The nation’s most hated dining habits revealed
We like to think our table manners have come a long way since our mum told us off for licking food off our knife, but turns out we still have some pretty unsavoury dinner habits.
A survey of 1000 Brits, conducted by Tap Warehouse, has revealed the unpleasant over-dinner habits people find really offensive.
Turns out speaking while eating is the most hateful dinner faux-pas, with 46% agreeing this is a horrible trait. Ditto talking with your mouth full.
While most of us endured countless childhood telling-offs for speaking with a full mouth of food, it seems some are still guilty of doing this at the dinner table.
Interestingly the age group that found this habit the most offensive were the over 45s age group, with millennials and Gen Zs not finding talking with your mouth full as offensive as their older counterparts and suggesting that younger generations have more tolerance over bad table manners in this case.
From smacking your lips to crunching over zealously, 36% of Brits agree that eating loudly is a rude move making the cringe inducing habit number two on the must-not do list.
Contrary to more than a third finding this habit offensive, searches for food ASMR have risen in popularity in recent years and actually peaked in 2020, so it seems that some people actually enjoy watching people eat loudly! Each to their own and all that.
Is there anything worse than sitting down opposite someone to enjoy a nice meal, only to spot them licking their fingers. Unforgivable. Just don't do it.
It seems we're not the only one to want this unsavoury habit taken off the dinner table, with over a fifth (22%) agreeing it is thoroughly unnecessary.
This can be a difficult habit to conquer as some meals require you to eat with your fingers, think: pizza, seafood, nachos etc. However, the solution to this is easy - use a napkin or take a trip to the bathroom to wash your hands, particularly in these coronavirus laced times.
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You know the rules, thou shalt wait until everyone has received their food before tucking in themselves, but seems some people just can't wait to take a bite of their burger.
A fifth (21%) of the people surveyed agreed that eating before all parties have their plates is rude table etiquette. At the very least you need to wait until you're given the go ahead by the still-waiting diner telling you to "eat up before it gets cold". Even then they probably don't mean it.
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Next in the roll call of bad habits is double dipping. We're not quite sure how this didn't top the list as this has to be the most vile of communal eating wrongs. No we really don't want your saliva in our dip thank you very much.
As it stands, only 17% of people deemed double dipping as negative dining habit. Do these people not know we're still in a pandemic?
Another one from your mum's school of bad habits is leaving your elbows on the table while eating, with only 16% of Brits voting for this option.
Consensus of opinion seems to be that this not-so-terrible trait is a little outdated, with a lot of people questioning why exactly are elbows on the table is seen as poor manners.
We'd take that over double dipping any day!
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Commenting on the findings Polly Shearer, kitchen expert at Tap Warehouse said: "I'm sure we're all guilty of carrying out at least one of these table manners, but results show that not everybody finds bad table etiquette off-putting, and some of these seem a little out-dated in this day and age.
"Results show that eating loudly and talking whilst eating came out at the top of Brits' least favourable manners, so if you're looking to brush up on your table etiquette, correcting these two manners is a definite place to start!"
