Appetite for family dinner is still strong

Published on Monday 24 March 2008 21:49

FAMILY meals are still on the menu in Britain's households as rushed parents make sitting down to dinner with their children a priority, a report showed yesterday.

A UK-wide survey found that 82 per cent of parents had their evening meal together with their children all or most of the time. In Scotland, the figure soared to 92 per cent.

The report said the evening meal had become "ritualised" at a time when a steady home life was more difficult for parents, who might both work, and their children, who enjoyed a wider range of after-school activities.

It also suggested parents were increasingly making sacrifices, such as cutting short work, to ensure they could be at home for dinner with their children.

And to guarantee that all members of the household could make it, people were eating later in the evening, the research said. In 1961, the peak time for dinner was 5:30pm but now it is more likely to be 6:30pm.

But the lifestyle report, carried out by the Future Foundation for Kellogg's, showed many Britons cooked at the weekend while indulging in TV dinners during the working week.

More than half of Britons said they used convenience foods every week, compared with a quarter only five years ago.

However, more people said they made a meal from scratch three times a week.