Guzzlers out, firms switch to lighter canteen menus

Compass Group India, said the company continues to serve 1.1 million meals daily across 45 cities despite higher input costs.

“We activated a structured response early on – introducing business continuity menus, setting up a central culinary war room and leveraging real-time dashboards to monitor and manage operations,” said Chidley.

Compass has deployed a hybrid model, with core cooking continuing on-site while additional volumes are supported by central production units. Central kitchens have been ramped up, and procurement teams have sourced alternative fuels and electrical equipment. Chefs, site teams and operations leadership coordinate in real time on recipes, production planning and supply alternatives, and the group has instituted daily leadership reviews so nothing falls through the gaps.

At contract food services company Rassense, which serves more than 300,000 meals a day and counts Maruti, Tata Motors, L&T and Ashok Leyland among its clients, menus have shifted to dishes that don’t require deep frying and consume less gas. Since contract food service companies operate on fixed annual contracts and cannot invoke force majeure, they have not passed on higher costs to clients.

“Wherever possible, we have been creative and shuffled resources,” said Sanjay Kumar, CEO & MD at Rassense. “We’ve used alternatives like firewood in remote sites; worked with companies on menu engineering; introduced more semi-cooked and steamed items in the menus. If no choice exists, we’ve had to succumb to market forces and buy at exorbitant prices, but no client sites have been disrupted,” added Kumar.

B2B institutional food tech company HungerBox, which manages cafeteria operations across more than 1,000 locations in 39 cities, said the impact has been uneven. Within its network, where 650,000 meals are served daily, high-capacity kitchens in each city supported nearby locations that were more severely impacted.

“Live cooking that needs continuous high heat, such as tawa counters, dosa and paratha stations, were among the first to be scaled back. Thalis were withdrawn at several locations because they require simultaneous multi-burner preparation. In contrast, combo meals emerged as a preferred alternative, as they can be prepared using significantly less fuel,” said Uttam Kumar, cofounder, HungerBox.

“We are maintaining ready-to-eat and blast-frozen inventory as a supplementary backup to enhance resilience,” he added.

Home food

Employees have seen menu changes, with items such as dosas and desserts disappearing in some locations, while some face higher prices from external vendors. In some offices, staff have been encouraged to bring food from home.

ET reached out to a bunch of companies who declined to comment on the story, or said their kitchens were electrified, ensuring minimal impact.

“We continuously drive energy-efficient practices across our offices and operations. Currently, there is no material impact on our office canteen services, and employee meal services continue as usual,” said an HUL spokesperson.

No desserts

However, several employees reported visible changes. At a major tech services firm, the menu has been pared down, with greater focus on dishes that do not require LPG, such as salads and grilled items.

A Bengaluru-based startup has reduced desserts, while a Gurugram-based startup is encouraging employees to bring meals from home. At a real estate firm, prices of food sold by external vendors have increased. Meanwhile, as organisations actively accelerate investments in alternative cooking infrastructure, they said there’s a lesson in this.

“What we are seeing is not just a shortterm challenge, but a shift that will shape how the industry evolves – towards greater flexibility, stronger integrations and more future-ready infrastructure,” said Chidley.