Snack culture

Mmm ... do you fancy a tasty bag of crisps? Or how about a yummy chocolate bar? British people love their snacks. Find out more about some popular British snacks. Don't read if you're hungry!

Instructions

Do the preparation task first. Then read the article and do the exercises to check your understanding.

Snack facts

Young people in Britain eat more snacks than people of the same age in other European countries. A recent survey has discovered that 64 per cent of under-20-year-olds snack between meals. How does this compare with other countries? 58.7 per cent of young people snack in Germany, 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. Snack researchers found that the average person in Britain spends £43 on savoury snacks each year, compared with £12 for the French and only £7 for the Italians. British people are spending a total of about £2.8 billion a year on savoury snacks!

Crisps

What are crisps exactly? They are very thin slices of potato, fried in oil then covered in salt or other salty flavours. 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, steak and onion, roast chicken, tomato ketchup, and cheese and bacon.

A crisp-making company held a competition recently to find new exciting flavours for their crisps. The competition was called ‘Do us a flavour’ and the company 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 tried to replicate the tastes of a full English breakfast including bacon, eggs, sausages and beans. The flavour was suggested by Emma Rushin of Belper, 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 is milk chocolate, dark chocolate and white chocolate. There are small bars of chocolate, 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!

And chocolate companies are always testing out new flavours. One brand of chocolate bar recently asked people to try four new flavours of a chocolate and then vote on Facebook for their favourite. The bar with the most votes will be permanently added to their range. 

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.

Advertising and marketing is another controversial area. Some people feel that advertising for junk food and unhealthy snacks should not be directed at children and teenagers. One opinion is that young people should be protected by a ban on this kind of advertising before 9 p.m. on television and that there should be more controls over websites, sponsorship and in-store promotions. What do you think?

Discussion

What are your favourite snacks? Are they healthy? Do you agree that there should be more controls to protect young people from unhealthy snacks?

Grammar
Average: 3 (2 votes)
Personal online tutoring
EnglishScore Tutors is the British Council’s one-to-one tutoring platform for 13- to 17-year-olds.

Comments

Submitted by Mena68 on Mon, 01/24/2022 - 01:43

My favourite snacks are chips with salt and chilli , I know that these kind of snacks are not healthy but depends on the frecuency that people eat them. Personally I eat my favourite snack only when I watch a film with my family at the weekends. I agree with the controls that the OMS isueed about the junk food, it will be good for young people specialy children, because its necesary to include healthy habits since early ages. I will change my personal habits.

Submitted by JenGissGF on Sat, 01/22/2022 - 17:15

My favorite savory snack is crisps, i´m realy mad for Doritos, but i like sweet snacks too, my favorite is chocolate bar. Iknow they aren´t healthy, but if you eat a little bit and not always you can stay healthy.

Submitted by CarlosA on Sat, 01/22/2022 - 17:05

My favorite snacks are cookies, chocolate and bread, but they aren't healthy, cause most of them have high sugar levels and that can be bad for my self, cause I can get sick of diabetes, that's why I think young people shouldn't eat this sort of food too often and there will be more control with this snacks to avoid issues

Submitted by Mia15194 on Wed, 01/19/2022 - 02:34

My favorite snacks are the white chocolate and the kit kats, they are so sweet, but I like the spicy snacks too, Mexican snacks, like swinkles or miguelito (a spicy, sweet and salty powder), they are not very healthy, but I dont eat them every day. I think parents must have control about what their children eat, but also eating a good snack in moderation is not bad.

Submitted by oiertxu on Tue, 01/19/2021 - 16:25

I love chocolate too, especially the chocolate with Oreos. It´s crunchy and delicious but I don´t eat it often. I eat a small piece of chocolate after lunch. I like crisps, especially Doritos Chilli because they are spicy and hot. I eat crisps at the weekend having a good time with my friends or watching a film on Sundays. In my opinion it's better to eat sunflower seeds
Profile picture for user Youjiro

Submitted by Youjiro on Mon, 03/04/2019 - 12:48

My favourite snack is chocolate bar.It is not healthy for me.I occasionally buy chocolate bar after high school to get feel better.One of health organization suggest us chocolate is good for people feel tired .so that is why I choose chocolate after school.
English courses near you