New Irish research into the eating habits of British consumers who eat €1 billion worth of Irish convenience foods annually, has found that nearly half of them are "snackers".

It found that, for 48 per cent of British consumers, snack and convenience foods played a dominant role and this demand offered a substantial market opportunity for Irish food manufacturers in a market worth €20 billion overall.

Using a sophisticated consumer research method, called the Food Related Lifestyle Instrument, researchers at the Teagasc National Food Centre and University College Cork have segmented British consumers into six groups.

According to Mr Cathal Cowan, of the Teagasc National Food Centre and leader of the research team, the most rapidly growing group of food consumers in Britain are now classified as "snackers".

Accounting for one in five of British consumers, they were interested predominantly in convenience foods, which offer quick and easy meal solutions, he said.

The research team also identified two other British consumer categories with limited interest in food. They were described as the "careless" and "uninvolved" consumers.

"The careless group have least interest in shopping, whereas those in the uninvolved group have minimal interest in cooking," said Mr Cowan.

Together with the emerging snackers, these groups now accounted for 48 per cent of British consumers.

"All three groups have higher proportions of people in the lower socio-economic groups," he said.

The research team classified the balance of consumers into "rational", "adventurous" and "conservative". The rational group, who accounted for 26 per cent of British consumers, were particularly interested in quality foods and were largely middle- aged to elderly.

The adventurous group, accounting for 17 per cent of consumers, had the greatest interest in new food products and were more likely to shop in specialist stores.

In contrast, the conservative group, accounting for just 9 per cent of consumers, were traditional in food tastes and had little interest in convenience foods or new food products.

The results of the research have been communicated to Irish food companies who produced €2.6 billion worth of convenience foods last year, in order to help them gear their product development, marketing and advertising strategies.