Snappy Stats

• UK flour millers use over 5.5 million tonnes of wheat each year to produce nearly 4.5 million tonnes of flour.
• UK flour consumption per capita reached 73.3kg in 2002.
• Breadmaking flour accounts for just over 60% of UK flour production.
• There are 31 flour milling companies operating 59 operating mills.  Virtually all of these are nabim members.
• There are over 200 varieties of bread available in the UK today.
• Bread remains one of the UK favourite foods - it is bought by 99% of British households.
• The equivalent of over 12 million loaves are sold each day in the UK.
• White bread accounts for 71% of total bread consumption in the UK and brown/wholemeal sector accounts for 22% and other bread  accounts for 7% of the total bread market in the UK.
• 59% of UK housewives buy continental and speciality breads for entertaining at home. (Mintel - February 2003)
• Between 1997 and 2002, UK sales of speciality breads increased in value by 36% in real terms (Source: Mintel Bread Report-February 2003)
• The overall consumption of sandwiches each year now tops 12 billion - which means we eat over 230 sandwiches each year! (Source: British Sandwich Association)
• Otto Frederick Rohwedder invented the first slice-and-wrap bread machine in 1928. He sold his pre-sliced, wrapped bread in a bakery at Battle Creek, Michigan. By 1933 80% of all bread sold in the US was sliced and wrapped the phrase 'the best thing since sliced bread' was coined.
• Sliced bread was introduced into the UK in the mid 1930's.
• One whole grain of wheat makes over 20,000 particles of flour.
• It takes around 350 ears of wheat to make enough flour for one 800 gram loaf of bread.
• A wheat crop will produce on average 7.5 tonnes of grain per hectare - that's enough to make 11,500 loaves of bread!!