Monitoring out of home food and drink purchases in Scotland and Great Britain (2022 and 2023)

A new report  “Monitoring Out of Home food and drink purchases in Scotland and Great Britain (2022 and 2023)” has been recently published by Food Standards Scotland. This report provides an overview of the out of home environment in 2022 and 2023, in Scotland and Great Britain, using food and drink purchase data.

Key findings:

• In 2023, 98% of the population visited the out of home environment in Scotland. Between 2022 and 2023, the overall number of trips to the out of home environment in Scotland increased, from 785.4 million to 869.2 million. 

• In Great Britain, convenience stores and supermarket front of store & café saw strong growth between 2022 and 2023 (19% and 26.7% more trips respectively). Pubs and bars, and full service restaurants were the types of outlets least frequently visited in 2023. 

• Similar to 2022, food on the go continued to account for the largest share (59%) of out of home consumption occasions in Scotland in 2023. 

• In Scotland, snacking occasions contributed to almost half (45.4%) of all out of home trips in 2023. There was strong growth observed in the category of sweet snacks, with a 17.5 % increase in trips (183 million in 2022 and 215.1 million in 2023).

• Although there was a small increase in the number of trips to the total takeaway market in Scotland between 2022 and 2023, this remained below the figures observed in 2021. 

• The percentage share of trips in Scotland which featured a promotion remained similar between 2022 and 2023 (5.8% and 5.7% respectively). 

This report complements and adds to existing evidence on the out of home environment. Food Standards Scotland will use the data from this report alongside other evidence to drive, influence and monitor public health nutrition policies aimed at improving the out of home environment and diet of the population in Scotland.