My grandmother would spoil me rotten.

Sleepovers at her house were about as decadent as things could get for an eight-year-old: all the telly I could watch, all the chocolate I could eat, and all the Top Deck I could drink. (Back in the 70s, eight-year-olds would neck 0.2% abv Top Deck shandy and pretend it was the Skol or Harp their dads drank.)

But the best thing about the sleepovers – even better than being allowed to stay up late and watch The Professionals – were the breakfasts. Served in bed, these comprised bacon, sausages, in fact pretty much every food it was possible to fry, and were invariably accompanied by a glass of R Whites lemonade.

But even my nan – who would have sent many of today’s anti-obesity campaigners away with a flea in the ear - would be shocked by the news I received this morning.

Brits are apparently eating more burgers than ever for breakfast - and the trend is growing.

Research by analysts NPD has revealed that each year about 100 million burgers eaten in the food service channel are devoured before 11am. To put it another way, that’s 8.6% of Britain’s out-of-home burgers eaten by mid-morning – up from 6.2% five years ago.

One of my wide-eyed and innocent colleagues suggested that, surely, people weren’t actually eating burgers for breakfast but were having them as a mid-morning snack - having consumed something far more suitable earlier in the day. It’s a nice theory but doesn’t stand up, as NPD tells me burger consumption is spread fairly evenly over the hours between 5am and 11am. Even factoring in clubbers popping into a greasy spoon for a post-club snack (more supper than breakfast for them), there are a lot of burgers being eaten for breakfast.

And in more news likely to make a Daily Mail headline tomorrow, kids are helping to drive the trend. Five years ago, groups of consumers with kids accounted for 33% of breakfast burger consumption and unaccompanied adults 67% – today unaccompanied adults eat 59% of the pre-11am burgers, and groups with kids now account for 41%.

Britain’s grocery players are no strangers to adopting and shaping breakfast trends – as shown by the explosion of on-the-go products. Breakfast drinks, for example, are set to become even bigger business as Weetabix this week launches a £5m marketing push for its recently launched On The Go drinks. And let’s not forget breakfast biscuits, a market now worth more than £90m.

But is the breakfast burger trend having any impact on the nation’s supermarkets?

Not as yet, according to Ruth Entwistle, brand manager at fast-growing microwave snacks brand Taste Inc. “In a recent focus group we found that only 2% of our customers would eat a burger for breakfast, and 4% as a morning snack,” she said. And rival supplier Kepak said it had no evidence of its Rustlers products being eaten more at breakfast, although marketing director John Armstrong added that he wouldn’t be surprised if it were the case as consumers were demanding convenient products for all meal occasions. “Burgers aren’t a traditional breakfast choice, but weekends tend to be different as rules are more relaxed and something tasty and filling hits the spot after a night out,” he added.

So it seems unlikely chilled food category directors will need to make room on fixture for breakfast burgers anytime soon. And, if the NPD findings on trends in foodservice carry over to retail, they can also be comforted that Brits still have an appetite for the old favourites.

“Burgers are clearly growing in popularity, but the breakfast classics – servings of good old-fashioned bacon sandwiches, eggs, sausage and baked beans – are unlikely to be toppled anytime soon,” said NPD UK foodservice account manager Jack MacIntyre.

My nan would have been delighted to hear that.

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