1. BRITS eat half a billion crisps a day – made out of 17million potatoes. We eat more than anyone else in Europe – an average 100 packs each annually.
2. THE bagged snacks industry is worth £2bn in the UK and £30bn is reckoned to be spent on crisps around the world every year.
3. THE Americans claim they invented what they call the potato chip in 1853 when New York chef George Crum made them for a customer who complained his chips were too fat.
4. BUT we Brits can also claim to have got there first. William Kitchiner’s 1817 book, The Cook’s Oracle, contains a recipe for “potatoes fried in slices”.
5. THE first crisps served in sealed bags emerged in 1920s. The first big British brand, Smiths, served a twist of salt with them.
6. IRISHMAN Joe “Spud” Murphy, of the firm Tayto, pioneered the first flavour – cheese and onion – in 1954.
7. WALKERS, founded in 1948 and famously fronted by TV’s Gary Lineker, are the country’s biggest crisp makers, with 56% of the market.
8. THEY boast the biggest crisp factory in the world in Leicester, churning out 7m bags a day. Walkers get through 350,000 tonnes of potatoes a year.
9. OVER the years flavours of crisps have included Guinness, Marmite, Spaghetti Bolognese and BBQ Kangaroo.
10. WALKERS even came up with special Vardy Salted after the Leicester and England striker Jamie Vardy in the club’s 2016 title-winning season.
11. IN 2008 a court ruled Pringles were not actually crisps as they didn’t contain enough potato, though the ruling has since been overturned.
12. WHEN their inventor, American chemist Fred Baur, died in 2008, some of his ashes were placed in a Pringles tube before being buried.
13. IN 1991 Pringles made the world’s largest crisp, measuring 25x14in.
14. THE British Heart Foundation said in 2006 a pack a day was equivalent to drinking five litres of cooking oil a year. Fat and salt levels have since been slashed.
15. SINGER Katy Perry appeared in ads for Popchips, while Charlotte Church promoted Walkers Sensations.
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