Tabletop Trends: What’s on trend in Light Equipment and Tableware?

A Top Ten of Trends from the LET Forum 2025

Getting on top of the latest trends is a key reason to attend the LET Forum.  Here’s our Top Ten from this year’s event:

1. Food waste: lots of discussion on this subject, along with new products and ideas. Portioners are a case in point: buyers used to talk about them in terms of cost control, now it’s as much about reducing food waste.  Either way, accurate portion control is a win-win.  A win-win-win if you add in the health benefits of stricter portions. 
2. Pizza pizzaz: loads and loads of pizza-related product launches, from paddles to compact ovens, with suppliers talking about an increase in demand for the already popular crowd pleaser.
3. Colours: pastel, pastel everywhere (especially light blue and sage green), with earthy tones complemented by organic shapes.
4. Healthier fast food: QSRs, Grab and Go and takeaways are the growth areas, but here’s the twist: operators (and consumers) are increasingly after healthier fast food, hence low- and no-fat cooking ideas.
5. Sharing: remember how big it was just before Covid? Well people are getting over their fear of sharing and it’s back, with big plates and platters in a myriad of materials, shapes and colours. 
6. Copper, gold and hammers: surely not copper, we hear you say. Every year we expect it to fade, but every year it keeps selling.   Gold, too, especially for some of the ethnic food sectors.  Meanwhile metal products are getting a hammering, literally: hammered finishes are everywhere. 
7. Melamine marches on: and on. More and more sectors (even high-end) are using melamine, especially as the quality gets better, with modern pieces having a texture and heft very like ceramics. 
8. Cutlery: quite a mix here, with matt finishes (stonewashed, sandblasted, satin and velvet) still increasing in sales. There’s also demand for coloured flatware and more unusual designs, such as collections aimed at ethnic restaurants. 
9. Hot chocolate: well, it’s been brewing for a while. We’ve had extensive coffee menus, a cornucopia of teas and infusions, and now hot choc is on the move, with more discerning chocolate drinkers encouraging suppliers to develop new drinking chocolate-related products.
10. Sustainability: is ever more important, with operators looking for eco-friendly products and traceability (FEA’s Embodied Carbon Hub at fea.org.uk has insight here). The Forum saw lots of products made from recycled materials and examples of energy saving equipment.