The market for ‘on the go’ sandwiches in Britain is worth £2.8bn, according to research from TNS Worldpanel.

The agency’s research looked at the price of sandwiches bought and consumed outside the home as well as the numbers sold. However, the research did not include sandwiches brought into the home.

Last year, 1.69 billion sandwiches were bought ‘on the go’ at an average price of £1.66.

TNS Worldpanel’s Impulse Food on the Go service generated the measurement for 52 weeks up to 26 March 2006.

It had a sample of 5,000 British respondents using text messaging and CATI methodologies.

The agency claims the panel is the first in the UK to use text messaging combined with traditional techniques to gain precise measurements of sandwiches and savouries, soft drinks, confectionery, snacks and nuts, and crisps.

Panellists were asked to text the bar codes of their snacks as it was an effective means to accurately track purchases in real-time.

The agency claims previous market measures of sandwiches were only based on an estimated average price.

“The out of home snacking market is notoriously difficult to measure accurately, as people tend to buy on impulse and can forget the details of their purchases,” said Tim Nancholas, strategic insight director of TNS Worldpanel.

“The innovative text message reporting measure has provided us with a significantly more accurate view of this market and enabled us to show far more precise sandwich sales than previously achieved by the industry.