Military Segment

The military foodservice segment forms a small part of the overall noncommercial foodservice segment. In 2020, the military foodservice comprised just 6% of the total noncommercial segment's retail sales at $5.0 billion. The segment has increased by about $0.3 billion since 2015. By 2025, the segment is expected to grow by $0.4 billion.

The growth rate for the military foodservice segment has seen fluctuations in the previous years. Growth rate has generally declined since 2013, plummeting to -6.7% in 2015 before recovering back in 2017 and seeing another slight decline in 2020. Looking through 2024, the segment is expected to grow slowly at 2% by 2022 to 2025.

Key Segment Trends​

  • Customized and made-to-order will increasingly become important quality callouts on military menus, as seen in other areas of the foodservice industry. These options better cater to individual dietary needs and preferences while emphasizing fresh preparations.
  • To encourage healthy eating, the military previously launched a Go for Green color-coding system that makes choosing nutritionally rich, high-performance food and beverages easy by highlighting these items in green. Moderate performance fare appears in yellow, and red indicates low performance.
  • The military foodservice segment often relies heavily on contract purchases, using a combination of both ready-to-cook and fully cooked frozen meals. One of the emerging trends is the use of premium attributes, such as no antibiotics proteins, in these prepared meals.
  • Condiments are increasingly used in the military foodservice segment to add flavor to the meals that would otherwise be low in sodium for health reasons.​

​Key Decision-Makers

  • Foodservice Directors - Run the foodservice operations and tend to have a strong input into the types of equipment necessarily for that operation.
  • Command Food Advisors - Oversee the day-to-day operations of foodservice units and escalate any equipment procurement, replacement and maintenance needs up the chain of command.
  • Procurement Department - May get involved in negotiations and final approval.​

Role of Equipment Within the Segment

  • Military foodservice faces unique challenges that other foodservice segments don't. Operations often take place both at bases as well as in challenging environments. Therefore, a strong emphasis is put on the durability of foodservice equipment as well as the speed of service in the military segment.
  • Military bases need to feed thousands of stationed troops and hence place high importance on foodservice equipment that yield high-capacity output.
  • The military relies on and uses mobile kitchen trailers, burner units, ranges0 and other such equipment for the specific function of field feeding.​

​​Download In-Depth Military Segment Report here​

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