Ireland's favourite foods

Irish shopping trollies have been piled high with home-grown products as several national brands rose in popularity last year.

Checkout magazine have compiled a list of the 100 most popular food brands in Ireland over the last twelve months. More than 6,500 different brands across 200 product classes were included in the survey.

Top 20 food brands bought in Ireland
1. Coca-Cola (soft drink)
2. Avonmore (milk and dairy)
3. Brennans (bread)
4. Cadbury Dairy Milk (chocolate)
5. Tayto (crisps)
6. Lucozade (sports drink)
7. 7UP (soft drink)
8. Walkers (crisp)
9. Jacob’s (crackers)
10. Pampers (nappies)
11. Wrigley’s Extra (chewing gum)
12. Danone (nutrition and medicine)
13. Irish Pride (bread)
14. Yoplait (yoghurt)
15. Club (soft drink)
16. Dairygold (butter)
17. Pat The Baker (bread)
18. Denny (meat)
19. Müller (yoghurt)
20. Nescafé (coffee)

Unsurprisingly, American soft drink giant Coca Cola topped the list for the tenth year in a row.

Second and third were taken by Irish companies Avonmore (dairy) and Brennan’s (bread) respectively, maintaining their firm grasp of the staple food markets.

What is encouraging for Ireland is the number of home-grown brands that have made positive moves up the rankings. Irish crisp brand Tayto came fifth on the list, three places ahead of their English rivals Walkers.

Pat The Baker has risen from 25th to 17th, Ballygowan Mineral Water is up nine places to 31st, and Glenisk Organic Yoghurts has risen six places to 33rd.
Flahavan’s is now the most popular breakfast cereal brand in Ireland, and Clonakilty Black Pudding is up 11 places to 87th.

An eleven place rise saw Cully & Sully, who make healthy meals, become the 80th most popular food brand in Ireland. Despite being American-owned since 2012, they still have their production units in Cork.

It is promising news for Ireland, with money spent on Irish products generally being fed back into the economy.

However, the list does suggest a worrying trend of the nation’s love for junk food. Three soft drinks companies were named inside the top ten brands bought. That top ten also included two crisps companies and Cadbury’s chocolate.

Confectionery is the biggest selling category of product, with milk and bread next, and soft drinks and biscuits completing the top five.

At least the Irish chew gum once they have snacked, with Wrigley’s Extra their eleventh favourite brand.

As for the alcohol market, both Guinness and Jameson’s are being beaten by their overseas competitors. Dutch brewers Heineken came top of the Lager and Draft category, and Smirnoff topped the spirits list. Blossom Hill was the country’s favourite wine and Silk Cut the favourite cigarettes.

Ireland’s favourite food and drink

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