Whether you’re trying to win a pub quiz or impress friends and family, having a bank of facts is always worthwhile! In this blog, Tony Hennessey, client solutions manager at IFP shares his wisdom and some rather interesting food-related facts that are likely to impress.
Some of these you may even already know!
- Honey is the only food with an eternal shelf life. It cannot go ‘off’ and will still be edible after thousands of years. It must be all that bee vomit and nectar that goes into every jar! If we ever find ourselves in a zombie apocalypse, it’s handy to keep a few jars around – just in case.
- Garlic acts as a natural insect repellent – it can keep pesky mosquitos away…as well as repelling any potential love interests.
- Castoreum which is commonly used as a vanilla flavouring is taken from the anal glands of beavers. Something to bear in mind next time the sun’s shining and you fancy a ’99 from the ice cream van…
- Nutella use up to a quarter of the total global harvest of hazelnuts. On 5 February each year we celebrate World Nutella Day. It is so famous that in 2014, the Italian Government issued a commemorative 50th year Euro 70 cent stamp.
- Until 2011 Russia classed any alcoholic beverage under 10% abv as a soft drink…this meant that most beers and some wines were in the same category as fizzy pop.
- According to America’s National Hot Dog and Sausage Council (yes, it really does exist), on Independence Day in the USA, Americans will enjoy 150 million hot dogs. That is enough hot dogs to stretch from Washington D.C. to Los Angeles more than five times.
- In the Middle Ages, black pepper was so expensive it was literally used as a form of currency. Italy had a monopoly on the pepper trade, and it was so lucrative that Portugal sent Vasco de Gama to India to get some, resulting in the first sailing from Europe, around the Cape of Good Hope to India in 1498.
- The Dubai Duty Free shopping outlet in the airport is the largest seller of Kit Kats worldwide, selling approximately one tonne of Kit Kats every single day.
- Britain has over 8,500 Indian restaurants serving over 23 million portions annually. The most popular curry is the classic Chicken Tikka Masala which was invented in Glasgow – just the 4,000+ miles from India.
- Goat accounts for approximately 70% of the total amount of red meat consumed globally every year.
- There are so many varieties of apple that if you were to eat an apple a day it would take 27 years to eat every variety. Your doctor would probably have retired by then anyway, so an apple a day literally could keep the doctor away!
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