School, Hospital & Contract Food Service

Introduction

Feeding pupils, patients and residents brings requirements that a restaurant never meets. Meals must match diet orders and allergen records. Menus must meet nutrition standards. Parents top up meal accounts, and some children qualify for free or reduced-price meals. This category covers software for those settings. Some products plan menus and production for the kitchen. Some run the school till and the parent payment app. Others handle bedside ordering for hospital or care home meals. A few help contract caterers cost recipes and label allergens across many sites. Rules differ by country, so check that a product supports the ones that apply to you.

Who needs it

School and college catering teams, hospital and care kitchens, local authority caterers and contract caterers serving several sites. It becomes worth having when diet and allergen records, parent payments or funding claims are handled on paper, or when you must show that menus meet a standard.

Written 30 September 2026