Update, 2/25 at 3:25pm: Air France responded to our latest request for comment on the passenger’s rebuttal and for a copy of the lead flight attendant’s report, saying, “We do not have any further comments beyond the statement we shared.”
Update, 2/25 at 2:20pm: After this story went viral on X, Air France responded as follows,
“Air France is aware of this experience of customers regarding the non-compliance of their kosher meal on a flight from Mauritius to Paris CDG. Due to a supply shortage at the local caterer, customers were informed when they arrived at the airport that their special meals would be unavailable and that vegetarian product trays would be provided as a replacement. Once on board, these trays were served to them, marked by the local caterer KSML, purely so that they could be identified by the crew to facilitate service. Air France regrets this confusing identification and points out that the crew never intended to mislead customers about the quality of the tray offered and that customers were well aware of the vegetarian meal served.
The crew also did its utmost to offer them suitable catering items to enable them to eat. In accordance with the company’s commercial policy, customer service proactively sent compensation to customers on arrival at their destination, due to the unavailability of the pre-booked meal.”
For her part, Divora said that this is incorrect.
She said she was absolutely not informed that a vegetarian product would be offered and would have refused that, though there were other religious Jews on the flight as well.
She also says that one of her sons, who was not seated next to her, specifically asked the flight attendant if this was a kosher meal and the flight attendant responded that it was a kosher meal. Divora said that the report filed by the lead flight attendant backs this up and that the lead flight attendant investigated and confirmed that the flight attendant had told her son that it was a kosher meal.
We have asked Air France for further comment and if they would be willing to provide a copy of the report filed by the lead flight attendant.
Originally posted on 2/24:
Last week, DansDeals reader Divora Marinelli reached out about fake kosher meals her family received from Air France on a flight from Mauritius to Paris. She has now shared her experience on DDF as well.
She had ordered kosher meals in advance from Air France, but when she checked in for her flight, they told her that her kosher meals were not available.
She was traveling with 8 people, ranging from 3 to 73 years old, and they were upset that they weren’t told in advance that their 12 hour flight wouldn’t have kosher meals.
(Pro tip: The HotLogic and Hot Logic Max work with the in-flight power from your plane seat and can warm up your own meals that you bring onboard.)
After takeoff, the flight attendant served them meals with “KSML” written on them, which is the industry abbreviation for a kosher meal:


Divora soon realized that the flight attendant had merely taken a regular meal and written KSML on it and told them it was their kosher meals.
She quickly went to tell the others in her party not to eat the meals, but some of her kids had already started to eat the meals. Her son even asked the flight attendant if the meal was kosher and she responded that it was.
She went to speak to the lead flight attendant, who investigated, and confirmed that another flight attendant had just scribbled KSML on the meals and gave it to them. The lead flight attendant wrote up a report, but all Air France did was send them a 30 Euro voucher each for not having the meal.
If this were a nut allergy situation, Air France would have a major PR disaster and lawsuit on its hands. Should kosher meals be different?
Air France did not say they would retrain or even speak to the flight attendant involved or whether they would retrain other crewmembers about kosher meals.
We reached out to multiple Air France contacts last week, but none of them responded to this story, even after repeated requests.
It’s a good reminder to always assume that the airline won’t have your kosher meal and to only eat a kosher meal if it is properly sealed.
In 2018, Wow Air was caught lying about kosher certification on their in-flight meals.
I have been on flights where the flight attendant thinks they’re doing a favor by opening the seal on the kosher meal for me, and are mortified when I tell them to keep it, as it’s worthless to me if served without a seal. Hopefully, they won’t do that in the future.
We were served this “kosher meal” on Thai Airways from Chiang Mai to Bangkok, though I had no idea if the juice or coffee creamer were kosher. We tossed it.

Even Delta has meals scribbled with KSML on it, though at least whole fruits are kosher:


Either way, shame on Air France for this situation and for failing to respond to it. Be sure to keep your eyes open for fake kosher meals.
Have you encountered fake kosher meals during your travels?
You can like, comment, and repost this X post to let AirFrance know that serving fake kosher meals in unacceptable and they need to train their staff better: