Beans means Benidorm ... or Brum

Britons may like travelling abroad - but they prefer to eat as if they were at home, especially at breakfast time, according to a survey published yesterday.

Faced with continental croissants and coffee, Britons abroad make sure they have all the ingredients for a good old traditional fry-up, including sausages, bacon and brown sauce.

A survey of more than 1,000 adults for credit card company Visa showed that Britons are stick-in-the-muds when it comes to foreign food. Two- thirds of tourists take some food abroad, although the Scots are the most restrained, with 43 per cent arriving at their destinations empty-handed.

Top of the edible exports British holidaymakers take with them are tea- bags. Almost 40 per cent of Geordies take sausages, while a third of Brummies take a tin of baked beans.

Although tea bags are universal favourites, regional variations show that just 1 per cent of Scots pack a jar of Marmite, compared to 25 per cent of travellers from the West Country.

Other home-grown favourites taken abroad include cornflakes (packed by 27 per cent of people), brown sauce or tomato ketchup