B737 Undifferentiated or Other Model
Flight Crew Air Transport Pilot (ATP)
Flight Crew Last 90 Days 210; Flight Crew Total 18000; Flight Crew Type 1000
Physiological - Other
Flight Deck / Cabin / Aircraft Event Illness / Injury
General None Reported / Taken
Company Policy; Human Factors; Procedure
We were scheduled for a Snack and Breakfast meals on [our late night oceanic] flight. There is no catering at our departure airport so the meals are routinely boarded [prior to the inbound flight from the mainland] and theoretically kept on dry ice until served to us. I ate the snack at 1000Z which was a minimum of 13 hours after the meal had been produced and boarded. The 737 has no chillers on board to ensure proper refrigeration of our meals. Our snacks were cold cut platters which included several mozzarella cheese balls. Those balls had spoiled. When we took bites of them; both my first officer and I almost threw up and there was a period of time that I was sick to my stomach. It is important to maintain proper nourishment when flying. I have had several meals on these 'round trip' meal flights that have been spoiled. Clearly; [the company] needs to put chillers on the airplane for our meals; or come up with a more reliable method of ensuring the freshness of our crew meals after they have been boarded.
Both the Captain and First Officer's aboard flight to the mainland flight fell sick to spoiled crew meals boarded on the inbound flight from the mainland and not chilled in the interim.