UK consumers spend more than £1000 a year on eating out, research has found.
Independent market analyst Datamonitor revealed UK consumers spend an average of £1,224 a year on eating and drinking out - a figure expected to rise to £1,335 by 2010.
The UK has become the second highest spender on eating out, behind Italy on £1,265 and ahead of France on £1,070.
Datamonitor found a general north/south divide emerging in Europe with consumers in the northern European countries more rapidly adopting the out-of-home eating behaviour widely practiced in the US, than their Mediterranean neighbours.
Consumer Markets Analyst at Datamonitor, Matthew Adams, said eating habits were evolving to suit the pace of modern life.
“Consumers are responding to nutritional needs and the demands of daily life by missing meals, changing the times at which they eat and even the type of products they eat at each occasion,” he claimed.
Almost one third of people in the UK now skip breakfast and this trend is expected to continue.
Meanwhile, eating out has become more affordable and is no longer purely an act of celebration. For many it is a time-saving method of enjoying a meal.
Adams said: “Eating out is a way for consumers to seek a hassle-free and social environment in which to eat.”
Datamonitor forecasts that 5.2 billion extra breakfasts, lunches, evening meals and snacks in Britain will be consumed outside the home in 2010, compared with last year.
