Away from home (AFH) vs foodservice
Away from home (AFH) is the channel for food and drink consumed outside the home rather than bought in a shop to take back: restaurants, bars, cafes, hotels, quick service, workplace and school canteens, travel and leisure sites. Manufacturers say AFH, the UK trade often says out of home (OOH), the US says foodservice and much of Europe says HoReCa; the four overlap but are not the same set.
Share of open on-premise outlets per channel, floors; the grey remainder is hotels and other venues.
The trusted intelligence layer for teams selling to Hospitality & Retail
Five words, five scopes
| Term | Where you hear it | Usually includes | Usually excludes |
|---|---|---|---|
| AFH (away from home) | Food and beverage manufacturers, as a division name | Restaurants, quick service, bars, hotels, canteens, vending, travel, often food to go | Groceries bought for home |
| OOH (out of home) | UK trade bodies and consumer panels | The same occasions as AFH, measured as eating and drinking out | Groceries bought for home |
| Foodservice | US industry, distributors, caterers | Commercial operators plus non-commercial catering (schools, hospitals, workplaces) and the distributors that supply them | Retail |
| HoReCa, CHR | Continental Europe, Middle East, Asia; CHR in France | Hotels, restaurants, cafes, bars | Institutional catering, often vending and travel |
| On-trade, on-premise | Drinks companies; UK and US | Places that serve drinks for consumption on the premises | Canteens and most outlets without a drinks licence, in many reports |
Non-commercial catering has its own words: business and industry (B&I), education (K-12 and colleges in the US), healthcare, vending and micromarkets. Regional words for the whole channel: restauration hors domicile (RHD) in France, Außer-Haus-Markt in Germany, "food away from home" in US statistics (USDA Economic Research Service).
Who means what by AFH by role
| Role | What AFH means to them |
|---|---|
| Category manager at a manufacturer | A business unit with its own packs (catering sizes, portion packs) and its own price list |
| Field sales rep | The operators, groups and wholesalers they call on |
| Distributor | Foodservice: its customers, from restaurants to hospitals |
| eCommerce manager | Restaurant delivery, because the restaurant is the seller even when the meal is eaten at home |
| POS-system vendor | Hospitality: the operators that run its system |
| Market researcher | Out-of-home occasions in a consumer panel, or operator counts in a census |
Common confusions
- Delivery. A pizza delivered from a restaurant is eaten at home, yet most manufacturers book the drink and the sauce in AFH, because the restaurant bought them. Consumer panels may log the same occasion as in-home. State which view a number uses.
- OOH advertising. In media, OOH means billboards and posters. A brief that says "OOH" needs a second word.
- Food to go. A supermarket meal deal is retail for the retailer and an away-from-home occasion for the shopper. Trade bodies such as IGD report it as its own channel.
- Foodservice as a business, not a channel. Some teams use foodservice only for the distributor business, and AFH for the outlets.
How Dashmote counts it
Our on-premise universe is the public face of AFH: restaurants, quick service, cafes, bars and pubs, and hotels, one record per venue across 60+ countries, with each venue's delivery storefronts linked to it. Canteens, hospital kitchens and other non-commercial sites appear only where they trade publicly as a venue, so for those segments we say so rather than estimate. Channels are assigned once per venue (channel mapping), so an AFH split by channel adds up.
Worked example is it AFH?
| Occasion | AFH (manufacturer) | OOH panel | HoReCa | On-trade |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Beer in a pub | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Coffee at a station kiosk | Yes | Yes | Often no | No |
| Lunch in a staff canteen | Yes | Yes | No | No |
| Cola with a delivered pizza | Yes | Often no | Yes, via the restaurant | Debated |
| Supermarket meal deal eaten at a desk | Sometimes | Yes | No | No |
| Wine bought in a shop for dinner at home | No | No | No | No |
Six occasions, four definitions, four different totals. Pick the definition first, then count.
Frequently asked questions
What does AFH stand for?
AFH stands for away from home: food and drink consumed outside the home, in restaurants, bars, cafes, hotels, canteens and similar places, as opposed to groceries bought to eat at home.
What is foodservice vs retail?
Foodservice businesses prepare and serve food and drink for people to consume, such as restaurants and canteens; retail sells products for people to take away and prepare or consume themselves.
Is it food service or foodservice?
Both are used. The industry and its trade press mostly write foodservice as one word; general dictionaries and some job titles keep food service as two.