This is an increase of 6.4 million servings to 63.7 million for the whole year. Brownies came a close second, growing 10.9% with a total of 54.6 million servings for the year. And chocolate bars topped the league table of the favourite snack food items away from home. Nearly 1 in 14 snacks consisted of a chocolate bar, with 245 million servings sold during the year.
Although, despite our obvious sweet tooth, the appetite among Britons for snacking away from home is declining. Snacking visits out of home decreased 2.3% in the year ending December 2013 following several years of growth.
NPD Group figures show that all types of snacking dropped: morning snacks decreased -2.9%; afternoon snacks dipped 2.4% and late snacks were off 1.7%. The declines were driven by the core consumer aged 25 to 49 years and are partly due to consumers preferring to eat at the usual times of breakfast, lunch and dinner, and choosing to eat out in a more sociable way.
Most snacking occasions declined, including ‘on-premises’ snacking, and there was less snacking at work or school too. However, snacking on the go has increased with snacking in cars or on other forms of transport up by 2.6%. There is clearly still an appetite for snacks among busy consumers on the go.
Jessica Chambers, client development manager for The NPD Group, said: “We spent £8.1 billion on ‘out of home’ snacks in 2013 so we are not losing our knack for a snack, even though some people are definitely trying to save money by snacking less often. And with three sweet snacks in the top five fastest growing, and nearly 425 million servings of chocolate and cake happily consumed out of home in 2013, we clearly have a sweet tooth."