Foreign holidays inspire Brits to change their diets
- Three-quarters of Brits recreate foreign dishes in first week back to keep the holiday feeling alive
- A third of holiday-makers change their diet long term following a trip overseas
- Almost a third of UK adults now do their return food shop online while abroad
- Sales of international speciality foods soar as we get creative in the kitchen
Today, Ocado the online supermarket revealed that almost three-quarters (72%) of Brits are so inspired by the local cuisine they discover while on holiday, they will recreate the dishes they’ve tasted within five days of being back on home soil.
And our love affair with foreign food is more than a just a holiday fling, as more than a third of holiday-makers (34%) are so inspired by the delicacies they try abroad that they change their diets for good, regularly adding international products and ingredients into their shopping baskets.
Trips to Italy inspire our cooking the most with 37% choosing to recreate Italian dishes once back in the UK. France (22%) is the second most gastronomically inspiring country and tantalising tapas from Spain follows behind in third place (17%).
The top ten destinations most Brits are inspired by are:
- Italy
- France
- Spain
- USA
- India
- Thailand
- Mexico
- China
- Japan
- South Africa
Almost a third (30%) of holiday-makers now order their grocery shopping online from far flung destinations, adding ingredients to their baskets as and when they discover new dishes and in the last year Ocado has seen almost one million people use its mobile shopping app and website to browse while abroad. Customers have checked out orders from more than 180 countries, choosing a one-hour delivery slot to coincide with their return, ordering newly discovered international favourites alongside the more traditional post-holiday fridge fillers.
The iPad is the most popular device customers are shopping on when abroad, from destinations as far-flung as Greenland, Svalbard, the Vatican City and South Korea.
Top ten holiday destinations Ocado customers love to shop from are:
- United States
- France
- Spain
- Italy
- Greece
- Portugal
- Germany
- Ireland
- Switzerland
- Turkey
To keep shoppers’ increasingly global palates satisfied, Ocado has developed 14 international shops packed full of hard to find delicacies and cooking ingredients from around the world and demand has rocketed over the last 12 months with French sales increasing by 50%, Swedish sales up by 47% and American by 26%.
Lawrence Hene, Retail Director at Ocado commented: “It’s clear from our research that Brits are finding comfort in the food they discover on holiday to get over the holiday blues. The places we visit on holiday have an abundance of gastronomic delights from delicious Italian meats, French cheeses to Spanish Sardinillas and our palates are changing to crave delicacies like these when we get home too.
“Whilst traditionally we may have had the pain of having to nip to the shops to pick up bread and milk on the way home from the airport, new technology like iPads mean that not only can we shop for the essentials but we can also fill our basket with the things we’ve discovered on holiday before we have even got on the plane for the journey home.”
For more information, images and interview requests, please contact Robbie Platt and the Ocado team at M&C Saatchi PR:
0207 554 3783 / 07841 345 760 or ocadoPR@mcsaatchi.com