MaltaToday Survey | The humble pastizz is losing fans and less people are eating the savoury Maltese snack

A MaltaToday survey on consumption patterns shows that more than a third of Maltese (37%) may have given up on eating one of Malta’s favourite fast foods – the humble, yet tasty, flaky pastizz.

Indeed only 9% of those surveyed confessed to eating the famous cheese or pea cakes once a week or more.

But interestingly the survey showed that class, sex and age have a great impact on consumption patterns.

While 11% of males are found to eat pastizzi more than once a week, only 6% of females do likewise.

And while only 3% said they eat pastizzi every day, the percentage rose to 11% among unskilled workers and those living on benefits (DEs).  

When it comes to age, 10% of over 55-year olds eat pastizzi more than once a week, while only 5.7% of under-35 year olds do likewise.

The survey also suggests that women, younger people and more affluent respondents grew more likely to give up on Malta’s national fast food.

For instance, 40% of women and 53% of managers and professionals (AB) say that they never eat pastizzi. And only 3% of AB’s eat pastizzi more than once a week, compared to 24% of DE’s. 

This suggests that this particular cheap fast food remains a staple for working class males. Which may well be a question of affordability or greater health awareness and concern about diet among women and more educated respondents.

However, the survey indicates that a large section of the population still eats pastizzi occasionally: 16% eating them between once a week and once a fortnight, 9% between once a fortnight and once a month and 29% eating them less than once a month but more than once a year.

Various pastizzi retailers had told MaltaToday back in August that the savoury cheesecake remains favoured at practically any time of the day.

And although a number of the major franchises decided to keep their average number of sold goods a guarded secret, Jeff’s Pastizzeria – which has three different stores – and Sphinx, with an impressive 20 outlets, respectively said they sold 240 and 4,800 pastizzi each day.

Methodology 

The survey was held between Monday 22 August and Thursday 26 August. A total of 501 people were contacted. The survey was stopped when a 400 quota sample was reached.

Respondents were randomly selected from telephone directories. The results were weighed to reflect the age and gender balance of the population. The survey has a margin of error +/-4.9 percentage points.