Breakfast is big business!  The UK cereal market alone is worth £1.55billion.  Bread and cereals provide energy, vitamin B, iron and fibre. On average each year, the UK produces:cereal and bread

  • 15 million tonnes of wheat
  • 7 million tonnes of barley
  • 600,000 tonnes of oats

Did you know? 

  • One bowl of breakfast cereal uses approximately 50g of cereals
  • A cooked breakfast uses approximately 435g of cereals
  • A serving of toast uses approximately 25g of cereals
  • A wheat crop will produce an average of 7.5 tonnes of grain per hectare – that’s enough to make 11,500 loaves of bread.
  • Bread is bought by 99% of UK households and nearly the equivalent of 12 million loaves are sold each day which is equivalent to 43 loaves per person per year. Most bread is made from wheat, though barley, oats and rye are used in some speciality loaves.
  • Each year, 99 bread products are purchased per household.  Men eat bread more frequently than women: 44% of men eat bread twice a day compared with 25% of women. 
  • Cereals feature in 65% of weekday breakfasts. In the UK we eat an average of nearly 6kg of cereal per person per year. This is twice as much as Denmark (3kg), three times as much as Belgium (2kg) and six times as much as The Netherlands (1kg).
  • Oats, the cereal used in porridge, are well-known for their excellent nutritional composition. They contain 14% protein, 64% carbohydrate, 9% fat plus Vitamins B and E.
  • In Scotland, porridge is cooked with water and salt, and is served quite runny. In England, porridge is often cooked with milk, then sugar is sprinkled on top. It is thicker because larger flakes of oatmeal are used.
  • Approx 42% of the UK cereal crop is used to feed animals including pigs, chickens and cows, which helps put bacon, sausages, eggs and milk on the nation's breakfast tables.