Peanut butter is set to overtake jam as Britain's favourite breakfast spread after a backlash against sugary foods, figures show.

Sales of the nut-based spread were up by nearly a fifth last year and are set to break through the £100 million barrier in 2018, thanks to the introduction of new "healthy" upmarket versions.

However its popularity appears to be helping push traditional jam off the breakfast table, supermarket data collected by Kantar Worldpanel shows.

Jam, which typically contains around 10g of sugar per tablespoon, was the only spread which saw sales dip last year, according to the latest industry stats, falling by 2.9 per cent to £106 million in 2017.

Sweet spreads are being targeted by Public Health England's sugar reduction plan which is aiming to reduce the amount of sugar in the foods that contribute most to children’s intakes by 20 per cent by 2020.