It appears that Europeans have well and truly caught onto the US food-fashion trend, and that is eschewing their lunchbreaks in favour of, shock horror, working!
Reuter's Business Insight reported that more and more of us across Europe are taking much less time for lunch and, instead, snacking more throughout the day to make up for the food not consumed in our rushed lunch half-hours.
Daniel Lord, author of the 'Future Lunch Solutions' report thinks that our non-stop lifestyles are to blame: "More hectic lifestyles and longer working hours have compressed the lunch break of many office workers into little more than a half-hour 'pit stop'. »
Are we a harder working, yet more tired workforce?
In another study conducted by the catering company Eurest, they found that in the UK one in five of 2,000 workers who were interviewed said that they never took a lunch break. In 1990, the same study showed that only 7% of people worked through lunch, now that figure is up to 20%. This trend is generally looked down upon by official health committees, who argue that workers need a break in the middle of the day to de-stress and regenerate for the afternoon.
Brendan Barber of the Trades Union Congress said: "Workers who don't take long enough breaks risk damaging their health, and employees who don't get away from their desks at lunchtime are not going to be very productive in the afternoon."
Restaurant for lunch is out
Across La Manche in France, the renowned culture of the four-hour lunch has suffered due to people staying at their desks or even packing their own lunches to eat at the office. According to CHD Expert, the food service data group, in their report 'Panorama de la restauration: La pause déjeuner', only 33% of French employees dine in restaurants for lunch. Apparently, long breaks taken to savour gourmet course after course is out of the question for cash and time-restricted workers.
The gourmet lunch tradition is well and truly over, as now 34% of the French working class prepare their lunches in advance at least once a week and many are catered for by their own company canteens and other lunch services.