Tired of office food: why does the corporate catering market need its own GOST
In the near future, a GOST for corporate catering will appear in Russia — the draft standard has already been developed by Roskachestvo together with industry experts and experts from the Russian Union of Industrialists and Entrepreneurs. Market participants reacted cautiously to this initiative, noting that for now the existing regulation is sufficient for corporate catering. Details can be found in the Izvestia article.
The three components of GOST
Maxim Protasov, head of Roskachestvo, spoke about the development of the draft GOST on the sidelines of the St. Petersburg International Economic Forum. According to him, the document has been prepared jointly with experts from the Russian Union of Industrialists and Entrepreneurs and the industry for a long time. The standard, according to the head of Roskachestvo, has three levels.
"This is both the safety of corporate catering and its quality in terms of a balanced menu — the use of functional products, that is, a healthy diet. And the third thing is digital transparency," he said.
Roskachestvo and the Russian Union of Industrialists and Entrepreneurs had not responded to Izvestia's requests for a new guest at the time of publication.
What is the corporate catering market?
Currently, the corporate catering market segment is very heterogeneous, said Valery Alekseev, head of the Investigation Bureau of the Popular Front.
— Large federal operators work somewhere, regional contractors work somewhere, and the company retains its own canteen. There are also different formats: there is a full—service canteen, pre-cooking of semi-finished products, delivery of ready meals, buffets, meals for shift workers," he told Izvestia.
Because of this, according to the expert, it is difficult to talk about a certain unified state of the market. At the same time, there is a common feature: when food is prepared for hundreds of people at once, any mistake in technology, storage or control of raw materials can affect a large number of consumers.
In turn, Alexey Barabanshchikov, General Director of RT-Nutrition (part of Rostec), stressed that he considers catering in the workplace of employees under this term: conditionally, it is a canteen at a factory or in an office.
— The term "corporate catering" did not exist until the late 1990s. Then foreign players came, our companies appeared, which are still on the market. These companies are directly involved in corporate catering — it has its own specifics that distinguish it from ordinary public catering," the source told Izvestia.
According to him, most often companies that feed their employees turn to third-party catering providers, preferring to outsource the service. There are rare cases when large enterprises have their own chefs, and this is more common in large industrial locations remote from cities, such as oil fields, etc., where it is difficult to bring any other structure that does not have its own logistics resource.
One of the studies on corporate nutrition was conducted in 2024. At that time, Gift Squared interviewed 102 companies, including large banks and state corporations. At the same time, the term "corporate catering" referred not only directly to "production canteens", but also to other formats. 40% of large companies said they provided corporate meals to all employees, another 27% fed only certain categories of employees, 13% planned to introduce meals, and 20% did not consider such a possibility at all. At the same time, only 36% of those who fed employees had a free canteen or cafe at their workplace. 21% of companies gave their employees a salary supplement for catering, 15% provided a limit on a corporate card, and 13% chose the format of prepaid bank food cards.
In 2025-2026, the corporate catering market continued to grow, said Mikhail Lapatkov, Marketing Director of Gift in the Square LLC.
— Previously, employers viewed food primarily as a social benefit, but today it is increasingly becoming a tool for retaining and attracting staff. This trend is especially noticeable in industry, retail, pharma, IT and service companies, where competition for employees remains high," said the source.
The Russian corporate catering market is undergoing an active transformation: previously, it was based on its own canteens and contracts with specific food suppliers, but now the market is moving towards digital models, he added. Companies are increasingly switching from the traditional dining room to the formats of electronic food cards, mobile applications, etc., when an employee has the opportunity to choose a place where he will eat. The expert estimates the growth of digital corporate catering formats over the past three years at 30-40%.
He stressed that it is not enough for a modern employer to organize a lunch for employees: transparency of expenses, automation of processes, analytics, control over the use of funds and the ability to take into account various employment formats — office, remote and hybrid. He called corporate meals part of the ecosystem of benefits for employees. According to the expert, many European countries have already passed this way before.
Is GOST required for corporate catering
Currently, corporate catering is subject to general requirements for public catering: sanitary rules, requirements of technical regulations for food safety, production control, principles of HACCP (international Food Safety Management System), noted Valery Alekseev.
— There is also supervision by Rospotrebnadzor, and responsibility for violations — from fines to suspension of activities, and with severe consequences, criminal liability may occur, — said the interlocutor of Izvestia.
Nevertheless, he considers compliance with these requirements to be the most important practical issue. Currently, business control is limited, and this applies, among other things, to catering companies. Rospotrebnadzor should have good reasons to go out with a check to a specific dining room and assess compliance with the rules. Often the problem is identified already at the stage when there are complaints, incidents or mass poisoning.
— GOST by itself will not replace sanitary control and will not force unscrupulous contractors to work efficiently. This is just a standard that is applied voluntarily if its requirements are not fixed in the contract, terms of reference or other mandatory documents," Valery Alekseev emphasized. — It will work only when customers start to actually include its requirements in contracts with food service providers and monitor the execution.
He sees the value of GOST in setting a clear guideline.: what is considered a normal corporate meal, including in terms of balanced menus, product quality, transparency of supplies, digital control, and employee feedback? The expert called the declared digital transparency particularly important in the context of catering in public institutions and state-owned enterprises.
Mikhail Lapatkov also sees the "digital transparency" block as important for his company, which develops a corporate nutrition management system.
— We believe that a single standard can increase employers' confidence in the market, create transparent criteria for selecting suppliers and accelerate the implementation of modern solutions for catering employees. At the same time, it is important that GOST takes into account all existing models of corporate catering — from industrial canteens to digital compensation and power management services. In this case, the standard will become a tool for market development, rather than a constraint on innovation," he said.
Alexey Barabanshchikov, meanwhile, admitted that he does not yet understand the goals of GOST development. In particular, it will be difficult to fix the norms common to all employees in the standard, following the example of school meals: the menu of a factory in Moscow is very different from the menu of a factory in Ufa or Buryatia, as well as the diet of people aged 18 to 70 years.
In the end, if GOST serves the development of the market, it will be good. If this is just another framework in which to start a business, it can be harmful, the expert warned.
"In my opinion, there are already enough frameworks, restrictions and requirements to address security issues," he said.
The corporate catering market itself is waiting for other actions from the state after the advent of GOST, Mikhail Lapatkov added. In particular, he expressed hope for the introduction of tax incentive mechanisms for employers providing food benefits to employees, following the example of many countries in Europe, South and North America. He added that corporate meals are now becoming a full-fledged corporate benefit, and if tax incentive mechanisms for employers appear after GOST, as happened in a number of European countries, the Russian market may receive the same growth momentum that the VMI and corporate sports markets previously received.
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