Sodexho Receives Five Top Food Industry Awards for Innovation In Key Business Lines

GAITHERSBURG, MD, February 21, 2006- Sodexho USA (NYSE: SDX), the nation's leading food and facilities management services provider, announced today it has received top honors among the foodservice industry - Food Management magazine selected five Sodexho programs as Best Concept Awards winners for 2006. The winning concepts were received for a new dining concept for independent senior living facilities; a renovated college student dining hall with new food concepts; a new college student dining facility; vegetarian lunch program at a high school; and a special event in a corporate dining room.

The Best Concept Awards recognize achievement and innovation in several categories of onsite or “noncommercial” foodservice. Sodexho and its clients were honored in the following categories:

• Best Management Company Concept/Program: Piccolo Bistro, Sodexho, Inc., Gaithersburg, MD
  Sodexho's Piccolo Bistro, a fully conceived restaurant with a Mediterranean-influenced atmosphere, is the first restaurant designed, developed and built to be easily accessible to seniors at independent living facilities. This concept features a menu filled with the unique flavors of traditional Italian cuisine and tempting surprises like specialty coffees and delectable desserts.

• Best Renovation: The Student Dining Marketplace at Rowan University, Glassboro, NJ
  This state-of-the-art contemporary facility designed and operated by Sodexho integrates exhibition cooking in a comfortable dining venue reflecting the sophistication of today's young consumers.

• Best New Facility: Segundo Dining Room at the University of California-Davis
  The Segundo Dining Room takes exhibition cooking and customer service to the next level, in which students receive the freshest products, hear the sizzle and see their entrees as they hit the plate.

• Best Menu: Vegetarian Lunch Line at Grady High School, Atlanta, GA
  Veggies have hit the big time at Grady High School where as many as one out of four students choose Sodexho's daily vegetarian dining option.

• Best Special Event: Innovation Luncheon at BASF, Durham, NC
  This winning Innovative Luncheon highlighted biotechnology and the role it plays in improving many of the foods we eat. The luncheon not only provided fun and tasty foods, but also educated customers with unique facts they could use to correlate biotechnology directly to the menu items served by Sodexho Corporate Service

The winners will be highlighted at the 2006 Food Management Ideas Conference, to be held May 17-19 in Chicago, immediately preceding the National Restaurant Show.

Sodexho USA (www.sodexhoUSA.com) is the leading provider of food and facilities management in the United States, with $6 billion in annual revenue and 110,000+ employees. Sodexho USA offers innovative outsourcing solutions in food service, housekeeping, grounds keeping, plant operations and maintenance, asset management, and laundry services to more than 6,000 corporations, health care, long term care and retirement centers, schools, college campuses, military and remote sites in North America. Headquartered in Gaithersburg, MD, Sodexho USA proudly serves as the official food service provider for the US Marine Corps.