10 top Food Management onsite food service stories from the past decade

Food Management has been serving the onsite dining community and examining the trends that impact it since the publication’s launch in 1972 (which means that in two years we’ll be celebrating our 50^th anniversary—stay tuned!). Over that time, we’ve seen the evolution of what mostly was a low-cost, labor-intensive, often subsidized service dishing up basic, bulk-produced food into what today is increasingly a specialized, food-trend-sensitive, culinarily sophisticated and financially savvy P&L enterprise.

From food fads to out-of-the-box automation, we’ve seen trends come and go, have examined each in turn and have sought to provide FM readers with the information they need to best utilize them, often by highlighting individual operators and their innovations. We’ve also tried to look ahead and predict how current trends might impact future operations, from rising labor costs and 24/7 service to automated ordering and plant-based dining.

As the 2010’s draw to a close, we thought we’d look back over the decade to identify some of the stories published by FM that explored topics that remain highly relevant going into the 2020’s. Here are 10 we think have legs.