Prerequisites for creating a new classification of public catering facilities in the food industry

Various approaches to the classification of public catering facilities in the food industry are considered in the paper. A need to improve the classification of public catering facilities existing on the Russian market through the symbiosis with the existing international classifications is demonstrated. The Internet portal data and data obtained by the Novosibirsk City Government were compared. Considerable discrepancies in the data obtained from these sources were revealed. It was found in the course of the study that the number of actually existing catering establishments in various districts of the city is 1.5…1.7 times higher than the number of catering establishments officially registered in the executive bodies that control this sphere of business. A need to develop an interactive classification which could provide obtaining reliable results in terms of some attributes is shown. The development of such a digital classification of catering establishments will make it possible to: make the Novosibirsk market of the catering services more attractive to foreign investors and tourists; facilitate quality control of the services rendered by catering establishments for executive authorities; create a unified system of evaluation of catering establishments in terms of services and quality of rendered services; carry out an analysis of the competitive environment for business owners; facilitate the choice of public catering facilities for consumers with regard to their individual preferences The results of the study can be of interest to a wide range of people including consumers, critics, business owners, foodstuff suppliers and state inspection authorities.