Young people in Britain eat more snacks than people of the same age in other European countries. According to a recent survey, 64 per cent of under twenty-year-olds snack between meals. How does this compare with other countries? In Germany, 58.7 per cent of young people snack, 53 per cent in France and only 40.7 per cent in Spain. What are these young Brits eating? Savoury snacks, especially crisps, are the favourite snack in the UK.
Crisps
British people are mad for crisps and they like them in a huge variety of flavours. Some of the most popular flavours include cheese and onion, salt and vinegar, roast chicken, and bacon.
One crisp company held a competition to find new flavours for their crisps. The competition received more than a million suggestions for new flavours. The finalists included squirrel flavour and onion bhaji flavour. The winner was builder’s breakfast, which replicates the tastes of a full English breakfast, including bacon, eggs, sausages and beans. The flavour was suggested by Emma Rushin of Derbyshire, who won £50,000 and one per cent of future sales of her flavour. You can’t find builder’s breakfast crisps in the shops now, though — they were discontinued after one year.
Chocolate
It isn’t only savoury snacks that British people love. In fact, they spend more on chocolate than any other European country! If you go to any newsagent’s shop in the UK, you’ll see a huge selection of chocolate bars on sale. There are small bars, medium-sized ones and massive bars of chocolate. You can buy mint-flavoured chocolate, chocolate-covered peanuts or raisins, chocolate with nuts, chocolate with toffee... the list is endless!
Health
While crisps, chocolate and other snacks can be delicious, many people are worried that young people eat too much of these kinds of foods. The Food Standards Agency (FSA) is a government organisation that is responsible for food safety and food hygiene in the UK. The FSA issued a warning recently that many children’s snacks contained dangerously high levels of salt. Some parents are unhappy that their children can buy snack foods that are high in sugar, salt or fat such as sweets, biscuits and crisps from vending machines in schools. Some schools have banned these types of vending machines. Will this help? What do you think?