Business and industry caterers are having to be much more creative with their food offerings because office workers are increasingly taking shorter lunch breaks or are not taking a break at all.
More than half of the UK workforce takes less than 30 minutes for lunch, and nearly 20% are skipping lunch altogether or eating at their desks, according to a recently published ICM poll commissioned by the Public and Commercial Services trade union.
At larger, more sprawling sites, the use of carts and tea-trolleys is making a comeback. Contract caterer Aramark is developing ways in which peope don't have to leave their desks at all, such as "desk fast" and "box" meal packages.
The company already offers internet ordering at a number of contracts, and is researching whether demand is more widespread.
Reducing the length of queues and improving vending machines are two ways caterers and tapping into the quick-lunch trend. Shorter breaks mean that catering staff are required for shorter bursts throughout the day, so avoiding queues is essential to stop customers resorting to the high street.
Caterers are also looking at new till technology to speed up service.
Aramark last week signed a deal with Hampshire-based Hot Bite to install hot food vending machines at Barclays Bank offices in Northampton, Liverpool, Knutsford and Doxford near Sunderland, and at television shopping channel QVC in London.
The machines, which serve toasted sandwiches, wraps and pizzas, use hot plates instead of microwaves to heat the non-frozen products in special packaging. The pizza machine uses a fan-assisted oven.
Contract caterer Sodexho is also developing a hot food vending offer with its food production subsidiary Tillery Valley Foods. The company already offered vending at its 24-hour sites but recognised that its image needed to be improved.
However, not all office caterers welcome the trend. Wendy Bartlett of Bartlett & Mitchell believes that the emergence of shorter lunches is not just down to work pressures.
She believes that people don't recognise the value of personal interaction over a meal. She said that companies would benefit if they made their catering areas into social hubs, encouraging "cross-departmental fertilisation", rather than designing them as "refuelling posts".
Tim Price, director of Pride Catering Partnership, agreed, but said that many companies were using less space for staff catering in order to save costs.
The PCS union recently hosted a picnic in a London park to raise awareness of Britain's long working hours. A half-hour lunch break is the legal minimum during an average working day.
Source: Caterer & Hotelkeeper magazine, 10 - 16 July 2003