Workers are expensing eye-watering quantity of firm money on quick meals yearly
Findings have revealed that a whopping £221,990 was claimed back by employees across the UK in 2025 alone on burgers, fries and pizzas
Workers are expensing a fortune on fast food(Image: Getty Images/StockFood)
Staff are lovin’ it at fast food joints – with workers expensing hundreds of thousands of company money on burgers. A whopping £221,990 was claimed back by employees across the UK in 2025 on burgers, fries and pizzas.
McDonalds was the most expensed fast food chain, with spendings making up a third of the amount at £73,935. In second place was Burger King which saw £26,789 expensed, followed by pizza chains including Dominos and Papa Johns.
BrightHR, the HR tech experts, used their expenses and mileage tracking app Pop to analyse 1,962,730 claims.
Alan Price, their CEO, said: “This data gives us a real insight into staff expense claims, tracking how much is spent, where and what the most expensed items are.
“One surprising trend was just how much is being claimed back for fast food, £221,990 was expensed in 2025.
“Of that, one third, or a whopping £73,935 was spent at McDonalds; with the largest single transaction costing £1,093. That could buy you 942 burgers!
“In second place, still sticking with the burger theme, was Burger King which saw £26,789 expensed, while pizza was the third most popular option. Orders from Domino’s, Papa Johns and Pizza Hut totalled £25,000.”
And workers weren’t just filling their own stomachs – with pet food also topping the list.
Alan added: “The UK is a nation of animal lovers, and that’s reflected in expense claims too, with staff claiming back £16,377 for pet food in 2025.
“Some £797 was expensed for bird food and feeders, excluding chicken food which saw four transactions totalling £146.91.
“The most weird and wonderful animal related expense, however, was a £77 charge for alpaca food.”
Staff also expensed thousands of pounds of company money on toilet paper
The reports revealed £10,747 was claimed back for bog roll in 2025, as well as £20,000 on cake and £27,873 on batteries.
Alan added: “While some of these, I’m sure, are legitimate expenses, as an employer it’s essential to have proper expense management tools and policies in place.
“If you can’t account for where your money is being spent, you’ll never be able to determine what is and isn’t a necessary expense.
“And with costs rising across all areas, including incoming changes to statutory rates, it’s more important than ever to make sure you and your employees are spending wisely.
“Have clearly defined budgets for social activities by department and across company, and policies setting out what type of things employees can claim on expenses and what they can’t.
“Without this, you will never find it hard to identify any trends in where your business is haemorrhaging money.”
