The Dutch love bread. No less than 85% eat bread every day, especially on weekdays. Bread is seen by the Dutch as nutritious (63%), tasty (62%), healthy (57%) and responsible (37%). Bread is more often on the menu at lunch (88%) than at breakfast (77%), because women in particular are more likely to opt for breakfast cereals and fruit in the morning. The over-55s are the biggest bread lovers or creatures of habit:no less than 90% eat a few sandwiches every day. This is 78% among young people. This is apparent from research by Koninklijke De Ruijter into the bread habits of the Dutch.
Despite the fact that bread is still popular, the sandwich meal in the Netherlands does not receive much attention. During the week people spend a maximum of fifteen minutes on breakfast. Moreover, spreading the sandwich is done by more than half of the Dutch without thinking about it. The same applies to eating the sandwich:for more than half (53%) this is routine. 14% of the respondents even say that eating the sandwich is boring.
That's not surprising:we don't really do our best to make something special out of our sandwich. Half of the Dutch people almost always use the same (set of) sandwich fillings. 42% use two different types of toppings by default. Only 10% varies with more than three types of toppings. And that while variation ensures that we like and continue to enjoy our food. People over 55 vary the most with their spreads, young people the least:variation clearly comes with age. When children come into play, they inspire their parents to be more creative with the sandwich meal. After all, you don't want to serve your child the same thing every day. In 45% of the families, the presence of children therefore results in a wider range of spreads in the kitchen cupboard.