Tunnock's Tea Cakes pass RAF test after being banned for 60 years
4 April 2025, 12:44 | Updated: 4 April 2025, 12:53
The Scottish snack was banned by the Air Force for 'exploding' marshmallow in the cockpit.
Listen to this article
Loading audio...
Tunnox Tea Cakes were regularly snacked on by RAF airmen while flying nuclear bombers during the Cold War.
However, the RAF added the sweet treat to their no-fly-list after a tea cake exploded in the cockpit in the 1960s.
During a training mission in 1965, a captain and student places two unwrapped tea cakes above the plane's instruments panels, the story goes.
When the captain pulled the emergency depressing switch, the chocolate-marshmallow parcel blew up.
Tunnox Tea Cake covered the windscreen and the flight controls - proving a sticky flight back.
That's until the RAF Centre of Aerospace Medicine in Henlow, Bedfordshire, decided to put the tea cakes to the test.
The treats were lifted 8,000ft, climbing at 4,000ft per minute, inside an altitude trainer usually used for novice jet pilots.
They were then rapidly decompressed to 25,000ft in just three seconds.
The tea cakes did not explode.
The marshmallow slightly leaked from the chocolate casing, so the scientists concluded that freezing the treats before flight would be the best course of action.
Read More: VE Day plans revealed: Flypast, concerts and street parties among celebrations for 80th anniversary
Read More: Britain's cheapest supermarket revealed - see the full ranking
Dr Oliver Bird, a medical officer instructor at the RAF Centre of Aerospace Medicine oversaw the tests and deemed Tunnocks Tea Cakes suitable for flight.
“I think the best advice is that the snacks are kept frozen and in their foil wrappings until pilots are ready to consume them," he said.
The sweet experiment was filmed for the British Forces Broadcasting Service (BFBS).
Hannah King, producer and directer for BFBS News said: "This was a critical piece of scientific testing. I’m just glad the RAF medics at the Centre of Aerospace Medicine stepped up and answered the question that everyone’s been wondering for so many years
"It may be that the original tea cakes really did explode in a much more dangerous fashion. Perhaps the recipe has changed – who knows?
"But people ought to spread the word – it’s safe to fly with tea cakes."
Tunnocks was founded in 1890 in Uddington, Lanarkshire, Scotland.
They now employe more than 600 people, exporting to more than 30 countries across the globe.
Sir Boyd Tunnock, 92, still leads the firm. He created the sweet treat in 1956.
