I saw this picture today, in which one of the officials has a platter of cold cuts next to him during an official (presumably hours long) meeting.

I remembered the meetings of the good old days, especially those between people from two companies. The host company would prepare a platter of cold cuts (as sandwiches) or pretzels or other finger food. I was in this situation both for day-long meetings (although lunch was provided separately) or in 2 hour meetings.

The question are:

1. When is it polite for one to eat from the platter.
2. How much is it polite to eat?
3. Is it impolite to not eat at all?
4. Does anything change in the case of online meetings? - if the people are connecting to the meeting from their own computer, is it impolite to temporarily turn the camera and microphone off while eating?

The last 3 times, I had one piece of what was on the table after the host asked a second time that we eat, underlining that the food is free (it is invariably the same joke).

I saw this picture today, in which one of the officials has a platter of cold cuts next to him during an official (presumably hours long) meeting.

I remembered the meetings of the good old days, especially those between people from two companies. The host company would prepare a platter of cold cuts (as sandwiches) or pretzels or other finger food. I was in this situation both for day-long meetings (although lunch was provided separately) or in 2 hour meetings.

The questions are:

1. When is it polite for one to eat from the platter.
2. How much is it polite to eat?
3. Is it impolite to not eat at all?
4. Does anything change in the case of online meetings? - if the people are connecting to the meeting from their own computer, is it impolite to temporarily turn the camera and microphone off while eating?

The last 3 times, I had one piece of what was on the table after the host asked a second time that we eat, underlining that the food is free (it is invariably the same joke).