Brits pass of bought food as their own

Ever served guests a shop or restaurant bought meal and taken the credit? Join the club, with a report finding more than half of consumers have passed off ready-made food as their own cooking.

A survey found up to 56 percent of Britons admitted to pretending they had prepared ready-made supermarket meals and takeaways, and even claimed some cooking sauces as their own, according to international food and grocery experts IGD.

Nearly one in five of 1,019 respondents admitted to concealing the origin of a ready-to-cook supermarket meal, one in 10 had served takeaway or restaurant food to guests, and almost three in 10 presented a cooking sauce as their own.

"The report shows that dinner guests can no longer be sure whether they are eating their hosts' cooking or something from a store or restaurant," said report author Michael Freedman, a senior consumer analyst at IGD. "As the interest in fine food increases in Britain, we seem increasingly prepared to take the credit for others' culinary expertise."

Regionally, Scots were most likely to pass off someone else's food as their own at 63 percent, compared to 55 percent of Londoners and 52 percent of the Welsh.

The report, "Learning from the Restaurateurs," found the number of consumers eating out at least once a week has doubled in three years.

Nearly a third of respondents in the telephone survey by pollster Ipsos Mori on behalf of IGD said they ate out once a week or more, compared to 13 percent in 2003.

Forty-four percent of Londoners eat out once a week or more, compared with just 20 percent in Scotland. The report also found that the growing number of singletons are eating out more often, with 45 percent of single people dining out once a week or more.

"Economic prosperity; the rise in the number of affluent singletons and empty nesters; and greater interest in food taste and health had all contributed to a rise in eating out," Freedman said.

IGD is an international food and grocery expert providing research for the retail and manufacturing sector.