Tired of traditional corporate catering? Looking for fun ways to use corporate catering to keep your employees engaged? By adopting popular workplace dining trends like global flavors, nostalgic dishes and unique textures, you can provide the meals your employees crave while fostering a community of connection as they bond over a unique dining experience.
What Trends Are Shaping the Corporate Catering Industry?
Businesses have begun rethinking how they approach employee meals. This is due to factors like offices switching to a hybrid work schedule and more employees becoming more health-conscious.
If you are considering upgrading your company's catering plan or cafeteria, it's worth looking into corporate food service trends like:
1. Savoring Global Flavors
Many employees today are looking for new and unique meals reflecting their own cultural experiences. This shift is due in part to younger generations dominating the workforce. Millennials and Gen Z employees are more adventurous eaters, and they're eager to explore global flavors and food traditions.
You can meet this desire for culinary heritage by including meals such as:
Boba tea stations: Let employees choose their tea base, flavors and toppings so they can make their own boba tea experience.
Global breakfast sandwiches: Introduce employees to global breakfast traditions with options like Japanese egg sandwiches, Vietnamese banh mi or traditional English breakfast rolls.
Fusion bowls: Blend international cuisines with a customizable bowl station where employees can try Korean BBQ with avocado on top or Mediterranean grain bowls with falafel.
2. Elevating Your Dining Experience Through Textural Adventures
Beyond just flavor, employees are craving sensory dining experiences—where textures like crunch, creaminess, and popping elements add excitement to every bite. This shift reflects a renewed appreciation for dining as an experience, especially after the pandemic limited food variety at home.
Here’s how you can embrace these exciting trends in corporate cafeterias:
Salads with crunchy elements like chili crisps, spiced nuts or dehydrated vegetables
Teas or mocktails with popping boba and fruit pearls
Airy foams, crispy cookies and layered parfaits for dessert
3. The Umami Revolution
Umami, often described as the fifth taste, has a savory depth and richness that makes it unique. Umami has become prevalent in recent years as consumers search for bolder, more satisfying taste experiences.
As you plan menu items for your corporate cafeteria, join the future of workplace dining by including the following items that are rich in umami:
Mushroom-based dishes like mushroom risotto and grilled portobello burgers
Root vegetable innovations like roasted root vegetable salads or root vegetable fries
Savory snacks like roasted chickpeas and seaweed snacks
Evolving Food Service Landscape
The changing food service landscape affects many industries, including your own business as you search for corporate catering options. Here are some of the many changes to be aware of:
4. Navigating Economic Challenges in the Food Service Industry
Food costs have increased 29% since 2019, making cost management and pricing a challenge for many food service businesses. Pressures from port closures and rising costs have caused many caterers to reevaluate their pricing and sourcing. As a result, both caterers and the companies using their services are prioritizing more efficient management of finances.
As you explore different catering options, you may see the following techniques used to manage inflation while ensuring quality:
Flexible pricing strategies, such as a tiered pricing structure that allows catering companies to adjust their prices based on fluctuating market conditions
Creative menu alternatives or substitutions to incorporate ingredients of the same quality but at a lower cost
Use of locally grown vegetables and fruits during their growing season to keep prices low for customers
5. Streamlining Food Safety
Food safety is a rising cause of concern for both employers and employees. With over 1,500 recalls from the FDA in 2024, ensuring the meals you are ordering are safe is essential.
While food safety is not a new priority for corporate catering services, new systems and processes are emerging, such as:
Advanced inventory management like real-time tracking and expiration date management
Regular audits of suppliers to ensure they meet food safety standards
Blockchain traceability to provide greater transparency and accountability throughout the supply chain
Detailed menus offering specific information about ingredients, sourcing and allergens to help customers make informed choices
Adapting to Customer Trends
Consumer trends are constantly changing. As you look for a catering option, you'll likely want one that meets employee preferences while feeling fresh and relevant.
Here are a few menu adaptations you may see among catering companies to stay on trend:
6. Upscaled Fast Food
As more members of Gen Z enter the workforce, their preferences are reshaping the traditional catering structure, with many looking for a blend of fun, quality and social media appeal.
This is reflected in the catering experience through options like:
Upscaled fast-casual offerings like truffle fries and artisanal pizzas
Social media-friendly presentations like colorful platters, stylish serving ware or unique packaging
7. Empowering Customization
Awareness of allergies and dietary restrictions is increasing across all sectors, not just in corporate catering. You can ensure all employees have access to safe, delicious meals by empowering customization through your catering choices. A few corporate catering options to explore include build your own food stations or meal boxes, so everyone can choose meals meeting their dietary needs.
8. The Rise of “Newstalgia”
“Newstalgia” combines nostalgic comfort foods with modern flavors and presentation styles to appeal to younger and older workforces alike.
Some ways you can use corporate catering to incorporate newstalgia into your next corporate event include:
Themed food spreads like an 80's movie night with popular foods from that era, like elevated Lunchables, popsicles and Hi-C
Interactive food bars where employees can customize nostalgic favorites such as mac and cheese and mashed potatoes
Futureproof Your Workplace Catering With Food For Thought
Modernize your workplace catering with innovative, sustainable and customizable meal options from Food For Thought. With an over 40-year track record of excellence, we know how to create a diverse menu that feels exciting while showcasing the trends you and your employees are looking for in a catering experience. Food For Thought elevates workplace dining with a focus on:
Food For Thought elevates workplace dining with a focus on:
Variety: Our diverse menu allows customers to explore various dishes and cuisines to meet their employees' preferences.
Personalized meals: Many of our dishes are customizable, so employees can build their own plates, or you can personalize which meals you receive.
Sustainability: One of our primary goals is sustainable catering, which includes locally sourced ingredients and customizable dishes to reduce food and packaging waste.
Contact Food For Thought to Transform Your Catering Experience
Staying on trend applies to more than just food. With Food For Thought as your catering partner, it's easy to craft exciting and unique catering experiences everyone at the company will enjoy.
Our flexible ordering systems make planning for everyday meals or larger events easy with plenty of customization choices. Your team can feel good about ordering our food due to our sustainable business practices, such as composting food scraps, converting cooking oil into bio-diesel, and recycling cardboard and other materials.
Ready to modernize your workplace dining?
• Schedule a free consultation today to explore how our sustainable, customizable menus can excite your team.
• Try a menu sampling to experience the difference for yourself!
FAQs
What Are the Most Cost-Effective Ways to Implement Modern Dining Trends?
Implementing modern dining trends requires balancing budget with innovation, and the top strategies are:
Prioritizing flexibility and customization over elegance, depending on the occasion or event
Focusing on quality over quantity, with a priority on the small details
Choosing strategic catering partnerships based on their previous experience and pricing model
How Do Global Flavors Enhance Workplace Dining Experiences?
Incorporating global flavors is a great way to help all employees feel included and promote cultural understanding across the company. Additional benefits of globally inspired flavor profiles include:
Breaks the monotony of routine dining menus
Creates a shared culinary experience among employees for greater team building
Promotes a sense of discovery and adventure to foster a more open-minded approach to new experiences
