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opious sandwiches, hardboiled eggs and coffee
from an insulated jug: A “packed lunch” used to
be something people only ate on long holiday
car journeys or when picnicking by the lake.
Today, transporting food and drink around is quite the
norm. Mobility is playing an increasingly important role in
nutrition. In 2016, consumer expenditure on away-from-
home products rose by around three percent. Christoph
Minhoff, General Director of the Federal Association of the
German Food Industry (BVE) knows why: “The population is
increasingly working, flexible, international, connected and
constantly pressed for time.” And this is nothing new: The
“coffee-to-go” concept has embodied this development
around the world for decades. Besides the large coffee
house chains, restaurants and kiosks have also started to
cater to their customers’ need to purchase their favourite
hot drinks at any time of day and wherever they may be.
HEALTHY ON THE GO
Always and everywhere – this is also the prominent trend
for eating. Today around a quarter of consumer expen-
diture is spent on food outside of the home. “A large majo-
rity of Germans simply do not have the time, ability or
inclination to prepare food at home themselves,” says Min-
hoff. Whether sushi or salad, even the supermarkets have
responded to the changes in eating behaviour, as have
most restaurants, which also offer meals to take away. The
choice in towns and cities is extremely diverse. When the
sun is shining, inner cities around the world are densely
populated, people sit on stairways, benches and in parks
to eat their warm or cold food from lunch boxes balanced
on their knees, or they queue up at takeaway food trucks.
The concept of the traditional lunch is waning, particularly
among younger employees.
The trend for “eating on the go” has been further
boosted by the trend for eating healthy. “There is demand
above all for vegetarian products as well as foods with
additional health benefits. Over the last few years, we have
seen increased interest in ready-made meals, such as fresh
salads, in the fresh food segment,” continues BVE General
Director Minhoff. And Germany is not alone: The American
salad fast food restaurants Sweetgreen and Just Salad can
now be found on every street corner of New York, while
specialist delivery services such as Stadtsalat in Hamburg
are on the rise. Whether baby spinach, tomatoes, goat
cheese, beetroot, chick peas, chopped almonds, pumpkin
D I SH AU T HOR ANNE - K AT R I N GÜ L C K G I V E S I T A SHO T:
HOW MUCH EN J OYMEN T AND SUS TA I NA B I L I T Y C AN T HE R E
R E A L LY B E ON T HE GO?
E N J OY ME N T
by WMF
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