Just Eat sees rapid growth in breakfast and dessert delivery

Just Eat has said breakfast and desserts are its fastest growing categories in the UK, but stressed that pizza still remains the most popular takeaway.

In a follow­-up to its full-­year results yesterday, Just Eat revealed that it had processed a total of 88.1m UK orders last year and that the UK’s food delivery market grew to more than £6bn for the first time in 2016.

Just Eat analysis of orders showed the most expensive single item ordered last year was Qauo – a Middle Eastern dish consisting of a whole steamed lamb – which came in at £250.

While pizza was the most requested dish, Chinese and Indian meals also remain popular, at second and third place respectively, with Chicken Chow Mein the country's favourite Chinese dish, and Chicken Korma the most­ popular Indian.

“Brits embraced online food delivery in 2016, ordering a greater breadth of cuisines and on more occasions throughout the week," says Graham Corfield, UK managing director at Just Eat.

"Technology developments have made food discovery more exciting. In 2016, we delivered the world’s first takeaway by a self­-driving robot and Just Eat became the first five star rated iOS food delivery app."

He added that the company would continue to 'push boundaries' in 2017 through collaborations on social media, and by using gaming and virtual reality.

Just Eat delivered an average of 3,000 orders per restaurant signed up to its platform in 2016. The service kicked off New Year's Day with a record breaking volume of requests which saw 40 orders a second at peak times.