Around 8% of the cod and haddock in our fish & chips normally comes from the British trawler Kirkella but this figure will be less in 2022 because of reduced quotas.
There are 10,500 fish & chip shops across the United Kingdom, serving up 167 million fish & chip meals a year.
UK consumers prefer cod and haddock in their national dish – this is the fish served most often in our fish & chip shops. Most of this comes from the Icelandic, Norwegian and Barents Seas.
View more on federationoffishfriers.co.uk
Facts and figures (from the Federation of Fish Friers)
There are currently about 10,500 specialist fish & chip shops in the UK.
These dramatically outnumber other fast food outlets: McDonalds has only 1,200 outlets, KFC just 840.
British consumers eat approximately 382 million meals from fish & chip shops every year, including 167 million portions of fish & chips, the traditional favourite.
Annual spend on fish & chips in the UK is a staggering £1.2 billion.
Results of a recent survey of 2095 people by Populus revealed that:
• 85% of the people confirmed that fish & chips is the UK’s favourite national dish
• 95% know that the fish served is cod or haddock
• Only 26% knew that most of the cod and haddock is caught in distant waters beyond UK and EU waters in places such as the Norwegian, Icelandic or Barents Seas!
people
visit fish & chip shops at least once a year
people
visit fish & chip shops every week
people
buy fish & chips to eat in the home as a family meal
Fish & chips make a balanced, nutritious meal. They are a valuable source of protein, fibre, iron and vitamins.
Fish & chips provide a third of the recommended daily allowance of vitamins for a man and nearly half for a woman.
An average portion of fish, chips and peas contains only 7.3% fat, of which 2.8% is saturated fat. This compares with 10.8% fat in a pork pie.
The world's first fish & chip shop is thought to be Malins, opened in 1860 on Old Ford Road, East London.