What does a lunch break look like in different countries around the world? What do people eat in the middle of the workday, what do they snack on? How long do they take for food? And is the food tasty? A BBC correspondent asked residents of various cities around the world about this and got seven different ways to have a snack, shared with us by office workers from different countries.
India: lunch delivery
Nowadays, those who live and work in Mumbai have much less time for lunch than before, says Mukul Parekh. He usually eats his lunch during a half-hour break right at his workplace.
Parekh works as an administrator at an accounting firm. He blames traffic jams and the constantly increasing workload on employees for the lack of time for a proper lunch. So the main thing for office workers in Mumbai is to have a very quick snack. And although he usually brings food from home, there is an alternative option – a unique, purely Mumbai one.
Containers of hot food (tiffins) can be delivered directly to the office by a lunch delivery courier, a so-called dabbawala. The food can be either from a restaurant or cooked by someone at home.
Dabbawalas use a unique tracking system for hundreds of thousands of ordered dishes, making an average of less than 3.4 errors per million orders. As 63-year-old Mukul Parekh explains, this secret system is passed down from generation to generation within the dabbawala family business.
Uganda: street food snack
Uganda is another country where speed of lunch is important in big cities. Sarah Gimon works as a project manager at a non-profit organization in the city of Mbale. According to her, when you eat quickly, you have more time for work, but people rarely skip lunch.
“In Uganda, dinner is not as important as lunch. During lunch, you can take a little break from work,” explains 27-year-old Sarah, who usually goes to a nearby restaurant during her 30-minute break. “Work ethics vary quite a bit across different companies in Uganda – some people eat lunch right at their workplace, while others may go to a nearby restaurant and have a snack there with colleagues.”
Gimon is lucky in a way – she often works on her projects outside the office in different cities in Uganda, and it is easy for her to stay full thanks to the many street stalls with cheap and tasty food.
A good example of such food is what is called “rolex” (from the word roll): a mixture of fried onions, tomatoes, and eggs is wrapped in chapati (something like thin lavash). Rolexes are sold everywhere.
USA: a series of small snacks
Professional dog walker Vanessa Monroy, 40, says that in New York you can spend your entire break in line for a salad or sandwich. Instead, she brings various bars and other non-perishable items from home, like dried fruits, to snack on throughout the workday.
“For me, it’s easier to have a good breakfast at home in the morning, and then stuff my bag with packets of food.” Eating small portions but often is much healthier than having one lunch with three large courses, she believes. When you snack a little, there is no feeling of heaviness or drowsiness after eating, as often happens after a “real” lunch, says Vanessa. “A quick snack is more convenient, but not fast food,” she emphasizes.
By the way, in the USA, the lunch break is generally shorter than in many other countries. A 2016 study by Edenred showed that, for example, 51% of surveyed Americans spend 15 to 30 minutes on lunch, and only 3% spend more than 45 minutes. This is much less than in France, where 43% of respondents spend at least 45 minutes on lunch.
Philippines: eating from a jollijeep
Jollijeeps – mobile food stalls – appeared in Makati about five years ago thanks to a local government initiative to regulate street food vending, says Faith Ragas, a manager at an investment firm. Her favorite jollijeep is a three-minute walk from her office and is called Lirios.
“Instead of the usual greasy food often sold in plastic packaging on the streets, jollijeeps offer healthy, home-cooked food as an alternative to restaurants and cafes that not every worker can afford to go to during lunch,” explains Ragas.
In the Philippines, it is considered important to have three full meals every day, so labor law provides for a one-hour lunch break for everyone who works eight hours a day.
France: lunch in a restaurant
France is known for the generosity of its customs regarding lunch breaks. In the aforementioned Edenred study, as you may recall, it is indicated that 43% of French people spend 45 minutes or more on lunch, with 72% eating in a restaurant at least once a week.
Parisian designer and decorator François Pelon usually buys groceries at a local supermarket and has lunch with colleagues in the office kitchen. But at least once a week, they all go together to a restaurant in the 20th arrondissement of the capital, where they spend about an hour over lunch.
At work, he and his colleagues talk a lot, discuss each other's ideas, exchange views, and such conversations continue over lunch. According to 35-year-old François, this is an important part of French life.
There is another pleasant feature of lunch breaks in France, where 11.3% of the world's wine is consumed (2014 data). “On Fridays, we are less stressed, and we go with colleagues to a restaurant where we can have beer or wine during lunch.”
Egypt: food court in a shopping mall
“I don’t eat fast food, I never buy it. So I either bring food from home or buy something simple to take away from one of the neighboring restaurants,” says 31-year-old Tamar Kassabian, who works as a manager at one of Cairo’s largest shopping centers, Citystars Heliopolis.
Since in Egypt breakfast is usually late and quite hearty, according to Kassabian, the lunch break shifts to 3 or even 4 p.m. Dinner is at 9 p.m. or later.
“Many companies have a break at 1 or 2 p.m., but people usually take only about 30 minutes for coffee or a light snack, using the remaining half hour for a later lunch,” she says.
Kassabian says that about a year ago, employees began using services of companies like Yumamia, which advertise themselves as “healthy food providers.”
Brazil: Home Preparations
Elisa Rinaldi brings from home prepared components of a future dish – quality products from which she cooks lunch at work. She works as director of communications and content, her office is in downtown São Paulo. Her business partner Natasha does the same, “because this way we save money and eat healthy food,” explains 34-year-old Elisa.
Rinaldi admits that her example is not typical for São Paulo, where lunch is considered the main meal. “Most companies offer lunch vouchers as part of the social package from the employer, so during the break people usually go somewhere to eat.”
“In São Paulo, the workday is typically long, many work from 9 a.m. to 7 p.m., so a one-hour lunch break outside the office is quite reasonable. Now many would like to break this tradition of sitting in the office, but there is still an established view: if you are not at your workplace, it means you are not working hard.”