The evolving content of meals in Great Britain. Results of a survey in 2012 in comparison with the 1950s

Abstract

This paper examines food eaten at meals in Great Britain. It presents findings about contemporary meal content, reflecting on the relationship between meal content and occasion, and makes comparison with an earlier study. Drawing on an online survey (N = 2784), conducted in September 2012, it describes the food consumed at daily eating events in terms of content, volume and complexity, common components and combinations, and sequence. Socio-demographic and economic differences are examined. Conceptual tools for analysing the association between food content and meal occasions are refined. The paper first explores the regularity of meal patterns. This is followed by description of the contours of the three principal daily eating events, with a brief section on snacks. The paper interprets distinctive features of current patterns by way of comparison with a similar study of eating habits in the 1950s. Findings reveal morning and midday eating events as simple and homogeneous in content, particularly on weekdays, with respondents breakfasting on cereal or toast, and lunching on sandwiches. Evening meals are more complex, structured and varied in content. Common patterns and systematic differentiation can be discerned, particularly across age cohort. Significant historical change can also be observed in relation to meal content and, to a lesser extent, meal pattern.

Using Twitter data for food-related consumer research: A case study on “what people say when tweeting about different eating situations”

“…Furthermore, references to red meat, chicken, fish/seafood, hot carbohydrates, vegetables and ethnic foods were more frequent in tweets about dinner and lunch eating situations than breakfast and snack eating situations. In light of past food choice research, the patterns matched expectations (e.g., Jaeger, Marshall, & Dawson, 2009;Jaeger et al, 2011;Kyutoku et al, 2012;Mueller Loose & Jaeger, 2012;Yates & Warde, 2014). Typical examples of tweets for each of the four eating situations are shown in Table 3(v).…”

Habits and orders of everyday life: commensal adjustment in Anglo‐French couples

“…Such adjustments are not only more explicit in cross‐national couples, they also have more stakes attached to them, as our respondents tended to look upon the temporal order of meals as a cultural norm difficult to derogate, unaware of their only historically recent stabilization (Grignon ). Thus Richard, who lives with Christelle in a city in northern England, could not conceive of long lunch breaks in which colleagues would share a meal (‘nobody would go to the restaurant for lunch here, no‐one!’), taking the rather recent generalization of short lunch breaks and light lunches in England (Southerton , Yates and Warde ) as the go‐without‐saying rule. The strength of feeling in his exclamation reappeared moments later in the interview, when Richard laughed over narrating the meal schedule at his parents‐in‐law's, as well as at other family or friends’ places in France, where Christelle and he spend much of their holiday.…”

Eating together and eating alone: meal arrangements in British households

“…In 1955–6, 91 per cent of Warren's sample ate a meal between 12pm and 2pm on weekdays, compared with 78 per cent of those in 2012. Weekend midday meals were also more pronounced in 1955–6, with 57 per cent eating between 1pm and 2pm, or 82 per cent between 12 and 2, compared with 36 per cent and 59 per cent respectively in 2012, apparently the effect of a more rigidly observed Sunday dinner (in 2012 roast meat is common, but most is eaten as evening meals, see Yates and Warde ) Part of the difference in peak time eating between 1955–6 and 2012 is attributable to respondents in the 1950s having eaten more frequently, particularly at weekends: if breakfast, midday meals and principal evening meals were considered the only main meals of the day, Warren's respondents averaged 2.84 on weekdays and 2.81 on weekends, compared with 2.75 and 2.58 main meals reported in 2012. Averaging across the population and considering other smaller eating events, people now eat slightly less frequently with greater variation between weekdays and weekends.…”