As the issues related to the COVID-19 pandemic continue to subside and more restrictions are lifted, will we see food companies return to business travel, including in-person meetings and food safety conferences? To find out, we asked more than 250 companies about their travel plans for 2022 and how much travel they may or may not be anticipating this year.

The survey showed that nearly 40% of North American companies and more than 50% of international companies reported still having significant travel restrictions in place (Figure 1). Within these numbers, however, we found that there are a wide variety of policies depending on the company, the location of the travel, and the purpose of the trip.