The foodservice (or food service) industry generally encompasses those places, institutions, and companies responsible for any meal eaten away from home. This industry includes restaurants, school and hospital cafeterias, catering operations, and many other formats. Major foodservice providers include Compass Group, Sodexho, Aramark, and the Crown Group. Toms Diner, a restaurant in New York made familiar by Suzanne Vega and the television sitcom Seinfeld A restaurant is an establishment that serves prepared food and beverages to be consumed on the premises. ... One of a number of cafeterias at Electronic City campus, Infosys Technologies Ltd. ... Catering is the business of providing food service at a remote site. ... The British company Compass Group is one of the largest food service businesses in the world. ... Sodexho, or more properly Sodexho Alliance, is a French multinational corporation and one of the largest foodservice companies in the world. ... ARAMARK Corporation NYSE: RMK is a multinational corporation involved in the business of providing institutional services, including food and uniform service, to clients including hospitals, schools, businesses, and sports facilities. ... The Crown Group started life in 1978 as a well-formed collection of highly trained and qualified chefs. ...

The companies that supply foodservice operators are called foodservice distributors. A foodservice distributor is a company that provides food and non-food products to restaurants, cafeterias, industrial caterers, and hospitals and nursing homes. ...

Some companies manufacture products in both consumer and foodservice versions. The consumer version usually comes in individual-sized packages with elaborate label design for retail sale. The foodservice version is packaged in a much larger industrial size and often lacks the colorful label designs of the consumer version. Consumers are individuals or households that consume goods and services generated within the economy. ... In commerce, a retailer buys goods or products in large quantities from manufacturers or importers, either directly or through a wholesaler, and then sells individual items or small quantities to the general public or end user customers, usually in a shop, also called store. ...