Chocolate consumption in the UK has slightly decreased since 2022, with a shift towards eating chocolate only once every fortnight or less regularly than once a week or more previously, a recent report has shown.
According to a Mintel report published on Wednesday (3), the HFSS (High in Fat, Sugar, or Salt) products have faced tighter restrictions on where they can be located in stores since October 2022, which in turn has caused a decline in impulse chocolate purchasing.
As in 2022, almost seven in 10 British consumers declared that they impulsively buy chocolate on promotional deals. In 2023, however, only a third of British consumers said that they bought chocolate for themselves because it was on special offer.
Despite the decline, UK chocolate market sales are still due to reach £7 billion in 2023.
"The UK is undoubtedly one of the world’s most loyal and consistent consumers of chocolate, with the vast majority of the population eating chocolate regularly and enjoying a wide variety of chocolate types. Similarly, consumers in the United States are eating chocolate on a comparable level to recent years, with most of the population enjoying chocolate confectioneries. Comparatively, German and Canadian consumers eat less chocolate than their counterparts in Britain and America," states the report.
Mintel senior food and drink analyst Richard Caines said, “Volume sales of chocolate have declined, and there is a need to make supermarket chocolate aisles more enticing, to increase both impulse buying and gifting sales.”
