Young diners can't eat spaghetti, says Tesco

by Nick Vagnoni, Posted Apr 28th 2006 @ 6:04PM

Sales of long pasta like spaghetti and linguini are down at Tesco, the UK's top grocery chain. The decline in popularity comes from young diners opting for shorter pasta because they can't eat the long strands without getting sauce all over themselves, Tesco says. Not surprisingly, demand for short pasta like penne and has gone up. "Unfortunately some younger British diners appear to lack the same culinary skills that their parents have which is why we've had to tailor our new range accordingly," a Tesco spokesperson told Food Business Review.

Filed Under: Business, Trends, Stores & Shopping, Ingredients
Tags: british, british isles, condiments, diners, europe, long, mess, messy, pasta, penne, prefer, sales, sauce, shorter, spaghetti, stores-and-shopping, strands, tesco, uk

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Reader comments (Page 1 of 1)

4-28-2006 @7:07PM B said... I used to buy only short pasta when I had a small kitchen and no pot big enough for spagetti.
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4-28-2006 @7:19PM Tiffany said... True....I buy the mini penne for my 5yearold which is perfect - I don't have to cut it for him
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4-29-2006 @1:11AM yi said... then try to learn how to use chopsticks to eat spagetti
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4-29-2006 @10:54AM cb said... I'm 34, and I still get spaghetti all over myself. That's what black shirts are for.
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4-29-2006 @12:45PM FJK said... We used to just cut the longer pasta up for our kids once they were pass the finger food stage.

Have we become so time obessed that this is too inconvenient for parents?

Perhaps the decline in spaghetti sales has more to do with the growing knowledge of what kind of sauce goes with what kind of pasta and Britons are choosing shapes that better go with those type of sauces.

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4-30-2006 @2:27PM Markoff said... heh, very good idea to make shorter pasta, thanks for idea breaking it to half size :-)

[4] cb - btw. when we are talking about spaghetti all over myself (it's my case too :-)), you don't need black shirt, just buy black spaghetti :-) I have seen it in Tesco for 4USD (racio food dept.), normal spaghetti is here for 0.3-1USD so it's "little" more expensive and it looks very strange black spaghetti
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10-31-2007 @8:05PM Linda said... Hey, Has anyone heard of twirling it on the fork and using a tablespoon to hold it on the end. No more splash.
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10-25-2007 @2:44PM James said... I still love spaghetti as I did when I was not old enough to remember, my mother said when I was in my highchair & I got finished that I was covered in it so I guess it's a kid thing. Now I eat all kinds os pasta.
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