Sales dropped by 4.4 per cent to £53.9 million in the year to November 2006, according to the market analysts TNS. About 441,000 households stopped buying marmalade during that period. By contrast sales of honey rose by 5.7 per cent to £66.9 million and jam by 1.4 per cent to £88.3 million.

Spending on organic jams was up 25 per cent on the previous year, the TNS figures show.

Marmalade is popular with older consumers, with 81 per cent eaten by the over-45s, according to the data compiled for The Grocer magazine.

But the trade magazine said that children seemed to find the taste of marmalade too strong. “Marmalade is suffering from an image crisis that manufacturers have failed to address,” it said.

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