The number of snacking visits to pubs fell at the fastest rate of any sector in 2013, with 28 million - or 11.7% - fewer visits compared to the previous year, as snacking away from home declined.
That’s according to figures from the NPD Group, which found that snacking away from home fell by 2.3% in 2013 following several years of growth.
Although most snacking occasions declined, including on-premises snacking and snacking at work or school, snacking on the go increased, with snacking in cars or other forms of transport up by 2.6%.
Pubs saw the biggest drop in snacking business, while retailers and convenience stores recorded 27 million fewer snacking visits (down 4.2%). Snacking visits to take advantage of a promotion increased by 2.1%.
The research found that doughnuts were the fastest growing out of home snack in Britain in 2013, while chocolate bars were the most popular overall.
Doughnuts grew by 11.1% servings in 2013 compared to 2012, representing an increase of 6.4 million servings to 63.7 million.
Brownies came a close second, growing 10.9%, with a total of 54.6 million servings for the year.
Chocolate bars topped the league table of favourite snack food items away from home: nearly one in 14 snacks consisted of a chocolate bar, with 245 million sold during the year.
Following behind chocolate bars in the popularity stakes were cake and crisps in second and third place respectively, while burgers came in fourth and ice cream in fifth place.
Sandwiches are still seen as good snacks but individual sandwich choices such as chicken (100 million servings) or bacon (78.4 million servings) still came behind chips and French fries (111.8 million servings).
Most consumers said their biggest motivator for snacking was to treat themselves: 14.5% of snacking occasions during 2013 were considered a treat, up by 11.7% on the previous year.
Jessica Chambers, client development manager for The NPD Group, said: “We spent £8.1bn 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.
“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.”
