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The ten
best fish and chip shops in the UK have been announced in the
national Fish & Chip Shop of the Year competition, organised by
Seafish, the authority on seafood.
The finalists will now compete
for the coveted title of national Fish & Chip Shop of the Year
2008 - a special year for the competition as it celebrates its 21st birthday.
The successful fish and chip
shops are:
1 Anstruther
Fish Bar & Restaurant in Anstruther, Scotland
1 Finnegan's
in Porthcawl, Wales
1 The
Fish and Chicken Inn in Ballymena, Northern Ireland
1 Colman's
of South Shields in Tyne & Wear
1 Thornton
Fisheries in Thornton-Cleveleys, Lancashire
1 Merchant
Fish Bar in Bewdley, Worcestershire
1 Petrou
Brothers in Chatteris, Cambridgeshire
1 Scooby
Snax in Colchester, Essex
1 The
Plaice in Winchester, Hampshire
1 Daniels
Fish and Chips in Weymouth, Dorset
Now facing the ultimate
challenge, the ten shops must present to a panel of industry experts
to make their bid for the national crown. The shops provide the panel
with information about their business and then answer questions from
the panel of leading industry figures on a wide variety of business
and industry-related topics including sustainable sourcing, health
and safety and maintaining product quality.
Andy Gray, competition judge at
Seafish, said: "The standard of entrants in this year's
competition has been incredibly high and it is encouraging to see
fish and chips shops paying attention to sustainable sourcing as well
as offering quality, value and choice. This industry has come a long
way in the last 21 years and competition is going to be fierce for
this year's national title."
The winner will be presented with
the champion's crown by TV chef, Simon Rimmer, at a ceremony on 22
January at the Park Plaza Riverbank in London.
This announcement follows the
release of NPD Crest statistics which revealed that fish and chip
shops throughout the UK have seen an increase in customers and sales
for the first time in five years. The number of people going to
fast-food restaurants rose by 3.2 per cent in the first quarter of
2008 compared to the previous year.
With nearly 276 million meals
sold each year from over 10,500 shops, fish and chips remains the
nation's favourite takeaway. Devotees can also tuck into their fish
and chips knowing they contain 36 per cent less calories than a
chicken korma and pilau rice, and 42 per cent less fat than a doner
kebab with pitta and salad. Recent studies also showed that fish and
chips had the lowest salt content of all the takeaways tested.
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