A new behavioural study with Czech catering buyers, carried out by Green Dock for ProVeg Czechia and Catering Zdravě, reveals six factors that decide whether a corporate event goes plant-based — and what caterers can do about each.
ISAAP (Innovative Strategies to Accelerate Adoption and Consumption of Plant-Based Food) works towards national Action Plans for Plant-based Foods across Portugal, Czechia and Denmark. Part of that work, in our Czech food-service stream, is understanding not only whether people want more plant-based food, but what actually needs to happen for it to reach the plate. A recent representative survey showed strong public appetite in Czechia. Now a new qualitative study opens the next question: when a company organises an event, what makes the person in charge choose plant-based catering — and what can caterers do to help that choice along?
The gap between public appetite and the event table
Our earlier polling, carried out by YouGov for our project coordinator ProVeg Czechia, showed that the demand is real. Sixty-six percent of the Czech public support lower VAT on fruit, vegetables, legumes and plant-based alternatives; 56% want public canteens such as schools and hospitals to offer at least one plant-based main course every day; and 53% already regard the option to choose a plant-based meal in restaurants and canteens as a self-evident part of what should be on offer. Just as tellingly, half say the plant-based options available today are limited. You can read the full picture in Public opinion in Czechia points to a mandate for plant-based food policy.
But public appetite does not fill a buffet on its own. Somewhere between that latent demand and the finished event table sits a decision: an office manager, a community manager or a CEO choosing what to order for a company gathering. That decision — how it is made, what tips it one way or the other — is where our new research looks.
Opening the black box: how the research was done
To understand it, ProVeg Czechia and our food-service partner Catering Zdravě commissioned Green Dock, a behavioural research non-profit, to study the people who actually place catering orders. The study was led by Ondřej Kácha and Anežka Bartoňová.
It is a qualitative study, and we present it as such. In June 2026, Green Dock conducted six in-depth interviews, each lasting 45 to 60 minutes, with representatives responsible for arranging catering for various types of events: four women and two men, including two representatives of marketing firms, two office managers from academic institutions, one from an international non-profit and one from a large joint-stock company. Their experience ranged widely, from those who order almost exclusively plant-based catering to those who order it as a small share alongside meat. During the interviews, participants were shown a sample catering menu inspired by Catering Zdravě’s own offer, which made it possible to map their reactions to specific dishes and to situations where only plant-based food would be served. The interviews were analysed using framework analysis: recurring themes were coded into analytical categories, each interview was summarised into a shared matrix, and the material was then synthesised into key insights.
Six interviews cannot tell us how common each attitude is across the whole market. What they can do — and do well — is reveal the reasoning behind catering decisions in rich detail, and surface practical levers that caterers can act on. Throughout the findings, two roles matter: the client (the company or organisation representative ordering catering for an event) and the supplier (the caterer). Green Dock’s recommendations are aimed squarely at suppliers — the people who shape the offer the client sees.
Six factors that decide whether an event goes plant-based
1. The caterer has to believe in it too — conviction is contagious.
A client will not order plant-based catering if they sense that the supplier does not really believe in it. It is not enough for a caterer to be able to cook good plant-based food; the caterer’s representative also has to be convinced that they can offer an experience that is comparable to, or better than, a meat-based spread. That conviction shows up in the interaction. Clients read a supplier’s attitude towards plant-based options not only from the written menu, but from how the supplier does — or does not — talk about those options. When a caterer demonstrates confidence — by actively recommending plant-based dishes, giving examples of successful plant-based catering at similar events, or showing that their chefs are genuinely competent to prepare it — the chance of a plant-based order rises.
- “I leave the trust to the supplier, because I believe they can judge the quantity well, and also what the guests will enjoy.” — a respondent whose organisation orders fully plant-based catering (translated from Czech)
- “Some make [plant-based dishes], but it’s not that they really believe in it.” — a respondent who orders roughly a quarter of catering plant-based (translated from Czech)
2. Some clients and events are “low-hanging fruit.”
Certain organisations, events and clients are naturally more receptive, and a good caterer can help the client recognise when the context is on their side. Three factors stand out. The first is the client’s organisational values: when leadership holds sustainability values, or internal policy favours healthy eating or reducing the organisation’s carbon footprint (for example for CSR reporting), plant-based catering fits more easily. The second is the type of event: corporate “family days” with a healthy-eating focus, events built around sustainability, and events that emphasise locality and innovation are all more compatible — as, generally, are events with a higher share of women, who tend to be more open to plant-based food than men. The third is the type of client: people with senior standing, such as marketing managers or CEOs, are often more open to an unconventional choice and have a stronger mandate to make it.
- “These days it’s a lot of topics tied to politics, to high-level business, and it feels like those people expect there’ll be roast beef or marinated salmon rather than just tempeh. It signals a higher quality of the event, or a different mentality. And the audience there is mainly men, which makes a big difference — men seek out meat more often than women.” — a respondent from an international joint-stock company that orders fully plant-based catering (translated from Czech)
3. Taste, variety and visual appeal are non-negotiable.
The people who choose catering repeatedly named three criteria as decisive: the food has to be tasty, varied and visually attractive. New plant-based options often carry uncertainty about whether they will clear that bar. On visual appeal, the fear is of a “uniform plant-based mush.” On variety, dishes are received more positively when the offer signals range — for example menu items that literally include the word “variation” (a variation of open sandwiches). And on taste, the recurring worry is whether the food will be flavourful enough. These concerns are less about plant-based food as such, and more about whether a given caterer will execute it well.
- “If it were three mushes of some bulgur, cooked somehow, unappetising… You have to approach it a bit creatively, because you also eat with your eyes. I do believe you could put a dish together so that anyone who wanted could help themselves and wouldn’t feel worse for it.” — a respondent from a smaller marketing firm (translated from Czech)
- “A lot of people will have the feeling that it won’t taste good, that it won’t have an interesting flavour. Which isn’t true. Plant-based food just has to be made well.” — a respondent from a non-profit that orders fully plant-based catering (translated from Czech)
4. How the menu is presented fundamentally shapes the choice.
The way plant-based options appear in the offer has a decisive effect. Through the “curation” of the menu, a supplier can actively steer the client towards a plant-based choice. What motivates the choice: a generally larger share of plant-based dishes in the presented offer; photographs of plant-based dishes (which may be unfamiliar to the client); and active recommendation of plant-based options by the supplier. What deters it: using the labels “vegan” and “vegetarian” and filing plant-based dishes away in separate categories; and long lists of possible items with no targeted recommendation, which leave the client to guess.
- “Being proactive — sending a menu proposal that could work in a similar way [to meat]. Not every caterer does that. Some really just send a list and say ‘pick something,’ and you don’t even know what the dishes are.” — a respondent who orders fully plant-based catering (translated from Czech)
- “I definitely wouldn’t pitch the event as ‘Come and experience what you won’t get anywhere else, there won’t be a scrap of meat.’ More like ‘Come and try something you maybe haven’t eaten before,’ or ‘Here’s a chance to look at food with different eyes.’” — a respondent from a smaller marketing firm (translated from Czech)
5. Plant-based catering can offer the novelty clients are looking for.
Many clients are actively searching for a way to make an impression on their guests. Compared with the usual options, plant-based catering can meet that need for something out of the ordinary and give guests a memorable experience. Suppliers can raise interest by presenting plant-based dishes as a way to make the event more distinctive — provided, crucially, that the client is at the same time convinced those dishes meet the basic criteria of taste, variety and visual appeal (see factor 3). Novelty sells, but not at the expense of quality.
- “We’d look for someone who could explain, in an entertaining way, the other things you can do with vegetables and fruit in the kitchen — that it can fully stand in for meat. Not in a ‘become a vegetarian’ way, but showing everything you can do with vegetables and fruit.” — a respondent from a smaller marketing firm (translated from Czech)
- “I don’t like the classic things, doing everything in the plain, staid way. So I wanted to come up with a creative concept.” — a respondent from a large marketing firm (translated from Czech)
6. Pop-up stands are a way in with more conservative clients and events.
For events where the client insists on a majority of meat dishes, a productive route is to add special pop-up stands — for example plant-based waffles, or Asian noodles that are naturally plant-based — where guests can simply taste plant-based food. These pop-ups draw people in gently, through a sense of exclusivity, the chance to try a new style of dish, or the experience of food being prepared in front of them — all qualities that clients often seek out in any case. It turns a plant-based option into an attraction rather than a substitution.
- “My own problem with vegetarian food is that I can’t make it well myself. But when someone makes it and really knows how, I eat it happily. So maybe offer tastings?” — a respondent from a non-profit that orders fully plant-based catering (translated from Czech)
- “The reactions were really interesting, especially from the older ladies who came. They said, ‘What? This is really plant-based?’ They didn’t know it at all, and then they even took some home.” — a respondent from a large marketing firm (translated from Czech)
What this means for caterers — and for the plant-based transition
Read together, the six factors add up to a practical playbook for food-service providers. Believe in the offer and let that conviction show; recognise which clients and events are ready and meet them there; guarantee taste, variety and visual appeal before anything else; curate the menu so plant-based dishes are visible, photographed and recommended, rather than boxed off under a “vegan” heading; sell the novelty; and, where a client is not ready to go further, use a pop-up stand as a first taste. None of this is about removing meat from the table. It is about making the plant-based option easy to say yes to.
That is precisely the gap our consortium partner Catering Zdravě is closing in practice, building plant-based meals into everyday corporate dining by pairing sustainability and local sourcing with modern gastronomy. The Green Dock findings will also feed directly into the next stage of our Czech food-service work: a live behavioural-intervention pilot in a real venue, and a handbook of behavioural recommendations for catering and food-service operators, both due later in 2026. The survey told us the public wants plant-based options where they already eat. This study tells us, in the caterer’s own terms, how to deliver them.
From research to practical support for caterers
Findings like these matter most when there is something ready to act on them — and in Czechia, our project coordinator ProVeg Czechia already runs the kind of support the research points to. Through its Sustainable Catering project, ProVeg Czechia helps catering companies build exactly the capabilities Green Dock’s interviewees said they were looking for: it trains kitchen teams in plant-based cooking techniques so that taste, variety and visual appeal are never in doubt; it helps caterers design attractive, well-curated menus; and it coaches them on how to present and actively recommend plant-based options with confidence, rather than filing them away under a “vegan” label. Companies organising their own events can book a free consultation, and a dedicated workshop supports the event, HR and sustainability managers who decide what to serve — often the very “low-hanging fruit” clients the research describes. ProVeg Czechia also provides normed plant-based recipes with their carbon footprint calculated, giving caterers a ready starting point.
The project also addresses the trust gap at the heart of the first finding. ProVeg Czechia curates a public Database of Sustainable Caterings — a shortlist of vetted providers, from Catering Zdravě to Spoon & Flavour, Zátiší Catering Group and others, who genuinely believe in what they serve and can deliver it well. For a client who is ready to go plant-based but unsure where to turn, it answers the exact hesitation the interviews surfaced: knowing you can reach a caterer who will make the dish, and make it well.
These findings match what we see on the ground every day. A caterer rarely needs persuading that plant-based food is good for people and the planet — what they need is the technique to put a dish on the table that guests genuinely enjoy, and the confidence to recommend it without hiding it under a ‘vegan’ heading. That is exactly what our training, menus and consultations are built to give them. And when a company is ready to order, our database connects them with a caterer who already believes in what they are serving.
— Tereza Deáková, Sustainable Event Catering, ProVeg Czechia
Looking ahead
We will keep gathering evidence like this across our partner countries, from public opinion to the practical psychology of everyday food choices, as the foundation for credible, public-backed Action Plans. Findings that translate broad appetite into concrete, doable steps — for policymakers and for caterers alike — are exactly what turn ambition into food on the plate.
About ISAAP
ISAAP (Innovative Strategies to Accelerate Adoption and Consumption of Plant-Based Food) is a collaborative European project bringing together partners from Portugal, Czechia, and Denmark. Our mission is to support a healthier, more sustainable, and resilient food system by promoting plant-based foods and building strong national action plans. ISAAP is co-funded by EIT Food.