Eating during the lunch break
Kantinen ranking: Spaghetti front, currywurst slips off
Meat, fish or vegetarian? Many canteen visitors ask themselves such questions every day. In the past, the choice fell as often on the currywurst than on no other dish. That has changed.
The currywurst loses popularity in Germany’s canteens. After the food was the best -selling court in the canteens of the operator and catering provider Apetito until 2019, the currywurst sagged fries in third place over the years. Now it goes downhill: For the first time in the ranking, the court no longer even comes to the imaginary podium – in 2024 it was only in fourth place, as the company in the Westphalian city of Rheine announced.
Apetito boss Jan-Peer Laabs justified the descent of the currywurst with the trend towards a more conscious and healthier diet. “International or vegetarian dishes are being better and better accepted, because German classics like the currywurst are getting more and more difficult.” The currywurst will stay in the top 10 for a long time. “The trend speaks against it, but the currywurst will continue to remain an integral part of the canteen offer.”
Spaghetti Bolognese ended up in first place again, followed by the rice dish Chicken Korma and the Bami Goreng noodle dish. With cheese spaetzle, a vegetarian dish was fifth in fifth place, followed by vegetarian spaghetti Bolognese.
Children eat a lot of vegetarian
At daycare centers and schools, apetito delivers food, and he also operates canteen at schools. There is much more vegetarian eating there: in the apetito ranking for eating in daycare centers and schools, the vegetarian lentil soup is at the top, followed by vegetarian spaghetti Bolo and vegetableavioli. With fish sticks and chicken fricassee, only two fish/meat dishes come into the top 10 (fourth and five).
When asked why children are served so much less meat than canteen visitors, says apetito boss Laabs, the municipalities and other clients determined the menu themselves. In many tenders, it is stipulated that there are only fish or meat once or twice a week. The quality standards of the German Nutrition Society (DGE) are considered a guideline. It is noteworthy that children and adolescents accept vegetarian food much better than older people. “They like it and they naturally eat meatless.”
It is different for seniors: they continue to rely on meat, says the manager. This illustrates the apetito statistics of the most frequently sold dishes in senior facilities: the beef roulade with potatoes and red cabbage comes to first place, followed by the pea soup with sausages and the bean stew with beef.
Behind it it becomes vegetarian with the grated cake with apple sauce, and the Königsberg Klopse follows in fifth place. “Older people often want to eat what they have eaten all their lives – so the demand for such meat dishes is still high.” The willingness for new and more vegetarian rise in the seniors, says Laabs.
Apetito is one of the largest canteen operators and ready-made meal manufacturers in Germany. The internationally active group came up with 12,649 employees last year on sales of around 1.35 billion euros and thus 8.5 percent more than 2023. The profit was not announced.
dpa
Source: Stern
