A panel of international travellers has declared that the best on-board food is served by Turkish Airlines, according to a Skyscanner study.

The flight comparison site sent 100 passengers from around the world on a flight with one of 19 international airlines to survey the food served inflight.  Passengers were asked to score the airline food on presentation and taste.

Each airline was then ranked according to the scores they received. Qantas was the only Australian airline to make the list, coming in at number 7.

Turkish Airlines, which was recently also named best airline in Europe, took first place with a score of 86 percent for its menu which includes such dishes as stuffed eggplant and walnut pear tart.  As well as standard meals, the airline also offers a range of special meals including children's, kosher, vegetarian and seafood options.

In second place was Singapore Airlines, on which Gordon Ramsay has previously offered his expertise as part of their culinary panel, while Etihad took third place ahead of UAE rival Emirates which came in 5th behind Aer Lingus.

The full ranking:

1. Turkish Airlines 86
2. Singapore Airlines 81
3. Etihad 80
4. Aer Lingus 78
5. Emirates 77
6. Cathay Pacific 75
7. KLM 75
8. Qantas 72
9. Aeroflot 71
10. Air France 70
11. Iberia 65
12. SAS 64
13. United Airlines 62
14. British Airways 60
15. Qatar Airways 57
16. Virgin Atlantic 57
17. Alitalia 54
18. Lufthansa 53
19. American Airlines 47.5

Mary Porter, Skyscanner's food expert and one half of pop-up restaurant Kitchen Porter's, comments:

"The stereotype of the barely edible inflight meal appears to be a thing of the past.  In today's highly competitive marketplace airlines have to stand out from one and another, ensure the passengers' on board experience is a positive one, and ultimately generate customer loyalty. Inflight meals are a key way of doing this and recent years have seen a huge investment in this area with many leading chefs being brought on board by airlines to help develop their offering.

"This investment in food appears to have been successful - many reviewers in our study described food as being 'delicious' or 'tasty' and over half of the airlines included in the study achieved a score of 70 percent or more."

Skyscanner is a leading travel search site providing instant online comparisons for millions of flights on over a thousand airlines, as well as car hire and hotels.

Which airline do you think serves the best food?