We are ditching our deep fat fryers and taking lunch to work more often, while children are also adopting a healthier diet.
These are three findings in Bord Bia’s latest Periscope study, which looks at Irish consumers’ behaviours and attitudes towards grocery shopping and meal preparation. It also compares our attitudes with those in nine other countries, particularly Britain.
The research, due to be published today, found an increasing emphasis on healthy eating here, which might explain why just 45 per cent of adults surveyed have a deep fat fryer, down from 65 per cent in 2003.
Children's lunches
It found that the contents of children's lunchboxes in Ireland and Britain were similar when it comes to staples such as sandwiches, fruit and yoghurt, but crisps appeared in only 5 per cent of lunchboxes here compared with 46 per cent in Britain. This is attributed to the increasing emphasis on healthy eating policies in Irish schools.
Some 55 per cent of adults surveyed said they take their lunch to work more often than previously as compared to 39 per cent of Britons. Some 36 per cent of Irish people said they are going out to lunch less often.
About 85 per cent of Irish people said they have a healthy diet. “People in Ireland claim to be the most healthy in the study while Germans claim to be the least healthy,” it says.
