Meals designed for consumption in the confined microgravity environment encountered on space flight programmes. Originally bite-sized cubes or squeezed from a tube, space flight foods have now evolved into more appetizing meals that can incorporate frozen, refrigerated and ambient foods. A typical meal tray could include a foil beverage pouch, and individual servings of lightweight easily rehydrated foods, intermediate moisture foods and thermostabilized, aseptic fill, natural form foods. Early research into providing assurance against microbial contamination in space led to development of the HACCP concept.