Top 10 facts about sandwiches
THIS IS British Sandwich Week. You can find out all about it at britishsandwichweek.com but in the meantime, here are some facts.
1. The British eat around 11.5 billion sandwiches a year.
2. Around 3.5 billion of these are bought in retail or catering outlets at a total cost of £7.85billion.
3. Commercially produced sandwiches in the UK use about 43,000 tons of chicken every year. We eat about six chicken sandwiches every second.
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4. The oldest known use of the word “sandwich” in its current sense in English was in 1762.
5. The word was originally spelt with a capital letter as it referred to John Montagu, 4th Earl of Sandwich (1718–1792), who is said to have liked to eat beef between slices of toast.
6. An earlier use of the word however was for a type of cord associated with the town of Sandwich in the late 15th century.
7. The record for eating corned beef sandwiches is 20 eight-ounce sandwiches in 10 minutes.
8. It is held by Joey Chestnut, who also once ate a record 47 grilled cheese sandwiches in 10 minutes.
9. A recent survey reports bacon butties are the UK’s favourite sandwich ahead of prawn mayo.
10. The same survey, for Olive magazine, gave stale bread as the biggest sandwich turn-off.
