Netflix & Spill: Experiment Ranks The Messiest Snacks To Eat In Bed

Is there anything better than binging on Netflix in bed, whilst enjoying your favourite snacks on a cold winter's evening? It's the perfect way to keep the chill at bay, sitting snug under your duvet as you indulge in delicious treats... That is until you realise there are crumbs in the bed or food stains on your new white bedding.

That's why the team at DUSK have conducted a "highly scientific" experiment (well, kind of) to rank popular snacks based on how messy they are and how difficult they can be to clean.

Taking into account key messiness factors, we tested ten snacks to see how they fared in each of the following four categories. Firstly we tested to see which produced the most crumbs, followed by which are the easiest to spill. Plus two final tests: one to see how easy the spills are to wipe clean and also how well the stains come out on a warm wash.

Ranked: The Messiest Snacks from Worst to Best

Find out which of your favourite snacks make the most and least mess. Whether you're prone to spills or crumbs in the covers, DUSK reveals the snacks to avoid for a mess-free boxset binge.

Nachos with Dips and Cheese

Nachos were revealed to be the messiest snack in the Netflix & Spill experiment, scoring high in all four categories. The snack not only had the highest combined score but also ranked particularly badly in the cleaning categories, too. In fact, it was the most difficult to wipe clean and also left quite a stain after a spin in the washing machine.

Tea and Biscuits

Though the mess created by eating tea and biscuits in bed was fairly easy to wash out, the spill and crumb scores were quite high. The tea was also difficult to wash out, meaning this classic snack combo ranked the 2nd messiest in the experiment.

Pepperoni Pizza and Garlic Dip

Whilst being fairly difficult to spill and creating minimal crumbs, pizza can be a pain to clean up if you do manage to get in on your bedding. Pepperoni may be the perfect pizza topping but has the ability to produce some serious stains, and that's why this snack ranked as the third messiest food to eat in bed.

Cereal with Milk

Eating cereal in bed can feel like a real treat and though it makes very few crumbs, the added milk is easy to spill. Chocolatey milk or fruit toppings can make a mess of your bedding and be difficult to wipe clean but there's no need to cry over spilled milk. A quick machine wash should work well to clean up the mess.

Ice Cream

Finally, a snack that makes no crumbs! A favourite all year round, ice cream has got to be the go-to snack for watching romantic comedies. However, this chilly treat gets easier to spill the more it melts, which is why it ranks 5th in the list of messiest foods. If you do spill it, you'll need more than just a quick wipe to clean it up - especially with strawberry and chocolate flavours.

Jam Filled Doughnuts

Taking 6th place was jam filled doughnuts. This sugary snack made surprisingly little mess from spills and crumbs, and though the jam stains were difficult to wipe away, a machine wash seemed to do the trick and restored our white bedding.

Pastries

The crumb test is where this particular snack gets messy. Scoring 56 out of 100 in the crumb category, only toast, nachos and biscuits were messier than pastries. However, the spills and stain scores were low, which balanced out the total and left this snack ranking 7th overall for messiness.

Buttered Toast

Despite coming 8th, toast was ranked as the messiest snack when it comes to making crumbs. In fact, it scored 82 out of 100, meaning it's more than twice as messy as doughnuts and chocolate. The good news is that any mess created is relatively easy to clean up and won't ruin your white bedding.

Chocolate Bar

Good news! Chocolate came in as the 9th messiest snack, scoring low across all four categories. It left no stains when washed and only "spilled" when it had melted slightly. What's more, crumbs created from eating the chocolate bar were also minimal, making it the perfect duvet day snack.

Crisps

In one of the most surprising results, crisps have been revealed as the least messy of the ten snacks tested. Though these savoury treats scored high in the crumb test, the spills, wipe-ability and stain scores were extremely low - like we needed another excuse to eat crisps!

Research and Methodology

The Netflix & Spill research was conducted as part of a fun, light-hearted experiment. Five testers ate, broke and spilled each of the ten food items over white bedding in order to score each item out of ten. The scores were then combined and calculated out of 100 to find the messiest snack.

View the full results in the table below.

So, there you have it. Swap nachos for crisps, and biscuits for chocolate, for an almost mess-free evening watching Netflix in bed. If you're still planning on eating your favourite snacks regardless, you might find our eco-friendly guide to cleaning white bedding handy.