Americans are Worried About the Food Chain – Here is How it was Built

11. America’s restaurants sell more than half of its food

Most of America’s food moves by truck, both across the nation and within communities. About 33,000 separate establishments comprised the wholesale food industry in the first decade of the 21^st century. Some evolved into broad line distributors beginning in the 1950s, offering a wide range of products under several different brand names. Others became more specialized. During the 1980s, wholesale food distribution to chain restaurants and other institutional customers exceeded that to retailers such as grocery chains. In other words, more of the American food supply goes to customers other than at-home consumers of food.

At a glance, one can surmise that disruption of America’s food service industry, particularly it’s chain restaurants which share menus and products nationally, is of necessity disruptive of the entire food supply. The bulk of America’s food moves from processors to wholesalers to restaurants via trucks, most of them refrigerated, which meet tight delivery schedules to ensure restaurants are supplied with new products as needed. Rerouting food packaged for restaurants to replace supplies in stores is an impossibility for many reasons, including lack of federal requirements for labeling which must be applied for food sold in stores.