Britons ‘clueless’ about food they eat

A RECENT study of 2,000 shoppers found many to be clueless when it comes to food knowledge, with a quarter of parents in Yorkshire and the Humber confessing they couldn’t explain to a child where a potato comes from.

While a fifth thought pork pies came from overseas, one in 10 couldn’t identify the classic steak and kidney pie as British, and four in five people didn’t know that scampi is made from British caught langoustine.

Laura Whittle, a spokeswoman for Whitby Seafoods, which carried out the research, said: ‘Times have changed since we used to buy our groceries from local markets and shops.

‘Back then we could chat to a butcher, fishmonger or greengrocer about where their goods are sourced, but these days it’s harder to get the information.’

The research also showed nearly half of those in Yorkshire and the Humber rate their food knowledge between ‘average’ and ‘very poor’.

Four in 10 didn’t know whether their seafood is sustainably sourced and only 16 per cent of shoppers look to see whether it’s caught locally or imported.

Seven in 10 confessed they don’t check the labels when buying meat or chicken, while 81 per cent said they pick up their milk without ever reading the bottles.

But two thirds said price is their chief priority when shopping.

The results also showed that although scampi and chips is a British pub classic, just 20 per cent knew it was made of langoustine.

Whitby Seafoods, the UK’s leading scampi supplier, commissioned the study in order to better understand shoppers’ food knowledge and help enlighten them on what Whitby scampi is and its origins.