In Dutch there's a quite commonly used word that denotes the commercial sector around selling food and beverages for immediate (or near-immediate, e.g. take-out meals) consumption: horeca. (This usually also includes snackbars and the like, but not supermarkets)
I'm in the process of creating an English version of a website that has it as a menu item, and I'm looking for a translation of approximately similar size (i.e. not a full sentence). I found that the word horeca also exists in English, but the Wikipedia page is quite small and seems to be written by a Dutch native. The definition given is the exact definition of the word I'm looking for, but I'd rather have something that's less obscurely used in English..
Horeca (or HORECA) is the sector of the food service industry that
consists of establishments which prepare and serve food and beverages.
The term is a syllabic abbreviation of the words
Hotel/Restaurant/Café.
I'm edging towards distrusting the fact that it's a word that English natives would understand. Does anyone have any alternatives with a simialr meaning?
Best Answer
The US National Restaurant Association calls this the restaurant industry. More generally, the USDA calls the sector foodservice outlets:
I do not know the corresponding UK or AUS terms, if that is what you are looking for.