A useful catering brief starts with who will eat, where service takes place and what evidence the caterer will provide. Settle accurate quantities, safe handling and a workable service plan before considering technology.
Estimate demand and keep a baseline
UNEP’s Food Waste Index Report 2024 emphasizes measurement, a baseline and progress tracking, including the food-service sector. Apply that principle to an event by recording quantities ordered, prepared, served, left over and discarded with clearly stated units.
Separate meal demand by service period and participant group: visitors, exhibitors, staff and invited delegates. Confirm which meals each pass includes. Ask the caterer to explain its attendance assumption and contingency quantity. Review actual consumption before increasing the next order.
Put safe handling in the contract
WHO’s Five Keys to Safer Food cover cleanliness, separation of raw and cooked food, thorough cooking, safe temperatures, and safe water and ingredients. Ask the catering lead to explain how these principles will be implemented for preparation, transport, storage and service at your venue.
Name the responsible lead and agree monitoring records, escalation steps and the route for handling an unsafe batch. Keep service continuity and safety review together, and resolve any storage or handling concern before speeding up a queue.
Make dietary information actionable
The UK Food Standards Agency’s allergen guidance addresses ingredient information, staff training and cross-contamination. Use it as a practical reference, and check local requirements with the responsible authority in the host country.
Ask for a dish-by-dish ingredient and allergen record, a trained person who can answer questions, and a plan for separate handling where needed. Confirm substitutions before printing labels. Check every dish against the allergen record, including traditional, vegan or “healthy” options.
Prevent surplus and arrange its destination
The US EPA’s Wasted Food Scale prioritizes prevention and keeping suitable food in use for people. Apply that order at your event: cut surplus through accurate quantities first, then plan where suitable leftover food will go.
Before the event, ask the caterer and receiving organization to agree eligibility, packaging, storage, collection and records for any suitable surplus. Have them confirm local requirements. Record what was actually accepted and what required other handling.
Choose service technology by the problem
If queues are the issue, test a pickup flow before investing in lockers, apps or delivery equipment. Check how food is kept safe, how orders are matched and what happens when connectivity fails. Provide a workable route for people who cannot use the chosen system.
For ingredients, ask suppliers to explain origin, seasonality, transport and storage. If you publish a lower-carbon claim, base it on a documented comparison and method.
Review the catering outcome
Close the brief with service feedback, quantities supplied and consumed, waste by category, surplus accepted and unresolved incidents. Identify one purchasing or service change for the next event. Support any waste-reduction claim with these records. To extend the plan beyond catering, see a working plan for sustainable events in the Middle East.
