UK Food & Drink and At-home Socialising Consumer Report 2026
2026-03-02T16:00:58+00:00
REP8493A74E_8254_4D80_93A7_4E8254FD80CD
2195
191630
[{"name":"Leisure and Entertainment","url":"https:\/\/store.mintel.com\/industries\/leisure-entertainment"},{"name":"Drinks","url":"https:\/\/store.mintel.com\/industries\/drinks"},{"name":"Food","url":"https:\/\/store.mintel.com\/industries\/food"},{"name":"Market Intelligence Reports","url":"https:\/\/store.mintel.com\/report-type\/market-intelligence-reports"},{"name":"UK","url":"https:\/\/store.mintel.com\/markets\/uk-market-research"}]
Report
en_GB
Being seen to help at-home hosts combat the stress many of them associate with managing social gatherings continues to offer strong potential for brands and retailers to tap into these…
UK
Leisure and Entertainment
Drinks
Food
simple
UK Food & Drink and At-home Socialising Consumer Report 2026
"Reducing hosting stress through prep guidance and high-impact presentation ideas will align with key hosting needs."
Being seen to help at-home hosts combat the stress many of them associate with managing social gatherings continues to offer strong potential for brands and retailers to tap into these occasions. Strong appetite for quick and easy food and drink solutions and food suited to smaller spaces signal a permission for brands and retailers to innovate and communicate around ease and guidance for lower-stress hosting.
With household budgets remaining under pressure in 2026, at-home gatherings continue to appeal as a cheaper alternative to eating out. Helping hosts to elevate presentation will chime in this context, while this makes tapping the interest in social occasions earlier in the day particularly timely, these offering a potentially lower-cost hosting option than lunch and dinner.
As financial pressures are predicted to start to ease from 2027, the competition from foodservice will begin to rise, putting the ease and guest-worthiness of retail solutions under growing scrutiny.
This report looks at the following areas:
Frequency of hosting at-home social gatherings with food and drink, key demographic groups and the impact of the squeeze on incomes
Types of at-home social gatherings hosted
Experience of stress among hosts and opportunities for tapping into this
How brands and supermarkets can unlock brunch as a hosting occasion
Routes for tapping into consumer desire for minimal-effort presentation ideas
Collapse All
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
What you need to know
Opportunities
‘Cook-together’ solutions can tackle hosting stress
Unlock brunch as a hosting occasion
Make it easy for hosts to elevate presentation with minimal effort
THE MARKET
Market factors
Weak consumer confidence brings pros and cons to hosting
Graph 1: financial wellbeing and confidence indices, 2019-26
Restaurant inflation adds to appeal of at-home socialising
Graph 2: RPI, percentage change over 12 months, food and restaurant meals, 2019-25
Decline in under-15s will curb at-home socialising
Graph 3: trends in the age structure of the population, 2020-30
THE CONSUMER
Britain is a nation of occasional at-home hosts
Seven in ten adults host at-home social gatherings
Not just for Christmas: substantial year-round potential in at-home socialising
Graph 4: hosting at-home social gatherings at least once a month, by age, financial situation and presence of children, 2025
Informal gatherings lead for at-home hosting
Graph 5: types of at-home social gatherings hosted, 2025
Tackle consumer stress about hosting
Low-stress solutions will resonate with hosts
Highlight foods that cook together
Help hosts manage varied cooking times
Spotlight finger food as a year-round hosting solution
Capitalise on brunch as a hosting occasion
Brunch holds potential given high interest in hosting earlier in the day
Brunch holds untapped potential for hosting
Position breakfast foods as a brunch solutions
Help hosts to elevate the looks of food and drink
Hosts seek high-impact, low-effort ways to elevate dishes
Provide consumers with guidance for how to make food/drink for hosting look good
Showcase attractive serves at point of sale
Position visually-striking ingredients as a host-friendly solution
PRODUCT INNOVATION
Canapes and ‘sharing’ leap forward in food launches
Graph 6: share of food launches of canapes and products referencing ‘sharing’, ‘party’ and ‘platter’ in the product description, 2020-25
Premium and seasonal launches gain in canapes
NPD continues to push visual impact
Food/drink aims to be a leisure activity
International cuisines remain a key trend
Launches range from curious to comfort food
APPENDIX
Report scope
The market
Population estimates
The consumer
Consumer research questions
UK generation groups
Abbreviations
Market Intelligence Made Easier With Mintel
The first Mintel Market Intelligence report was published over 50 years ago. Since then, we have provided our unique insights and understanding of consumers, innovation and global markets to thousands of customers worldwide. Here’s why our customers rely on Mintel:
Gain a comprehensive, 360-degree view of the market: Mintel reports blend consumer research, market forecasts, product innovation tracking, and competitive analysis, allowing businesses to see every angle of their industry and identify new opportunities quickly.
Make decisions with confidence, grounded in robust data: Each report draws on up-to-date, reliable information from trusted sources and industry experts, ensuring your strategies are based on solid evidence rather than speculation.
Benefit from expert analysis and practical recommendations: Mintel’s reports are written by experienced analysts who interpret complex data and provide clear, actionable insights you can trust to guide your next moves.
Stay ahead with actionable intelligence on market trends and consumer behaviour: By combining fresh research with long-term market monitoring, our reports help businesses anticipate changes and adapt strategically. So you’re prepared to make informed decisions and drive growth.
What goes into a Mintel Market Intelligence Report?
Curious about how a Market Intelligence report comes together? We like to think of it as building a detailed puzzle. We start with individual pieces: data from consumers, market statistics, industry trends, and online conversations. Then our expert analysts add world-class human insight and industry knowledge. The pieces are assembled to reveal a clear, comprehensive picture of a market.
The Four Pillars of Our Research
We use a combination of four main research methods when creating our reports, each adding a valuable perspective:
Consumer Research: Direct surveys with real people, giving us clear, current insights into what people think and do.
Desk Research: In-depth review of trusted data sources. We use this rich database, plus powerful internal tools that track new products and market sizes, to detect trends and guide forecasts.
Trade Research: Insights from conversations with industry experts. Their real-world experience helps us understand what’s happening behind the scenes.
Brand and Social Media Research: Analysis of online opinions and trends. This lets us spot trends, measure brand sentiment, and capture feedback in real time, adding further depth to our research.
Bringing It All Together
Each of these four pillars provides a different piece of the puzzle. Consumer research tells us what customers think, desk research provides the factual framework, trade research offers an insider’s view, and social media analysis reveals public sentiment.
Our expert analysts are skilled in weaving these diverse data streams together. They apply a range of quantitative and qualitative analysis techniques to uncover the deeper story, connecting the dots to deliver clear, actionable insights. This comprehensive, multi-layered process is how we transform raw data into a market intelligence report you can trust to inform your most important business decisions.
£ 2,195(Excl.Tax)
Download today with instant access
Pay via credit card or invoice (net 30 payment terms)
Multiple formats provided
We send a PDF, Powerpoint and Excel Databook straight to your inbox. An interactive version of the report is also available on our online platform
Interactive databook included
Focus on the data that matters most to you with a customisable databook avaliable on our platform
UK consumer spending grew by an estimated 4.6% in 2025, to £1.9 trillion. Growth remains predominantly driven by inflation, and consumers continue to take a cautious approach to...
In-person and online casino participation remains a low priority for UK adults compared to other out-of-home or at-home leisure activities. Ongoing legislative reforms, like increased gaming machine allowances...
World cuisine holds untapped potential in the breakfast space, two in three under-35s breakfast eaters drawn to ideas for putting such twists on this meal. While this poses...
The formula milk segment is liable to disruption through price competition not only in the short term, but even once real income growth improves. Even among people with...
Highlighting products' health benefits is crucial. Out-of-home occasions hold untapped potential.
Alice Baker, Food and Drink Analyst
Market Definitions
This Report includes products manufactured specifically for babies and infants aged primarily...
Consumer acceptance of even unappealing flavours – when soft drinks deliver sufficiently compelling nutritional benefits – challenges the "taste is king" paradigm. As a result, NPD that deprioritises...
We’ve found it so useful working more closely with Mintel. They helped support our recent flagship event for our top suppliers by providing a really unique viewpoint on the future of online retailing.
Nick Carroll from their Retail Team was also an excellent panelist, sharing useful and actionable consumer insights. We definitely look forward to working with Mintel again on future projects.
Zac Steele, E-Commerce Trading Development Manager, Waitrose & Partners
There is no question that Mintel is the go-to resource for the best quality market research, but I did not think it was an affordable option for Abacus Marketing to consider. As a small marketing agency, we only work with a few new clients each year.
However, we have a very high-end consultative approach to our work, so we really do need a partner like Mintel to provide the big agency experience we are always aiming to deliver. Our clients come from an incredibly diverse range of industry sectors, so we obviously need access to market research reports from a very wide spectrum of marketplaces – and that is precisely what we got.
Stephen Taylor-Brown, Managing Director, Abacus
Mintel is really good for getting a handle on a particular category quickly. If we are working on a new business pitch in an area we don’t have much experience in, it’s a brilliant way to get up to speed with what’s going on, what’s changing and what the key trends are in any category.
It’s very rare now that anyone will plough through a 200-page report – that’s why the summaries are really useful. We know they are backed up by a lot of detail, so if you need to go into something in more depth you know the information will be all there for you.
Pauline Robson, Managing Partner, Mediacom
We use Mintel to inform our thinking and reinforce strategy. If you’re presenting new ideas, it’s essential they are underpinned by robust data and evidence, and clearly rooted in fact.
Mintel gives us all that. It’s a great brand and one that is trusted by clients.
Marie Stafford, European Director, The Innovation Group, VML
We use Mintel Reports, mostly for financial services and ecommerce markets, plus a few retail and technology ones.
As a leading payments provider, we value additional insights into consumer behaviour, opinions and trends that are shaping the many different markets we operate in. Mintel is a very good and very quick way for us to obtain those insights.
We use Mintel to get a view on where a particular market is going, which can support us in product development and help us identify opportunities or indeed risks, it is a very useful barometer of a market’s potential.
Andrew Neeson, Market Intelligence Manager, VocaLink
Next Starts Here
Whatever your business needs, we have the solution. From market intelligence reports to customised growth strategies.