Rashers and spuds: still our bread and butter

IRELAND is still living up to its hard-earned image as a defiantly spud and rasher-eating people in a new snapshot RTÉ documentary which shows what the nation eats every day.

We’re also still a proud nation of tea drinkers – with 15 million cups downed across the country every single day; that’s three times the amount of cups of coffee consumed, despite George Clooney’s best efforts.

These are just some of the revelations in a remarkable new documentary filmed at multiple locations over a 24-hour period that give a glimpse into the vast food engine which keeps the country fed each day and employs 25% of workers. As consumers, we spend over €11billion annually on food.

That includes €20 million a day on snacks – but only €3million on food and vegetables. The programme, One Day – How Ireland Eats also reveals we munch our way through half a million loaves of bread in a day,

It reveals that the Irish diet has changed more in the last 40 years than it did in the previous 5,000.

For example, 50 years ago, a chicken for dinner was something of a rarity, but today we each eat 20 whole chickens per year. Meanwhile, the traditional fry-up is as popular as ever, with one million consumed every day – while we spend €4.7million daily on potatoes.

One Day – How Ireland Eats will be shown on RTÉ One on Monday January 22 at 9.35pm