Fast and Casual: Today’s Foodservice Trends

From dining out to dining in, foodservice is changing. Here are the trends, directions, and opportunities that are occurring in the restaurant and noncommercial foodservice industries.

Food Technology Magazine | Article

A. Elizabeth Sloan

As restaurants go, so goes the nation. Or is it vice versa? Economic uncertainty, behavioral shifts, and fears due to 9/11, business spending cutbacks, travel aversion, high gas and utility bills, and a re-centering around home, family, and friends have all taken a bite out of foodservice sales.

McDonald’s’ Chipotle Grill.More than almost any other industry, the restaurant industry is a barometer of the American scene. Restaurants and other foodservice outlets are the nation’s largest private-sector employer, servicing 858…


Fig. 1—Category shares of the Top 400 restaurant chains. From Hume (2002)

Table 2—Top 10 growth chains ranked by % increase in sales. From Amer (2002)


Fig. 3—Kinds of take-out/delivery food brought home in the past week. From RoperASW (2002)

Table 3—On-site-baked/cooked proprietary products sold in convenience stores. From Chanil (2002)

Fig. 4—Deli sales distribution in 2001: 38.3% prepared foods. From RoperASW (2002)

Fig. 5—Food preferences by age, showing that Baby Boomers prefer seafood. From NPDFoodworld (2002) and Red Lobster








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In This Article

  1. Food Business Trends
  2. Consumer and Marketplace Trends
  3. Food Business Trends
  4. Foodservice
  5. Food Business Trends
  6. Supply Chain Management
  7. Food Processing & Packaging

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