The sweets people take on holiday

Sweets and travel go together. A tin in the car, a sweet for take off, a bag of rock from the seaside: here is how sweets became part of the British holiday, and what the rules say today.

Travel sweets in the glovebox

In 1921 Albert Leslie Simpkin, who had been badly wounded in the First World War, set up a sweet company in Sheffield. He had been given liquid glucose to help him recover from his wounds, and he decided to make glucose travel sweets, at a time when a tin of sweets was seen as an important thing to keep in the glovebox of a car. He sold them through chemists, and within two years his Orange Barley Sticks were said to be in 90% of pharmacies in the UK.

Because the sweets had a high fruit juice content, they went sticky if damp got to them, so Simpkin switched from jars to airtight tins. In the 1950s a fully airtight tin with no seams arrived, keeping the sweets fresh for years. Simpkins also supplied glucose sweets to RAF air crew on high altitude missions in the Second World War, and to the 1953 British Everest expedition: see the sweet that went up Everest

A sweet for your ears

There is a good reason to suck a sweet on a plane. As the air pressure changes during a flight, it can leave the pressure on either side of the eardrum unequal. NHS Devon explains that chewing gum or eating a sweet changes the pressure in the mouth and moves the muscles that open the Eustachian tube, which can help. Hard sweets are not suitable for young children, because of the risk of choking: see hard sweets and young children

Through airport security

The liquids rule is worth knowing before you pack sweets. At UK airports, liquids include drinks, gels, and liquid or semi liquid foods such as soup, jam, honey and syrups. At most airports these must be in containers of 100 ml or less, in a single transparent resealable bag of up to a litre, although some airports allow containers of up to 2 litres. GOV.UK also warns that food items and powders in hand luggage can obstruct x ray images, so your bag may need to be checked again by hand.

Bringing sweets home

Holidays are a chance to find sweets you cannot buy at home, from Swedish pick and mix to Japan's unusual Kit Kats: see strange sweet flavours from around the world. When you bring food into Great Britain from abroad, GOV.UK lists chocolate and confectionery among the foods you can bring, but not those made with a lot of unprocessed dairy ingredients.

The seaside souvenir

Seaside rock, with the resort's name running all the way through it, is sold as a souvenir in British seaside towns: see where does seaside rock come from?

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