Despite the vast array of creative chips flavors out there, it’s plain old ready salted that Brits prefer above all others, a new report from AHDB writes.

New research carried out by the industry body reveals ready salted as the nation’s most popular, with a quarter of volume and spend sales going on salted varieties.

Runners up include meat and cheese flavors 18% and 16% in volume sales, followed by salt and vinegar (9%), chili (4%) and prawn (2%).

According to Mintel, crisps are Britain’s favorite savory snack, with seven in ten respondents admitting their addictive quality and claiming they provoke feelings of nostalgia. According to Kantar, 93% of households buy the snack, with sales reaching GBP950m last year.

Chips feature third in the overall snack rankings, with consumers saying they buy more chocolate and fruit in comparison. Within the crisp category, potatoes take the lead with 87% of consumers heaving eaten them in the last 3 months, followed by biscuit types at 49%, according to Mintel research.

The latest research also shows promotions prove invaluable within the chips sector, with a third of all sales coming from that area. However, according to NPD Crest, sales from meal deals have decreased slightly since 2018 with consumers turning to alternatives such as popcorn.

“Despite new flavors making up a quarter of all crisp flavors, they only account for 2.5% of volume sales. 70% of Brits still enjoy the same flavors as they did as a child. For new products it appears consumers are enticed by form – not flavor,” said Grace Randall, Consumer Insight analyst and author of the report. “Innovation within the industry means consumers now have a wide range of new products to choose from such as popcorn, pea and lentil chips, and rice cakes. This has led to potato chips losing volume sales, 5% over the last year according to Kantar,” she adds.

Randall concludes that even so, traditional potato chips dominate the sector due to consumer’s love for them. 70% of Brits consider them comfort food, a fact evident in the 22% rise in ‘sharing” bag volumes sales over the past 5 years.