Fish and Chips card sequencing activity

1. Fish and Chip shops - have they had their chips?
Make some geographical connections and sequence some of these statements to answer the
questions at the end, and fill in the table on the separate sheet.
People in the UK spend over
£1.2 billion a year on fish and
chips, but the cost of a portion
is increasing rapidly.
The 1990 Food Safety Act
banned the use of newspapers
as a packaging material for fish
and chips.
Take-away food packaging
makes up a large proportion of
litter found in many town
centres.
Many workers in fish and chip
shops are paid the minimum
wage. This went up to £11.44
an hour in April 2024 for
people aged 21, from £10.18
the year before. These costs
need to be passed on to the
customer.
Fish and chip shops have very
high energy bills, as the cooking
oil has to be kept hot for hours
every day the shop is open.
Energy costs have risen a lot
since the start of 2023.
Cooking oil prices have risen
dramatically due to conflict in
Ukraine and poor harvests due
to climate change. Olive oil has
become very expensive, but
most shops fry in cheaper oils.
Potatoes have risen in price
from £6 in 2019 to £15 in
2024. This is the price the
farmer gets paid - fish and chip
shop owners pay a lot more.
Fish needs to be refrigerated
and transported long distances
quickly. This requires fuel and
energy costs.
In the 1920s, there were over
30 000 fish and chip shops in
the UK. There are now around
10 000 fish and chip shops and
numbers are dropping.
Fish and chips is one of the
nation’s favourite meals, and an
important part of our British
culture. They are traditionally
served on Friday.
Potatoes are grown in large
quantities in the Fens, as the
soil and weather are usually
ideal for them.
McDonalds and other fast food
chains source huge quantities
of ingredients and can keep
their costs down, compared to
small family- run businesses.
Some fish and chip shops
display information about the
sustainability of the fish they
serve, and the sourcing of local
ingredients.
The first UK fish and chip shop
is thought to have opened in
London in 1860.
One in five people in the UK
visit a fish and chip shop each
week. They are a traditional
element of a day trip to the
seaside, where they taste best.
Most of the fish fried in the UK
is caught off the coast of
Iceland, or in the Barents Sea
on the fringes of the Arctic.

2. When the price of ingredients
goes up, the cost has to be
passed on to the customer, or
the quality has to go down and
staffing is reduced, which
means people lose their job.
The price of fish and chips has
gone up from around £8 in
2019 to £14 in 2024. This adds
over £20 the price of fish and
chips for a family of four.
Extreme weather has damaged
the potato crop in some parts
of the country, so the cost of
potatoes has risen - because
prices rise when the supply
drops.
In hot weather, where there is
less rain, the potatoes
produced are much smaller,
and may not be suitable for
turning into chips.
There are low stocks of cod and
haddock (our favourite fish) in
the North Sea; fish are heading
north due to warming sea
temperatures. This means fish
prices are rising.
Other costs e.g. packaging such
as polystyrene trays, sauces
and condiments (salt and
vinegar) are also rising.
Flour is used to make batter for
the fish, and the cost of wheat
rose rapidly after the Ukraine
conflict started.
Due to financial pressures,
families are buying fish and
chips less often, meaning fewer
customers.
Fuel prices have generally risen
over the last few years, so
delivery costs of potatoes, fish
and oil have all risen, which is
added to the cost.
During the Second World War,
fish and chips were so
important for people’s morale
that they were not rationed.
Fish and chip shops provide
jobs for local people in many
communities despite the hard
work involved. Often
generations of families work in
the same shop.
Many fish and chip shops are in
rented premises and rents have
gone up due to increasing bank
rates of interest on loans and
mortgages.
The High Street is in trouble,
with reduced footfall meaning
fewer shoppers around who
might be hungry.
Hot oil needs to be kept at
180°C for hours, which means
energy costs were already high
- and then they tripled in
2022-3
Some fish and chip shops
arrange for their waste cooking
oil to be collected and recycled
into biofuels.
Britain’s fish and chip shops sell
167 million portions a year.
People increasingly use Just
Eat, Deliveroo, Uber Eats and
similar apps to order a wider
range of foods to be delivered
to their home.
Dominos, Greggs and other
chains have started introducing
low cost lunch alternatives
which compete with fish and
chips for affordability.