How to Order Office Catering When Half Your Team Has Dietary Restrictions
You've got 25 people coming to Thursday's lunch meeting.
Someone's vegan. Two are gluten-free. One has a tree nut allergy. Your new hire just told you she keeps halal. And your boss asked you to handle it this morning.
This is the reality of ordering office catering in 2026.
It's not a niche problem anymore — it's the default. Here's exactly how to handle it without the stress, the complaints, or the sad salad that nobody touches.
ANI Catering & Cafe has been feeding diverse Boston-area office teams for over 30 years — which means we've seen every version of this problem, and we know exactly where it goes wrong.
Step 1: Survey your team before you touch a menu
This is the step most people skip.
It's also why catering orders go sideways.
Before you look at a single menu, send a two-question form to everyone attending:
Do you have any dietary restrictions or allergies?
Is there anything you absolutely won't eat?
A Google Form with checkboxes takes four minutes to build. Five minutes to fill out. The data you get back is worth more than any menu research you could do on your own.
Include these categories:
Vegetarian
Vegan
Gluten-free
Dairy-free
Halal
Kosher
Nut allergy
Shellfish allergy
Other
Don't assume you already know. People's dietary needs change. New employees haven't told you yet. That colleague who quietly skips the catered lunches? There's a reason.
Do this at least 48 hours before you need to order. Not the morning of.
Step 2: Separate allergies from preferences
Once your survey comes back, sort the responses into two lists.
List 1 — Preferences: Vegetarian, vegan, gluten-free by choice, dairy-free by choice.
These matter and need real accommodation — not an afterthought. But the consequence of getting them wrong is disappointment.
List 2 — Allergies: Nuts, shellfish, celiac-level gluten intolerance, severe dairy reactions.
These are medical. The consequence of getting them wrong is a hospital visit.
Your caterer needs to know about List 2 separately. Explicitly. In a direct message or phone call — not buried in an order note.
Say it plainly:
"We have one guest with a severe tree nut allergy. What is your kitchen's protocol for handling this?"
A caterer worth using will have a clear, specific answer.
A caterer who says "oh we'll just leave the nuts off" doesn't understand cross-contamination.
Find someone else.
Step 3: Choose a cuisine that solves the problem structurally
Here's what most people don't realize:
The cuisine you choose determines how hard your dietary job is before you even start.
The problem with common options:
Sandwich platters force you to customize every single item
Pizza leaves your vegan colleague with one cold, cheese-less option
BBQ trays leave half the table off-limits for vegetarians and halal guests
The better approach:
Choose a cuisine that's architecturally inclusive.
Mediterranean and Middle Eastern food is the clearest example.
Hummus, baba ghanoush, tabbouleh, falafel, and grilled kabobs are:
Naturally vegan or easily made vegan
Naturally gluten-free in most cases
Naturally halal when the kitchen is certified
Nobody had to modify anything. The food is just built that way.
When the cuisine works for most restrictions by default, you stop managing exceptions — and start placing a normal order.
Step 4: Build your order starting from your most restricted guest
This is the mental model shift that makes everything easier.
Most people start with what the majority wants — then try to add something for the restricted folks at the end.
That's how you end up with the sad salad. The bowl of undressed greens. The fruit cup that arrived as an obvious afterthought.
Do it the other way:
Start with your most restricted guest.
Ask: what can they eat that's a real, satisfying meal — not a side dish, not a garnish?
Then build outward:
What can gluten-free guests eat?
What can vegan guests eat?
What can halal guests eat?
When you start from the most restricted point and build outward, you'll find that everyone ends up with multiple options they actually want — not just the people without restrictions.
The goal isn't accommodation.
The goal is that every person gets a full, good meal and nobody has to ask "is there anything here I can eat?"
Step 5: Tell your caterer everything — twice
When you place the order, communicate every dietary requirement in the notes.
Then call or text to confirm they saw them.
This is not being annoying. This is being the admin who never has a catering incident.
What your caterer needs to know:
Number of guests per dietary category
Any severe allergies — called out separately and explicitly
Whether any items need to be physically separated from others
Your preferred labeling format on delivery
That last one matters more than people think.
When the food arrives, the labels on each tray are the only thing standing between your team and a dietary incident.
Ask your caterer to label every item with:
Vegan / Vegetarian
Gluten-free
Contains dairy
Contains nuts
A caterer who does this automatically takes this seriously.
A caterer who looks confused when you ask? Red flag.
Step 6: Set up the table before the room fills up
When catering arrives — before you let anyone near it — take three minutes to set up the table correctly.
Here's the setup:
Allergen-free and dietary-restricted items go on a separate end — or a separate small table entirely
Label anything that isn't already labeled
Put individual serving utensils in each tray — not shared ones
Keep the allergen-free tongs away from everything else
Then, before the room opens up, do a quiet 60-second walkthrough with any guests who have severe allergies:
"The nut-free items are on this end. These tongs haven't touched anything else."
Two minutes of setup.
The difference between an incident and a smooth lunch.
THE SHORT VERSION
Survey your team before you touch a menu — 48 hours minimum
Separate medical allergies from dietary preferences and call them out to your caterer separately
Choose a cuisine that handles dietary diversity by default, not through customization
Build the order starting from your most restricted guest and work outward
Ask your caterer to label every container before delivery
Separate allergen-free items on the table and use individual serving utensils