food service

noun

plural food services

1

a

: the activity or business of providing and serving food (as in a cafeteria or at an event)

It is unclear whether the [Museum of Fine Arts] plans to continue offering dining and event catering after July 1, or whether it intends to bring food service in-house or contract with a new vendor.

—Dallas Gagnon

Anyone who has worked in food service understands how quickly operations can unravel during a rush.

—Ken Corbit

… by the 1950s, food service was one of the leading retail industries in the United States …

—Dorothy Sue Cobble

—often used before another noun

food service jobs/workers

Most residential colleges contracted a food service company to feed the students.

—Michael Ruhlman

b

plural : the activities involved in the business of food service

Several recent investigations have revealed that cost-cutting measures, such as outsourcing food services to private corporations …, have led to substandard food quality in prisons.

—Jeffrey Ian Ross

c

: a business that prepares and serves food

… a retail food service specializing in low-carbohydrate foods.

—The Telegraph Herald (Dubuque, Iowa)

The following restaurants and food services received perfect scores of 100 during their inspections …

—Kaelyn Cassidy

Overall, they see food services [=the food-service industry] as a large growth sector.

—Mary Ricks

2

: the serving of food

in-flight food service

Food service begins at 5 p.m. and goes until 7 p.m., or until the event runs out of BBQ and all the sides.

—The Mitchell News-Journal (Spruce Pine, North Carolina)

Examples of food service in a Sentence

Recent Examples on the Web

It’ll be piloted in an unspecified part of northern California with local food services, including Chipotle and Popeyes. — Jess Weatherbed, The Verge, 30 Sep. 2026

Retail, food service and other workers who handle many receipts every day would be exposed to doses about 100 times higher than that, the researchers estimated. — Sean McCann, The Conversation, 28 Sep. 2026

The cheeses were sold at retail in 8-ounce or 16-ounce packages as well as to food service customers or wholesalers in 5-pound loaves. — Dan Raby, CBS News, 28 Sep. 2026

Annual sales now top $10 million per year, split evenly between food service and retail. — Robert Channick, Chicago Tribune, 23 Sep. 2026

Word History

First Known Use

1847, in the meaning defined at sense 1a