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13 facts you probably didn't know about sandwiches

Some of these facts will suprise you.

Published 13th Apr 2016

Sandwiches are one of the nation's favourite foods, but how much do you know about them?

  1. The first ‘packaged’ sandwich is believed to have been launched by Marks & Spencer in 1985.
  1. Chicken is the most popular filling commercially available.

© iStock

  1. 43,000 tonnes of chicken is eaten each year in sandwiches.
  1. The town in Kent called Sandwich is not related to the sandwich and gets its name from the Saxon for Sandy Place.

© iStock

  1. 11.5 billion sandwiches are eaten by the UK public each year.
  1. Over 3.5 billion sandwiches are bought each year, rather than made at home.

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  1. The British sandwich is such a central item in our psyche and culture that we have more names for it than Eskimos do for snow.
  1. A survey conducted in 2002 revealed that the average American will have eaten 1,500 peanut butter and jelly (jam) sandwiches before they leave school.

© iStock

  1. If you laid all the sandwiches eaten in the UK every year end to end, they would go around the world about 44 times.
  1. More sandwiches are consumed in hot weather than wet or cold weather.

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  1. There are two possible reasons for sandwiches getting their name, both involve Lord John Montagu the 4th Earl of Sandwich.

a) Earl of Sandwich enjoyed gambling and rarely had time for a meal so he would ask his waiters for meat between two slices of bread. Other gamblers would also ask for 'the same as Sandwich' or the ‘sandwich’.

b) The second possible source suggests that Earl of Sandwich's commitments to the navy, politics and the arts, meant the first sandwich was more likely to have been consumed at his desk.

  • The Earl of Sandwich John Montagu, who is a direct descendent of the fourth Earl of Sandwich John Montagu, seen on picture at top | © PA Images*
  1. £7.2 billion are spent on sandwiches every year in the UK.
  1. The Hawaiian Islands were originally named the Sandwich Islands after the Earl of Sandwich funded the exploratory trip captained by Captain Cook in 1778.