Mintel last looked at this area in its report, Children’s Packed Lunches, Market Intelligence, December 2002. According to National Statistics, in 2004 there are 9 million children of school age in the UK, and given the average school year of 190 days, this means that the potential market for packed lunches can be estimated at around 1.7 billion lunch occasions. This therefore represents a substantial target market.

In today’s environment of name and shame when it comes to childhood obesity, particularly government versus the food industry, Mintel examines the parent and child perspective. In this report, Mintel looks at some of the markets and products relevant to children’s packed lunches, and has commissioned exclusive consumer research to throw further light on the role of the decision maker when it comes to packed lunches and snacking. It considers the hypothesis: "Everybody agrees that healthy eating for children is desirable … but can it ever be achieved?"

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