Mid-morning and afternoon snacks characterise Generations Y and Z

This article is available for reading in Trade magazin 2025/10.

In contrast, only 64% of the Hungarian population aged 18-69 years eat three or more times on an average day, according to Impetus Research’s representative éTREND 2025 survey. Only 18% of the population eats 4 or 5 times a day. 27% of Hungarians stated that lunch is their first meal, meaning that they generally don’t have breakfast or a mid-morning snack. Hungarians think in terms of the usual breakfast-lunch-dinner trinity in their daily lives. On an average day 67% of adult Hungarians eat breakfast. Lunch and dinner are “sacred” for the majority of people, with 87% and 83% having them. Only 21% of Hungarians regularly eat an afternoon snack.

Those who belong to the baby boomer generation (people born between 1943 and 1964) prefer to eat three meals a day. In contrast, the two youngest generations, Generation Y (born between 1981 and 1996) and Generation Z (born between 1997 and 2010) are more likely to eat 4-5 times a day. Hot, cooked meals are more popular among young people for breakfast and dinner. The proportion of those who prefer a cooked dinner is 54% among Generation X, while 63% of the members of Generations Y and Z very often eat hot food for dinner.

“Frequent, high-quality meals help to prevent many diseases. It is really good news that the proportion of people who eat small meals between main meals is higher among members of Generations Y and Z, so a change has begun among young people”, commented Péter Schauermann on the data. 

Since 2019 Impetus Research has been studying Hungarian consumption habits and its changes, with questionnaire surveys and the analysis of other market data. For more information, visit www.impetusresearch.hu or contact us at peter.schauermann@impetusresearch.hu.