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Get up to Speed on The Top 5 Corporate Catering Trends For 2025
As of 2023, the catering services market size has reached a massive figure of $148.1 billion. This figure is expected to grow at a CAGR of 4.5% and reach $220 billion by 2032. This steady growth indicates the resilience of catering services as an industry. While the industry is robust, it has its share of challenges and the best way to navigate them is to stay on top of the latest corporate catering trends.
Today we’ll take a look at the top five corporate catering trends you should be prepared for in 2025. From health-conscious food choices to self checkout systems, our blog contains the best of the latest catering trends you should be aware of. Read along to know more.
What is corporate catering?
Before we get into the top five corporate catering trends, let’s look at what defines corporate catering. Simply put, corporate catering refers to a list of catering services offered by a catering company to a business for various events. A typical catering service is in charge of creating the menu, handling the cooking resources, and serving the meals.
While corporate events are often the focus of catering companies, daily serving is also a common service offered. Choosing a catering company often boils down to the following characteristics:
- The catering company is well equipped for cooking high volume meals.
- The catering company has a good track record with positive reviews from previous clients.
- The catering company fits the employer’s budget.
Five corporate catering trends to look out for in 2025
Healthy meals are a must for the menu
Whether you’re an employer or a new catering company, this is one of those corporate catering trends that isn’t recent but has gained tremendous relevance over the last few years. Cholesterol-rich foods have flooded workplace dining menus in recent years, and people are unhappy with it. About 65% of employees believe that having healthy snacks at the office is essential. Additionally, 41% of employees are keen to know where the ingredients of their office meals come from. If you’re checking out a catering company’s food offerings, then make sure to check the number of dishes with green vegetables and organically farmed products.
Every catering company should learn to include less fat recipes. You should also look for cooking methods other than deep frying or cooking with a heavy concentration of oil.
Sustainable catering practices are on the rise
About 1.3 billion tons of food is lost every year globally. Food wastage not only creates a potential crisis for the needy but also creates a ton of waste that further compromises the environment. It invites diseases and carriers like flies and other insects. Not to mention its ill effects on groundwater levels due to contamination. Reducing food waste not only cleans the environment but also helps your organization reach sustainability goals.
Sustainability in catering can be achieved by:
- Using locally sourced and seasoned ingredients for food items.
- Keeping tabs on the food items in use via technical implementations.
- Using bio degradable cutlery items such as spoons, sporks and knives.
Sustainability is one of the most crucial corporate catering trends and should be taken seriously, irrespective of your company’s size or dining area.
Interactive food stations are a welcome addition
People love choices. Everybody wants their favorite bits of veggies and fruits to be added to their meal of choice. Whether it is adding an extra slice of pineapple to your salad or some jalapenos to your custom food bowl, giving the people choices always acts in your favor.
About 55% of employees believe that corporate meals should be tailormade to their preferences. By adding a food station capable of adding different edibles to an employee’s meals, you enable the employee to choose their own menu. This will help broaden the horizons for what’s popular among employees and may even help you with new food combinations. This is among the tried and tested corporate catering trends that refuses to change.
Local food is good but international food is great
Food choices are subjective, they change from one person to the other. Hence, implementing a two tone food menu for your office is a bad idea. As mentioned above, people love choices, especially when it concerns food. Your local diner might serve the best local cuisine in the region, but their menu might not fit well with someone who doesn’t like that particular cuisine.
Food choices shouldn’t just reflect different flavors but cultures as well. After all, the dining area is where people from different ethnicities, countries, and ideas come together to enjoy their meal. So why compromise that by serving a meal that is only reflective of the local recipes. If you want to entice your employees with good food, then you need to make room for additional cuisines from around the world. The more international your menu looks, the better. Just be sure to maintain the prices as a high price tag might drive employees away from your canteen.
Technology and food go hand in hand
Catering to employees is a demanding process for the catering company as it has to deploy a number of resources to keep the process hasslefree. However, by doing everything manually, you increase the chance of making errors. Hence, a decline in employee’s dining experience. The modern day solution for this problem is to implement a system that tracks food usage from a source and keep tabs on the meal choices of different employees.
Such technology allows you to streamline the workplace menus and even customize those meals that are unpopular. Things such as digital menus, self checkout systems and mobile payment applications have become a necessity. The further inclusion of AI to these systems have made things way easier for employees and employers. Therefore, embracing technology in the form of self checkout systems, mobile payment apps and smart menus is the way to go.
The best way to brace for these trends is to start now
industries. The earlier you start prepping the better. When it comes to staying on top of the coming corporate catering trends, what you need is a system that serves healthy, affordable and tasty food to your employees.
With the lechef smart fridge and mobile app, you can:
- Serve up to 50 employees with a single fridge.
- Save up to 11 hours per employee per month on food choices.
- Cut down time spent on making physical payments with the one time registration method.
- Keep tabs on the food items taken from the fridge.
Promote healthy and smart dining with the added benefit of consistent restocking with the lechef smart fridge. Get one for your office today.
