Czech Republic

In 2019, 70% of Czech employees have lunch on a daily basis. This figure has greatly risen over the years as there were only 54% of them having a lunch break every day in 2012.

In 2019, Czech employees usually have dish/a complete meal (48%) or home-made food (38%) for lunch. These figures have been quite constant over the past 8 years.

When choosing a restaurant, in 2019, Czech workers consider important or very important practical criteria linked to working life constraints: a quick service (80%) and the location of the restaurant, which should be close to their workplace (78%).

67% of the Czech employees consider important or very important that the restaurant proposed meals of good nutritional quality. A constant figure over the pase 8 years. This figure is slightly below the European average, but still represents a significant part of the working population.

In 2019, more than half of the Czech employees (44%) declare that the balance of the dish affects their decision on what to have at lunch. It is the second most chosen criterion, after what they wanted at the present time (72%).

Since 2016 the ’balance of the dish’ choice is a growing figure among Czech employees surveyed.

In 2019, 57% of Czech restaurants declare that they have a low/medium knowledge about balanced nutrition and could/should learn some more. This figure was higher in the past; the knowledge about healthy food has improved.

In 2019, 24% of Czech restaurants noticed an increased demand for balanced/healthy meals. This figure was only 18% in 2016. This share is growing year after year, showing an overall increase of the awareness of the restaurants.

In 2019, half (51%) of CZ restaurants believe it is not more expensive to prepare healthy/balanced meals.
Almost the same share (49%) believe it does not take more time to cook healthy/balanced meals.

These figures have dropped since 2015, the prejudice against healthy cooking is fading. We notice the same trend at European level.