A Celebration of Breakfast – Fun Facts

Posted on December 15, 2014

Breakfast has a rich history and heritage in the UK and has long been hailed as the most important meal of the day.

To celebrate Breakfast Week (25^th – 31^st January 2015), here are some facts[i] to help whet your appetite…

Breakfast habits

The average person sits down to breakfast at 7.31am during the week and 8.28 am at the weekend
The nation’s favourite breakfast is a cooked breakfast, followed by porridge, breakfast cereal and then toast
The breakfast foods we are most likely to eat during the week are wholegrain cereal (37%) followed by toast with spread (32%) and then porridge (27%)
The most popular place to eat breakfast is at home at the table, either alone or with other members of the household, followed by on the sofa
Taste, speed, filling, quick to prepare and health, are the most important factors when it comes to breakfast[ii]
There is a growing trend for eating breakfast out of the home.[iii]

Breakfast skipping

A worrying quarter (25%) of people are skipping breakfast once or more during the week, with more than one in ten (13%) never eating it
Of women who skip breakfast, 29 per cent miss it because they are too busy getting ready
14 per cent of female breakfast skippers say they don’t eat in the morning because they are trying to lose or watch their weight
Women are more likely to prioritise their hair and choosing clothes for the day than eating breakfast.

Breakfast food facts

Bread is bought by 99 per cent of UK households and nearly the equivalent of 12 million loaves are sold each day – equivalent to 43 loaves per person, per year[iv]
124,000 hectares of oats are grown in the UK[v] – more than the area of Berkshire
1.9m hectares of wheat are grown in the UK^v– that’s almost the size of Wales
Around 5.2 billion litres of milk are bought each year[vi]
The UK produces 8,847 million eggs per year[vii] and more than a third of UK eggs are eaten at breakfast[viii]
Kippers only became popular for breakfast in the UK after Queen Victoria ate them in Dalkeith in 1842^viii
Every day, five million Britons will eat sausages[ix]
Bacon is a £1.3 billion industry, with consumers currently purchasing 221.6 thousand tonnes per year. Rashers are the most popular form of bacon[x]
British Bacon is part of our national heritage; there are records of the Romans salting sides of bacon as early as 200BC and Julius Caesar brought his own bacon with him when he landed in ancient Britain in 55BC.x

Quirky breakfast facts

The celebrity people in the UK would most like to have breakfast with is Holly Willoughby
The world’s first breakfast cereal was created in 1863 and needed soaking overnight to be chewablevⁱⁱⁱ
The world record for the most people eating breakfast in bed is 289 and was set in Sydney, Australia on 2^nd March in 2012. It involved 85 queen size beds containing four people each[xi]
Scientists have uncovered a statistical relationship between a person’s character, lifestyle and social class and whether they like their eggs boiled, fried, scrambled or as an omelette.[xii]

Poached egg eaters tend to be outgoing, listen to upbeat music and have happy dispositions
Boiled egg eaters are disorganised
Fried egg fans have a high sex drive
Scrambled egg lovers are more guarded
Omelette eaters are self disciplined

The world’s largest breakfast on record involved 27,854 people and took place in Germany on 29 May 2005[xiii]
The largest bowl of porridge weighs 865 kg and was achieved in Tula, Russia on 10 September 2011.[xiv]

Breakfast Week is the UK’s biggest annual celebration of breakfast and is organised on behalf of UK cereal farmers and producers. Every year, hundreds of breakfast events take place around the country and the Best Breakfast Awards return for a second year to search for the UK’s best breakfast dishes being served in eateries around the country.

For inspiring breakfast recipes, to vote in the Best Breakfast Awards or find a local Breakfast Week event to you, visit www.shakeupyourwakeup.com.

Keep up to date with news and activities on Twitter @breakfastweek and www.facebook.com/shakeupyourwakeup where you can share your breakfast moments in a photo competition.

[i] Unless stated otherwise, the majority of the breakfast facts have come from a survey conducted on behalf of Breakfast Week by One Poll. 2,000 UK adults were surveyed online between Friday 29^th November and Monday 2^nd December 2013

[ii] Kantar World Panel Breakfast July 2014

[iii] http://www.marketingweek.co.uk/trends/rise-and-shine-its-breakfast-time/4006806.article

[iv] http://www.nabim.org.uk/statistics/flour-and-bread-consumption

[v] DEFRA Census of Agriculture and Horticulture, June 2011

[vi] http://www.thisisdairyfarming.com/discover/dairy-farming-facts/how-much-milk-do-we-drink-in-the-uk/

[vii] http://www.thepoultrysite.com/articles/855/poultry-production-in-england

[viii] http://www.express.co.uk/fun/top10facts/372254/Top-10-facts-about-breakfast

[ix] http://www.lovepork.co.uk/pork-products-cuts/sausages/sausage-faqs/

[x] http://www.lovepork.co.uk/pork-products-cuts/bacon/bacon-facts/

[xi] http://www.guinnessworldrecords.com/records-1000/most-people-eating-breakfast-in-bed/

[xii] http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/9573822/A-persons-way-of-eating-eggs-can-predict-personality-type.html

[xiii] http://www.guinnessworldrecords.com/world-records/1000/largest-continental-breakfast-(attendance)