Instead of food miles it is time we started to focus on food floorspace statistics
Just how much of this overcrowded planet is occupied by shelf after shelf of giant bags of crisps? You know they are bad for you
It used to be a source of puzzlement to me – where did this national addiction begin? Who has, & how is there any pleasure to be had from greasy fingered consumption of ersatz prawn cocktail, cheese & onion etc etc
According to Wikipedia, crisps remained unseasoned until an innovation by Joe "Spud" Murphy, the owner of an Irish crisp company called Tayto, who developed a technology to add seasoning in the 1950s & produced the world's first seasoned crisps, Cheese & Onion or Salt & Vinegar. But I remember Oxo crisps in the school tuck shop, also in the 1950s, so it may be a close-run thing
I did not like shop bought crisps then & I do not much like them now, certainly not enough to make them a part of my daily diet
The mystery was solved when I heard on the radio a group of 20 or 30 somethings discussing their daily need for crisps
They grew up in the 1970s, when sugar was the devil in childrens food. DO NOT GIVE YOUR CHILDREN SWEETS, Mums were instructed by Those Who Knew Best
So Mums fed their children healthy, savoury treats instead
