The Foodservice World Revolves Around Sirha

Sirha, the World Hospitality and Food Service Event, is underway right now, and there’s a lot of numbers to report.

The Jan. 26-30 event at Eurexpo in Lyon is expecting more than 208,000 visitors from over 130 countries, including nearly 30,000 visitors from outside France. It’s one of the largest assemblages of catering industry professionals in the world, and Sirha’s 19th edition has added an extra hall to hold the nearly 3,000 exhibitors and brands—including 30 start-up companies spotlighted in a special “one go!” area.

Visitors are seeing more than 1,650 demonstrations a day across Sirha’s 12 exhibition sectors. Eight animation areas showcase live labs, demonstrations, contests and discussions illustrating and unveiling foodservice trends and best practices.

Sirha also is hosting 21 contests and competitions, including the top awards in catering, pastry and gastronomy: the International Catering Cup, Coupe du la Monde Patisserie, and Bocuse d’Or.

Winners of another sort also are honored at Sirha. The show named four piece of foodservice equipment (see above in Equipment Technologies) as top appliance concepts.