Food News, with Amanda Killelea

NEXT week is National Chip Week and lovers of the nation's favourite fodder - fish and chips - will be able to unashamedly head to their local chippy in support of the country's 8,500 chip shops.

But that is if chip-lovers everywhere can afford to feast on the only food that tastes better when it is wrapped in newspaper.

The cost of the Great British chip could double if a potato shortage and spiralling prices for this year's rain-hit crop continue to take their toll on the country's chippies.

The price of raw potatoes has more than doubled in recent months and across Britain chip shop owners are being forced to up the price of a bag of chips or put strict controls on portions.

Former England, Burnley and Manchester United footballer John Connelly has owned his popular chip shop in Nelson for 25 years and says the soaring price of spuds is just one of the problems which are affecting chippies everywhere.

He said: "Here at Connelly's Plaice we have managed to keep our prices fixed, but if potato prices don't come down soon we will have to look at the situation again.

"I've been in the chip shop business for 25 years and you learn to weather storms like this over the years. But it isn't just the price of potatoes which has gone up. Fish has become more expensive too.

"At the moment we are standing the extra cost ourselves without putting prices up, but that may have to change soon."

Nick and Susan Holden, at Cheltenham Road Chippy, Blackburn, are bracing themselves for a chip price rise if potato prices get any higher. Susan said: "Normally we would expect to pay about £3-£4 a bag for potatoes. At the moment we are paying about £7. A few years ago prices went up to £14 a bag and if things start heading that way then we will have to put prices up.

"At the moment we are just strictly controlling portions and hoping that potato prices don't rise any more."

Here are some tasty chip facts that you can savour while chomping your way through a traditional fish and chip supper.

As a nation we eat a staggering two million tonnes of chips every year.

The first reference to chips in Britain is in an 1854 cookbook, in which chef Alexis Soyer referred to them as "thin cut potatoes cooked in oil."

As lifestyles changed, people had less time for peeling and chopping potatoes. So, in the 60s, Europe's first frozen chip plant was built in Scarborough.

The 80s saw a new concern with health and, in response, the oven chip was introduced, followed by the microwave chip later in the decade.

Chips, contrary to popular belief, do not have to be an unhealthy food. A 100g portion of home-made chips provides more vitamin C than an apple.

The same amount of oven-cooked chips contains less than half the calories found in two digestive biscuits and 50g of cheddar cheese.

Chips are also a very good source of important complex carbohydrates in the form of starch - the main source of energy for sports and children's growth.

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