British bangers: From simple sausage to posh nosh

A new report from MINTEL finds the great British banger is back in vogue, but this time the simple sausage has gone all posh. This year Britain will chomp through an estimated 189,000 tonnes of these meaty morsels, a hearty 17% increase since 2000. This means that the average British adult is likely to pig out on a staggering 4kg of sausages or the equivalent of over 140 chipolatas this year alone. But it is the impressive 23% increase in market value over the same five year period that points to the rise and rise of the premium porker, with 2005 value sales forecast to reach over half a billion (£530 million). ” Although not an obvious food to have benefited from an increasingly prosperous UK population, sausages have seen a notable shift towards more premium positioning. Indeed, manufacturers today are reinventing sausages as posh nosh with quality-led production, after the association with mechanically recovered meat and cheap fillers tarnished the perception of this humble British staple, ” comments David Bird, consumer analyst at MINTEL.