Looking at Ireland as a whole, RoI parents are more likely than NI parents to promote healthy eating amongst their children, with for example, seven in 10 RoI parents encouraging their children to snack on fresh fruit and vegetables, compared to 63% of NI parents.

Scratch cooking is also more customary amongst RoI consumers, with the majority of parents (57%) going out of their way to make healthy dinners for their children compared to 44% of NI parents. In addition to this, RoI parents are also more likely to make a packed lunch for their children (54%) compared to NI parents (35%). The increased engagement with home cooking which allows parents to control the content of meals is likely to be a contributory factor to the lower overall childhood overweight/obesity rate in RoI compared with NI.

Indicating a desire for change in Irish restaurants, the majority of RoI parents think that children’s menus need greater variety and more healthy options. If restaurants make appropriate adjustments they may reap the benefits of Irish families dining out of the home more frequently.

• What impact are rising overweight and obesity levels having on parents’ attitudes towards their children’s eating habits? – With a quarter of RoI and three in 10 NI children considered to be overweight or obese, what are parents doing to minimise the risk of childhood obesity in their home?

• What can the foodservice industry do to appeal to parents and children when dining outside of the home? – What steps can the Irish foodservice industry take to encourage families to dine outside of the home more frequently?

• What influence do children have on grocery shopping? – Are Irish parents being influenced by their children when grocery shopping and what effect are they having on buying behaviour?

• What are the key innovations in the children’s food and drink market and what opportunities exist for NPD? – How are companies innovating for the children’s market and what opportunities are there for brands to drive growth in the market?

This report looks at the eating habits of children aged under 18 only – and does not count those aged over 18 but still living at home with their parents. Thus all consumer data within this report relates to parents of under-18s only.

For the purposes of this report, children’s eating habits have been examined in regard to three main areas:

• children’s eating habits in the home

• children’s eating habits outside of the home

• children’s influence on grocery shopping.

It is not feasible to accurately quantify the market for this report given that it focuses on consumer attitudes and encompasses such a variety of issues. Thus no market sizing data are included.

Please refer to the other Mintel reports of relevance which are listed below:

• Grocery Retailing – Ireland, December 2013

• Irish Lifestyles – Ireland, September 2013

• Attitudes To Food – Ireland, August 2013

• Foodservice – Ireland, July 2013

• Marketing to Young Families – Ireland, December 2012

• Consumer Attitudes Towards Cooking in the Home – UK, February 2014.

For the purposes of this report, Mintel commissioned exclusive online consumer research into Irish children’s eating habits. The research was carried out by Toluna on behalf of Mintel in January 2014.

A total of 463 RoI and 321 NI internet users who are parents aged 16+ were asked questions regarding their child(ren)’s eating habits:

“Thinking about your child(ren)’s eating habits in terms of food prepared at home (including packed lunches and snacks), which of the following statements do you agree with?”

“Still thinking about your child(ren)’s eating habits, which of the following statements relating to eating outside of the home do you agree with?”

“Still thinking about your child(ren), which of the following statements relating to children and grocery shopping do you agree with?”

In compiling this report, Mintel has gathered data from separate NI and RoI sources (eg NISRA and CSO). In some cases therefore it has not been possible to provide comparable data for each region.

For the purposes of this report:

• Ireland refers to the island of Ireland

• NI refers to Northern Ireland

• RoI refers to the Republic of Ireland.

Therefore, ‘Irish consumers’ refers to both NI and RoI consumers.