How Many Trays Of Food Do I Need For 40 Guests? (2024)

FAQs

How Many Trays Of Food Do I Need For 40 Guests? ›

For 40 guests, you may need around 4-5 trays of food, depending on the dish and the serving size.

The advice above—that a full tray can feed between 20 and 40 people, depending on which caterer you're asking—has a lot of variety.

Each adult will consume 1 pound of food total; children, about 1/2 pound. The more options you have, the less you need of each; decrease the main course portion sizes by 1 to 2 ounces if served on a buffet.

Full Trays generally serve 25-30 people, half trays, 12-15 people depending on the quantity of other foods served.

To avoid waste and expense work to feeding about 34 people if 40 attending." Remember if you're doing a number of dishes, you don't need to provide enough for people to have a full portion of each. If you're worried about running out, bulk up on cheaper items like potatoes, bread and salad.

As a general rule, ordering 1.5 sandwiches per person is the perfect number. If you're ordering a salad or an accompanying platter, 1 sandwich per person is the preferred portion size.

If you are serving just appetizers and not a main course, you need a selection for your guests to choose from which if it's 40, best to go with 6–8 different items. Having said that, the selection would also be from cold, room temperature to hot food items.

It's pretty simple too: We just determine an appropriate size portion of any dish in ounces per person, the we multiply that times the number of guests and divide by 16 (# of oz in a pound) and just like that you get the number of pounds you'll need.

Once you've decided on your event of choice, here's how to calculate how much food you'll need. Aim to provide around 6-8 courses of small bite size food per person. Each course should have enough for 1-1.5 pieces of food per person.

(Half trays serve 20 people. Full trays serve 35-40 people.)

How many people does a platter feed? ›

All food platters serve 10-12 pax.

If you're hosing 25 -35 guests, plan 3-4 bites per person if a full dinner is to be served afterwards, or 5-7 bites per person if a lighter meal will be served. If you're hosting a party of 50, then you can offer 6 to 9 different items.

The overall rule that most caterers and party planners use is to calculate a pound of food per person, and a half pound per child. Professionals typically recommend breaking it down further from there: Aim for 2 to 4 ounces of appetizers per person—think 5 to 6 bites.

Cheap catering food ideas include rice or pasta-based dishes, hot dogs, burritos, tacos, cookies, and muffins, which are loved by everyone and are often more affordable than sophisticated seafood or meat dishes.

​So how many desserts do you really need? If you are offering a full size dessert like a cupcake or a full size brownie, count on 1-2 per guest. With smaller desserts like cookies, macarons, bite size brownies, or mini tarts you can count on each guest taking 3 items from the various options.

Medium (16-inch round tray, serves 10-12 people)