Random Fact: Fish and Chips

Battered and fried fish arrived in the UK in the 17th century. Chips joined it only in 1860.

There are around 10,500 fish and chips shops in the UK. Ninety years ago there were 35,000.

According to the Federation of Fish Friers, the British eat 382 million portions of fish and chips a year which works out at over 12 every second.

During the D-Day landings, British soldiers identified one another by calling the word “fish”. The response, signifying an ally, was “chips”.

Ten percent of Britain’s potato crop goes to fish and chip shops.

Forty-one percent of people like their fish and chips with vinegar which is even more than the 37 percent who sprinkle them with salt. Twenty-eight per cent add mushy peas, 25 percent add tomato ketchup and 23 percent like some bread and butter on the side.

The earliest reference to fish and chip shops in the Oxford English Dictionary was in 1876. It referred to them as “a considerable source of nuisance”.