Families bring back the bacon for their morning fry up

CONSUMER AFFAIRS EDITOR THE traditional fry up has made a comeback as people shrug off health fears over processed meat to eat bacon, though only for breakfast.

Bacon featured in 87million more British breakfasts during the past year, up by 14.3 per cent on the year before, according to Kantar Worldpanel data.

The increased appetite comes despite it falling out of favour following the publication of a World Health Organization report which linked bacon and other processed meat to cancer, causing total sales to fall by 2.1 per cent over the year.

The WHO said 50g of processed meat a day increased the chance of certain cancers by 18 per cent, putting it in the highest risk ranking with alcohol, asbestos, arsenic and cigarettes.

But the boom in meaty breakfasts suggests the British love for sausages and bacon outweighs the associated health concerns.

Almost 6 percent more sausages were being eaten at breakfast compared with the previous year, the data showed, despite overall sales falling by 2.9 percent. Egg consumption at breakfast was up by 18pc over the past two years, according to a research report commissioned by the British Egg Industry Council, while supermarket sales of ready-to-eat cereals – still the nation’s most popular breakfast – have fallen by £52.6 million in a year.

Rebecca Hughes, a consumer analyst at AHDB, said: “Consumers are still aware of the messaging arising from the WHO report, however enjoyment has a far greater influence on consumption choice than health does.”