Catering vs. The Aggregators
Written By Cristina Covello
Why Delivered-In Caterers Outperform Food Aggregators for Workplace Dining: A Guide for Workplace Managers
As a workplace or facilities manager, you've likely experienced the challenges of feeding your team through food aggregators like Just Eat for Business, Deliveroo or Uber Eats. While these platforms seem convenient at first glance, many organisations discover that what appears to be a simple solution quickly becomes a complex headache. If you're dealing with safety concerns around allergen information, chasing late deliveries, or drowning in disposable packaging waste, it might be time to consider a better alternative: delivered-in caterers.
Understanding the Two Models
Before diving into the comparison, it's crucial to understand the fundamental difference between these two approaches. Food aggregators act as intermediaries, collecting orders from various restaurants and coordinating multiple deliveries to your workplace. Each meal comes from a different kitchen, prepared by different chefs, following different standards, and arrives through different delivery routes. Even if your aggregator account manager helps you curate a programme to reduce the number of vendors you’re dealing with, the fact remains that there are multiple organisations working to get your lunch from A to B.
Delivered-in caterers, on the other hand, operate from a single, centralised production kitchen. All meals for your office are prepared by the same culinary team, following consistent standards, and delivered in one coordinated service. This seemingly simple difference creates profound implications for workplace dining quality, safety, and management efficiency.
The Hidden Dangers of Poor Labelling and Allergen Information
One of the most serious issues with food aggregators is their inconsistent approach to allergen information and meal labelling. When meals come from multiple different restaurant kitchens, each with their own labelling standards, the risk of allergen exposure increases dramatically. Many aggregator partners don't provide complete ingredient lists, and with the aggregators sitting in the middle, it’s not easy to get answers to all the important dietary questions you may have.
This creates a dangerous situation for employees with food allergies or dietary restrictions. Imagine the liability your organisation faces when an employee suffers an allergic reaction because the meal packaging didn't clearly indicate the presence of nuts, gluten, or other allergens. Beyond the legal implications, there's the human cost of excluding colleagues from shared meals simply because the food safety information isn't reliable enough.
Delivered-in caterers typically employ dedicated health and safety managers who ensure every meal is properly labelled with complete allergen and ingredient information. Many provide QR codes on packaging that link to detailed nutritional and allergen data, giving employees confidence in their food choices. This systematic approach to food safety isn't just about compliance, it's about creating an inclusive dining environment where every team member can participate safely.
The Administrative Burden That's Crushing Your Productivity
If you're using a food aggregator, you've likely become an unofficial logistics coordinator, order chaser, and customer service representative. The aggregator model places the burden of management squarely on your shoulders. You're constantly reminding colleagues to place their orders before deadlines, fielding complaints about late or incorrect deliveries, and troubleshooting problems with multiple restaurant partners.
Consider the hidden cost of this administrative burden. Every hour you spend chasing missing deliveries or resolving order mix-ups is an hour taken away from your core responsibilities. When you're managing workplace experience, facilities, or operations, food service should enhance your capabilities, not drain them.
The complexity multiplies as your team grows. What might work for 10-15 people becomes unmanageable with 30 or more. If you’ve got multiple deliveries arriving at different times it can create chaos in your reception area. Different restaurants have different policies for late orders, cancellations, and dietary accommodations. You're essentially managing relationships with dozens of food service providers simultaneously.
Even if your aggregator consolidates orders for you, the onus is still on you to deal with receiving deliveries and ensuring your teams get what they ordered. You become the intermediary between disappointed employees and the aggregator when orders are wrong or missing. This puts you in the uncomfortable position of having to explain and apologise for service failures that are completely outside your control, while your team's lunch break is ticking away.
Delivered-in caterers eliminate this complexity through centralised operations. One point of contact, one delivery time, one consistent service standard. The simplicity isn't just convenient – it's strategically important for maintaining operational efficiency as your organisation grows.
The Environmental and Operational Nightmare of Waste
The environmental impact of aggregator-based office dining is staggering, and it's creating operational headaches you probably didn't anticipate. Every meal arrives in single-use packaging, often multiple layers of containers, bags, and utensils. After lunch, your office is drowning in disposable waste that someone needs to collect, sort, and dispose of properly.
But the waste problem goes beyond packaging. Food waste is endemic in the aggregator model because employees often order and then forget to eat or even come into the office or receive meals that don't meet their expectations from unfamiliar restaurants. Unlike a buffet-style service where people can see and select exactly what they want, individual meal ordering frequently results in uneaten food that goes straight in the bin.
The cleaning burden sometimes falls on your facilities team or office management staff – people who already have full job descriptions that don't include post-lunch waste management. You're paying for food service that creates additional work rather than reducing it.
Delivered-in caterers typically use reusable containers, delivering dishes in bulk rather than individually packaged. They will arrange for someone from their team to receive their delivery, set up the buffet with proper dishes and serveware, then clear it down at the end of service. All this removes the operational burden from your team.
The Consistency Factor: Building Trust Through Reliability
Workplace dining isn't just about nutrition, it's about creating positive employee experiences that build culture and demonstrate care. Food aggregators make this nearly impossible because quality varies dramatically from day to day and restaurant to restaurant. Your team never knows whether Monday's lunch will be excellent or disappointing, creating unpredictable experiences that can actually damage morale rather than enhance it.
The lack of consistency extends beyond food quality to service reliability. Late deliveries, missing orders, and communication breakdowns are common because you're dealing with multiple independent operators, each with their own standards and capabilities. When lunch arrives two hours late, it's not just about hunger – it's about the message it sends about your organisation's ability to provide reliable employee benefits.
Delivered-in caterers build their reputation on consistency. The same chefs prepare meals using tested recipes and established quality standards. Seasonal menus are planned and tested in advance. Delivery schedules are reliable because they're managed by a single team with accountability for the entire service.
The True Cost of Cheap Convenience
While food aggregators often appear less expensive upfront, the true cost includes all the hidden expenses they create. Factor in the time you spend managing orders and resolving problems, the environmental costs of disposal and cleaning, the potential liability from allergen incidents, and the negative impact on employee satisfaction from inconsistent service.
Many organisations discover that delivered-in catering actually provides better value when these factors are considered. The higher per-meal cost is offset by reduced administrative burden, eliminated waste management costs, improved employee satisfaction, and reduced risk exposure.
Making the Strategic Shift
Transitioning from a food aggregator to a delivered-in caterer isn't just about changing vendors – it's about upgrading your approach to workplace dining from reactive problem-solving to proactive employee experience management. Instead of spending your time chasing deliveries and managing complaints, you can focus on strategic initiatives that truly add value to your organisation.
The benefits compound as your team grows. While aggregator complexity increases with headcount, delivered-in catering scales efficiently. The service that works for 30 people works equally well for 100 or 300, without proportionally increasing your management burden.
Conclusion: Choosing Professional Over Patchwork
Food aggregators serve a purpose in the market, particularly for small teams or occasional events. However, for organisations serious about providing consistent, safe, and sustainable workplace dining, delivered-in caterers offer a professional solution that aggregators simply cannot match.
The choice comes down to whether you want to be a liaison between your staff and their food choices or you want a strategic partnership with a single professional catering service. Your time, your team's safety, and your organisation's environmental impact are too important to leave to the patchwork solutions that aggregators provide.
As workplace experience becomes increasingly important for talent retention and organisational culture, the food service you choose reflects your values and priorities. Delivered-in caterers don't just feed your team – they support your mission to create a workplace where people can thrive.
