me a tour of their factory in London, where they produce more than 10,000 meals every single day. And as it turns out, when it comes to Hermolis and kosher food, their airline meals are just the tip of the iceberg!

Brrrr

Our tour takes place on the hottest day that England has seen in decades — and Avi is wearing a sweater. Because right now, we’re on the factory floor, which is basically an enormous fridge, even though it’s almost 40^o C (104^o F) outside. The tour of the factory will follow a meal from ingredient delivery to product dispatch, so pretend you’re a meal in the making, and come with me.

Hunks of meat waiting in the decanting area

There’s a delivery

Our first stop is the “goods-in” department. Just as its name suggests, this is where all food and supply deliveries are dropped off. Employees in this department have the very important job of labeling every single food box with the date of delivery. All information is meticulously recorded. “It’s called traceability,” Avi explains. “This is how we can track every single dish from farm to table. If you’re sitting down to a Hermolis meal of chicken and potatoes, I can tell you how long the parsley in your food was sitting in our fridge.” Talk about nitty gritty!