SHOPPING he state of burger sales today shows how the catering indus- try is changing. The two US mar- ket leaders posted negative fig- ures for 2014, although that by no means presages the end for their products. On the contrary, the culinary benchmark for the fast food favourite has shifted to other, more modern formats. Which makes "better burgers" a hot topic right now. Coffee, burgers and beer are billion-dollar businesses, both nationally and globally. For most people, they are everyday products with minimal differences between brands. Production is highly in- dustrialised and both prices and bargain offers are marked by cost cuts. These are typical indicators of mature markets. To put it bluntly: consumers reduce the sexiness of the offering and the brand to low prices and high convenience. T A Vision of Fast food Gastronomy expert Gretel Weiß on new worlds of taste, artistic food presentation, increasing individualism and heightened emotions a trend towards quality By Gretel Weiß, issuer of "food-service", dfv Mediengruppe 34 Deutsche EuroShop AG Annual Report 2015