How to Cater for a Mixed-Dietary Team Without the Stress | arch
The key to stress-free catering for a mixed-dietary team is working with a caterer who builds menus with dietary diversity in mind from the start, rather than treating vegan, gluten-free, and halal as afterthoughts. Clear labelling, genuine variety, and planning ahead make the difference.
Ask any office manager in London about the most stressful part of organising catering and the answer is almost always the same: dietary requirements.
Not because managing them is inherently complicated, but because most catering companies treat them as an inconvenience. The result is a token vegan option that runs out first, a gluten-free alternative that gets forgotten, and someone quietly going hungry at the very lunch that was supposed to bring the team together.
It doesn't have to be this way. Here's how to get it right.
Start by understanding your team
Before placing a catering order, find out what you're actually working with. A quick internal survey or a message in your team Slack takes five minutes and can prevent a lot of problems.
The most common dietary requirements you'll encounter in a London office in 2026:
Vegetarian: typically 15–20% of any office team, and rising
Vegan: around 5–10%, with significant growth year-on-year
Gluten-free (coeliac or intolerance): approximately 8–10% of the population
Halal: relevant particularly in diverse city teams
Dairy-free: often overlaps with vegan but can be a standalone requirement
Nut allergies: serious and require kitchen-level, not just menu-level, care
Low-carb / keto / other preferences: less critical for caterers to accommodate formally, but worth noting
The good news is that a well-designed menu with a genuinely plant-forward approach, where vegetables and pulses are the stars, not the garnish — will naturally satisfy most of these requirements without needing multiple separate dishes.
The problem with 'afterthought' catering
Many caterers offer dietary alternatives as add-ons to a mainstream menu: a meat-heavy spread with one lonely falafel option for the vegans. This approach fails in multiple ways.
The vegan dish often runs out first because it tends to appeal to everyone, not just vegans. The person with the nut allergy has no clear labelling to go on. And the team members with dietary requirements feel subtly excluded, they're eating the 'alternative', not the main event.
The better approach is a menu where plant-forward and allergen-conscious food is the baseline, with high-quality meat and fish dishes as additions, not the other way around.
What good dietary-inclusive catering actually looks like
The best corporate caterers in London design their menus so that the majority of dishes work across multiple dietary requirements simultaneously. Think:
A mezze spread of roasted vegetables, lentil dishes, and fresh breads that is naturally vegan and gluten-adaptable
A grain bowl bar where components are clearly labelled and guests compose their own plates
Seasonal salads built around pulses and whole grains that happen to be vegan, gluten-free, and genuinely satisfying
Sharing platters where the canapés span meat, fish, and plant-based options in roughly equal proportion
The key distinction: the plant-based options should be just as considered, flavourful, and abundant as everything else. Not a bowl of sad hummus next to the main event.
What to ask your caterer
Before committing to any office catering provider, have this conversation explicitly:
How do you handle vegan and gluten-free requirements — are these built into the standard menu or charged as extras?
How do you manage cross-contamination risk for serious allergens such as nuts and gluten?
Can you show me recent menus? How much of each dish works for a vegan guest?
How is food labelled on delivery? Will my team be able to identify what they can eat at a glance?
If I add a team member with a new requirement, how quickly can the menu adapt?
A caterer who can answer these questions fluently and specifically is doing this properly. One who responds vaguely or says 'we can always do a separate dish' probably isn't.
Planning tips for office managers
Collect dietary information upfront and keep it updated: people's requirements change, and a new starter shouldn't have to flag their needs on their first day
Book a caterer who uses clear labelling as standard: every dish should have an ingredients summary available, not just a name
Build some buffer: if 10 people are vegan, order as if 14 are - plant-based options tend to be popular across the whole team
Avoid the 'token alternative' trap: if a caterer's vegan option is clearly an afterthought, it's a signal about their whole approach
For events with serious allergen concerns, confirm in writing how cross-contamination is managed, this protects both your team member and you but be aware that many caterers handle multiple allergens and it might be safer to provide for this employee separately on occasion.
Why this matters beyond the practical
There is a cultural dimension to dietary inclusion in the office that goes beyond logistics. When someone with dietary requirements can sit down at a team lunch and eat the same food as everyone else, not a specially packaged alternative, not the sad salad — it sends a message about how your business thinks about people.
For diverse London teams, this matters. Food is one of the most visible ways a company demonstrates whether inclusion is genuine or performative.
How arch approaches dietary requirements
Arch's menus are built plant-forward by design. Everything is freshly made in our kitchen, clearly labelled, and our team is trained to handle allergen queries.
We work with teams across dietary profiles — including highly diverse London offices — and we design menus from the ground up to work for everyone at the table.
Speak to our team about your requirements: info@archfood.uk or archfood.uk/corporate