Crunchy Nut corn flakes voted Britain's favourite breakfast cereal with 35 per cent still championing the classic brand after nearly half a century

Their high sugar content may not win them any prizes for health but that hasn't stopped Crunchy Nut corn flakes being voted Britain's favourite cereal.

The breakfast staple – which adds honey, molasses and peanuts to regular corn flakes – was created at the Kellogg's factory in Trafford Park, Manchester, in 1980.

They were an immediate hit with consumers, with sales in the first three months three times higher than expected.

Forty-four years on they have topped a poll of our best-loved cereals, with 35 per cent of 2,000 shoppers placing them first when they were asked to list their breakfast time favourites.

In second place on 28 per cent came the original Corn Flakes, invented in the late 1800s in the US by William Kellogg.

Approximately 66million boxes are produced in this country each year. In third place was Coco Pops, with Weetabix and Frosties completing the top five.

Among older consumers, Shreddies, Cheerios and Ready brek remained popular.

The poll, conducted by research agency Perspectus Global, also revealed that the days of eating cereal just at the breakfast table are over, as many of us favour it as a night-time snack – more than a third (37 per cent) of those surveyed said it was one of the best things to eat late at night.

The research found the majority prefer their milk semi-skimmed (53 per cent). But 15 per cent of Gen Z and millennials aged 18-44 are now adding oat or plant-based milk instead.

The original corn flakes were developed by William Kellogg with his brother John when they worked at the Battle Creek Sanitarium in Michigan,

It was the premier health and wellness resort in the US, and the brothers wanted to improve the vegetarian-based diet of the residents and visitors. 

Many of them asked for the toasted flakes to be sent to them after they had returned home, and so the Kelloggs business was formed.

Crunchy Nut came along a century later. Early adverts in the 1980s featured a then little known Hugh Laurie and introduced the famous tagline: 'The trouble is they taste too good.'

The long-running adverts would have the same theme of someone, often a hotel guest, being unable to restrict themselves to just one bowl, and finding a way to carry on eating more.