Fruit is a favourite snack in the UK

Fruit is increasingly becoming the snack of choice, instead of unhealthy alternatives such as sweets and chocolate.

A new study by market researcher Mintel finds three in four people say they prefer healthy food to snack on. Although chocolate is still the number one selling snack in the UK, with annual sales of £3.2 billion since 1998, fresh fruit is fast catching up. Of those polled in the survey, half said they had snacked on fruit in the previous month and a similar proportion on the sticky brown stuff.

Sales of nuts and dried fruit have also increased, by one fifth, between 1997 and 2001.