The Importance of Fresh Ingredients With Mobile Catering

Consumers have more information about what they are purchasing than ever before. Whether they are looking to buy a new laptop or a quick snack for their lunch, they have more information available to them to help them to make an informed decision.

When it comes to buying food, there is a wide range of priorities that differ from one individual to another. For many, the price will be a large factor in the decision process. For others who may be dieting, calorific details will influence them in their decision. And for specific health reasons, some buyers will be carefully checking the ingredients to avoid specific foods that they have been advised to take out of their diet (or reduce to some extent).

For mobile caterers, adapting to the change in consumer expectations is crucial to a sustainable business. And one of the big challenges in this industry is catering for the increased demand for food prepared using fresh ingredients. Mobile catering isn’t exactly renowned for leading the way with the use of fresh ingredients but this could be about to change.

Gourmet mobile catering has been a big hit, even in the places that you might least expect it like music festivals. And for gourmet food, only fresh ingredients will do when creating dishes of the highest standard. We are also experiencing an increase in interest in where food is produced, with many people preferring to buy food that has been locally sourced. Without delving into political debate, local produce is frequently being used as a marketing strategy to get ahead of the catering competition. Mobile caterers that know their stuff will know that local produce and fresh ingredients are going to attract larger volumes of customers.

Of course, processed food has long been favoured by catering professionals for cost purposes. We all know that processed foods last longer and are cheaper to buy. But if there is a large demand for fresh produce and you know that you will be able to use and sell your fresh ingredients, then this can still be just as profitable and in some cases even more so.

Traditional restaurants with hidden kitchens can often get away with serving processed foods but in mobile catering, this isn’t really an option. With your customers’ eyes watching your every move, your every phase of food preparation, they know exactly what they are getting.

Sometimes it is the visual prompt of seeing food being prepared that makes people really think about what they are eating. In a restaurant with a good reputation, they may well make assumptions that their food has been made from fresh ingredients. However, with the increasing amounts of information available, the TripAdvisor reviews etc. you would expect diners to start making their restaurant decisions based on the greater levels of information that they will have. And who wouldn’t prefer fresh ingredients to processed food? Even those who do not like spending over the odds on their food, will happily pay more in the knowledge that they are eating healthier dishes, created with fresh ingredients.

With more focus on the health and nutrition values of meals, if mobile caterers do not keep up with the changing consumer demands then that could spell trouble for their business. The health consequences of added salt, sugar and fat in some processed foods will be highlighted by NHS campaigns. Also, as more people working within the health and fitness sector start to market their business through social media, this area will be heavily covered. So mobile caterers should be seriously considering the benefits of using fresh ingredients both in their short-term and long-term business model.