A EUREST WHITE PAPER
FEBRUARY 2013
CRUNCH TIME FOR
THE EVENING MEAL
FROM FORMAL DINNER TO GRAB-AND-GO, OUR EATING HABITS ARE A MOVEABLE FEAST.
COMPASS GROUP UK & IRELAND LIMITED
PARKVIEW
82 OXFORD ROAD
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CRUNCH TIME FOR
THE EVENING MEAL
INTRODUCTION
Monday is a salad and a smoothie at your desk while
you catch up on emails; Tuesday a bowl of soup with
a colleague for an informal meeting; Wednesday’s
a late dash to the workplace café for a sandwich;
Thursday a cold buffet during a brainstorming
huddle; Friday is fish and chips.
The nation’s eating habits have transformed over
the past 100 years — reflecting multiple influences
on our lives both at work and home that affect
how, when and what we choose to eat. While some
commentators highlight the negative aspects of such
shifts, the reality suggests that what was considered
the norm 50 years ago was also the product of recent
economic, political influences and the effects weren’t
necessarily negative — wartime eating and rationing
actually improved the nation’s health (Medical News
Today, 2004).
While some of our modern habits could be improved,
such as over-consumption of fast food, there is also
much to celebrate as we choose flexibility over
formality, fresh over processed, crunch over stodge,
frequency over a single heavy meal — not to mention
the colour and contrast of different cultural cuisines
and a much broader brush when it comes to
food groups.
If a big evening meal is a casualty of these new habits,
the opportunities to enjoy daytime meals have never
been more varied and interesting. Dinner hasn’t
gone, it has merely evolved into a lighter, fresher
smorgasbord — a kind of foodie pick and mix.
CRUNCH TIME FOR
THE EVENING MEAL
FUELLING THE INDUSTRIAL AGE
A brief gallop through history shows that one main
meal was generally the norm; it’s when this meal was
eaten that has shifted (and continues to shift). Eating
the main meal in the middle of the day was a product
of industrialisation — not only did workers need a
substantial meal to have the energy to do the work
they had to do, but industrialisation also reduced the
power daylight had to dictate when meals were taken.
THE RISE OF LUNCH — FROM SNACK TO MEAL.
As early as the Middle Ages people ate something in
the middle of the day, although lunch as we know it
didn’t exist — not even the word.
Daylight shaped mealtimes. With no electricity,
people got up earlier to make use of daylight.
Workers often toiled in the fields from daybreak, so
by midday they were hungry, often having worked for
up to six hours. They would take a quick break and
eat what was known as a “beever” or “noonshine”,
usually bread and cheese. But their main meal would
take place at nightfall, the end of the working day
(Winterman, 2012).
As late as 1755 in his A Dictionary of English
Language, Samuel Johnson defined lunch as “as
much food as one’s hand can hold” (Twilley 2012),
suggesting it comes from the word clutch or clunch,
it remained very much a snack to tide the individual
over until the main meal of dinner.
It was the Industrial Revolution that helped shape
lunch as we know it today. Middle and lower class
eating patterns were defined by working hours. Many
worked long hours in factories, away from home, and
to sustain them a noon-time meal was essential. So
lunch, a former snack, became the day’s third fixed
meal as society urbanised and industrialised and
workers were unable to return home for dinner until
late at night.
The ritual of eating lunch became ingrained in the
much more rigid daily routine of industrialisation
with factories formalising the midday food break. By
the 19th Century chop houses appeared in cities, and
office workers were given an hour for lunch. And,
as more and more people worked away from home
— keeping ‘office hours’ that went beyond daylight
hours thanks to the provision of gas to main towns
and cities — they weren’t free to dine until later in
the evening. This widened the gap between breakfast
and dinner, helping lunch to become a fully-fledged
meal firmly positioned in the middle of the day
(Living History Today, 2012).
LUNCH AS A BOUGHT MEAL.
Thanks to industrialisation it was a small step from
bringing a handful of bread and cheese from home to
buying a pie from a stall outside the factory. Soon, all
sorts of eating places were catering for the growing
town and city lunch market.
Pubs and the ‘pie and a pint’ option evolved alongside
the British café with the defining factor being speed,
so the worker could get there, eat and get back to
work — all within an hour. Eating places sprang up in
working districts to service the lunchtime market.
Lunch evolved further with the outbreak of the
Second World War in 1939 (Winterman, 2012).
Rationing took hold and work-based canteens became
the most economical way to feed the masses. (In fact,
interestingly, it was this model that was adopted by
schools after the war.)
And then fast food as we know it today entered the
marketplace; the traditional Lyons Corner House
restaurants branched out with a special fast-food
serving section in 1954 that developed into separate
Wimpy restaurants serving only hamburger-based
meals (Wimpy, n.d.).
Today there’s a wide range of lunchtime choice for
the worker, from the coffee chains to sandwich bars,
fast food chains, quick lunches from restaurants and
grab-and-go supermarket sandwich deals. The pub
still remains an option, but a static one; food sales
have remained steady since the introduction of the
smoking ban (Flavour magazine, 2012).
CRUNCH TIME FOR
THE EVENING MEAL
WORK RULES THE ROOST
Historically a household eating together came about
through necessity; one main meal a day was all that
there was and you joined in or missed out on the bulk
of that day’s nourishment. Industrialisation broke that
rigid pattern; when someone ate was dictated much
more by their working situation.
Today much is made of the value of a shared
household meal, but in practice it’s a relatively new
phenomenon, vulnerable to other pressures — both
economic and social.
would rather eat in front of the television than sitting
at a table with their partner. In fact our hectic lives
means one in ten of us eat separately every night
of the week, because we all get home at completely
different times (McDermott 2012).
A SHIFT TO EATING WHEN AND WHERE IS CONVENIENT
FOR THE INDIVIDUAL.
Time pressures and lifestyle choices make eating on
the go an increasing influence on eating and meal
time decisions.
During the day, the landscape of modern work has
changed too. Apart from the fact that many people
prefer to eat lunch at their desks while they work,
the rise of the internet and social media mean many
of us opt to surf while we eat or use our half-hour
break to catch up on our social life — so we’ll log on
to Facebook or Twitter for a chat with friends instead
of meeting them for lunch. Other variables are the
growth of home-working and hot-desking, and the
proliferation of the call centre. We eat in ways that
fit our work and lifestyles and it’s a fast-changing
picture — but we know we’ll adapt and fit a meal
in somewhere. Cooking for ourselves however is a
different matter.
Without the confines of fixed meal times (in the
working day or in the evening) and because of the
pressures created by long working hours and busier
lifestyles, on-the-go, anytime eating is increasing.
DINNER — A (RE)HEATED DEBATE
Just over half of all adult snacking (51 per cent) is
done alone, with the top three adult alone-eating
occasions including the instrumental afternoon snack,
instrumental breakfast and instrumental lunch —
where ‘instrumental’ reflects a way of eating to get
things done (Sung 2012).
THE SHRINKING DINNER.
There may be 24 hours in the day, but we’re
increasingly spending fewer of them making time
for dinner.
The typical British worker now spends just 11
minutes eating their evening meal (McDermott 2012);
in fact the clearing up afterwards takes longer.
And in this technologically-dominated age we’d rather
invest our time in pursuing our individual interests
than set aside time to prepare an evening meal for
sharing. A quarter of adults surveyed admitted they
Almost half of UK residents now eat on the go and
allow themselves a mere 20 minutes for lunch (Totally
Living 2012) while 43 per cent skip traditional meal
times and eat on the run.
Other pressures have forced one in three (37 per
cent) to combine breakfast and lunch into a quick
brunch, while a fifth (18 per cent) choose to snack
five times or more throughout the day and skip their
main evening meal.
THE RISE OF INDIVIDUAL FOOD PREFERENCES.
As dietary preferences increase and grow more
complex the chances that a group of individuals can
enjoy the same meal decreases. Children, particularly
pre-teen children, are more likely to hold dietary
preferences that are given more credence today, and
the increased presence of dietary restrictions (food
sensitivities, allergies and forms of vegetarianism)
make it much harder to find one meal to suit all (The
Hartman Group 2004).
CRUNCH TIME FOR
THE EVENING MEAL
THE RISE OF 24 HOUR FOOD AVAILABILITY.
Round the clock opening hours mean food is now so
easily available there’s no need to plan meals ahead,
a factor that changes the status of the evening meal
as a thought-out, planned event. If the ingredients for
the evening meal aren’t ready in the fridge and store
cupboard, then dinner can be moved or replaced
without compunction.
SNACK TO THE FUTURE.
Consumers are increasingly turning to snacking to
bridge the gap between meals due to long work and
commute times (The Hartman Group 2012).
As eating becomes something that’s a mechanical
function, or an opportunity for instant gratification,
snacking is coming into its own.
Snacking is less about types of food anymore, but
about how food is consumed. The move towards
healthier snacking such as seeds, nuts and fruit
counteracts the prevailing idea that snacking gets in
the way of ‘proper’ meals and is bad for us.
LITTLE AND OFTEN.
Consumers increasingly believe that eating smaller
meals more frequently is healthier (The Hartman
Group 2012).
Increased awareness of the importance of getting
your five a day and the benefits of keeping blood
sugar and energy levels steady reinforce the idea
that regular, healthy snacking is a good way of eating.
And on the other side of this coin, eating one large
meal later in the day is increasingly believed to be an
inefficient and unhealthy way of doing things.
‘Healthy’ small meals or snacks instead of eating
what’s thought of as a ‘meal’ is a way for consumers to
feel they’re eating less, controlling their portions and
cutting their calorie intake. Consumers also believe
that by distributing small treat moments throughout
the day via snacking they’re helping to avoid overindulgent binges and that balance can be achieved by
rotating indulgent and non-indulgent (Sung 2012).
CONCLUSION.
We’ve come a long way — but nothing ever stays
still when it comes to our eating habits. Who knows
what our meal times will look like in 100 years’ time,
or even if such a thing will exist at all? Perhaps
it’s time to accept the cultural shift away from big,
formal meals and embrace eating occasions that are
beneficial to all. These changing cultural behaviours
offer potential for light eating in working hours to
accommodate more of the day’s consumption.
CRUNCH TIME FOR
THE EVENING MEAL
REFERENCES
Medical News Today (2004) ‘Wartime Rationing helped the
British get healthier than they had ever been’ 21 Jun 2004
[online] http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/releases/9728.php
(accessed 10 January 2013)
Flavour magazine (2012) ‘How the smoking ban affected
pubs and clubs’, Flavour magazine, [online] http://www.
flavourmagazine.co.uk/features/pubs-and-clubs.php (accessed 2
December 2012).
Hartman Group (2004) ‘What’s for dinner? Understanding meal
fragmentation as a cultural phenomenon’, Hartbeat, 11 November
2004 [online] http://www.hartman-group.com/hartbeat/whatfor-dinner-understanding-meal-fragmentation-as-a-culturalphenomenon (accessed 22 November 2012).
Levy, A. (2012) ‘How the family meal has split into two’, The
Daily Mail, 6 September 2012 [online] http://www.dailymail.
co.uk/femail/article-1308067/Death-family-meal-One-motherscook-different-dinners-children-themselves.html (accessed 11
November 2012).
Living History Today (2012) ‘Is this lunch or dinner?’
Living History Today, 17 October 2012 [online], http://www.
livinghistorytoday.com/?p=399, (accessed 1 December 2012).
Spicer, H (2010) ‘Sandwiches and lunchtime foods’, Mintel
research, May 2011 [online] (accessed 1 December).
Sung, A (2012) ‘Healthy eating and social snacking as an obesity
solution’, Hartbeat, 4 October 2012 [online] http://www.hartmangroup.com/hartbeat/healthy-snacking-and-social-eating-as-anobesity-solution (accessed 9 December 2012).
Totally Living (2012) ‘Lunchtime is just 20 minutes for most
Brits’, Totally Living, 26 September 2012 [online] http://www.
totallyliving.co.uk/food/2012/09/26/lunch-time-is-just-20-minutesfor-most-brits (accessed 18 November 2012).
Twilley, N (2012), ‘Lunch: an urban invention’, Edible Geography,
22 June 2012 [online], http://www.ediblegeography.com/lunch-anurban-invention/, (accessed 5 December 2012).
Wimpy (n.d.) Our history [online], http://www.wimpy.uk.com/
history.asp (accessed 10 December 2012).
Winterman, D (2012), ‘Breakfast, lunch and dinner: Have we
always eaten them?’, BBC News, 15 November 2012 [online],
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-20243692, (accessed 5
December 2012).
McDermott, K. (2012) ‘Now that’s fast food’, The Daily Mail,
25 October 2012 [online] http://www.dailymail.co.uk/femail/
article-2223057/Busy-Britons-wolf-evening-meal-just-11-minutes-spend-15-minutes-washing-up.html (accessed 15
November 2012).
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research, Oct 2010 [online] (accessed 1 December).
EUREST, FEBRUARY 2013.
To find out more about Eurest, part of Compass Group, a world-leading provider
of foodservice and support services, please visit www.eurestfood.co.uk