Food News, with Christine Rutter

PEOPLE who love ham salad sandwiches are likely to take their holidays at Butlins.

And voters for the Monster Raving Loony Party are partial to a roast chicken bap.

Sarnie psychology rears its head during the British Sandwich Week, which runs until Saturday.

The week is a celebration of the humble snack invented by the fourth Earl of Sandwich in 1762.

The sandwich was born by accident when the Earl spent 24 hours at a gambling table and, reluctant to stop playing, ordered some "cold cuts of beef between slices of toasted bread."

Now it is the leading British food snack, holding 41 per cent of the fast food market, ahead of burgers (18 per cent), and chips (12 per cent).

More sandwiches are eaten in Britain than any other country in the world.

According to a survey commissioned by Asda, your lunchbox can reveal a lot about your personality.

If you're a chicken tikka eater then you're six-and-a-half times likely to have voted Labour than Conservative in the last election.

The Gallup survey, which interviewed 1,005 people, found that Coronation Street fans and Pisceans were unlikely to be seen chomping on a Ploughmans sandwich. Nor do these types like Brookside or trips to Blackpool. A favourite bap among the ladies is tuna and cucumber but men plumped for the more traditional cheese and tomato.

Egg butty lovers tend to be female, love Coronation Street and take beach holidays while tuna and cucumber exponents are likely to be Green voters, watch Neighbours and spend their holidays in the Caribbean.

Liberal Democrats and Leos are salmon and cucumber devourers and bacon, lettuce and tomato is a favourite among Virgo and Taureans.

Coronation Street and Eastenders fans hate Chinese chicken and three-quarters of all people who love prawn mayonnaise sandwiches are women. Ham salad connoisseurs are more likely to live in the North and holiday in the Costa Del Sol.

Oddies bakery chain in East Lancashire is joining other sandwich outlets nationwide to run a competition for customers to win a holiday to The Sandwich Isles in Hawaii, which were discovered by Captain Cook.

Customers have to collect five stickers from sandwiches they buy to enter a free prize draw for a chance to win the holiday.

Oddies staff are also running their own British Sandwich Week promotion by letting staff pick their favourite sandwiches to sell in the shops during the week. Staff at Oddies, in St James Street, Burnley, have got together to pick five favourites.

Manager Mrs Linda Robinson said: "It is true that certain types of people buy certain sandwiches."

She said the New Yorker (bacon, chicken, mayonnaise and salad) was their most popular sandwich and was mainly eaten by schoolchildren and pensioners.

The tuna special and salad was a hit with the elderly and a bacon, lettuce and tomato was an all-rounder appealing to a variety of people.

Ploughman's was a winner with men because of the size of the bap it was served on and no-fuss people opted for ham salad.

Mrs Robinson said: "I agree and disagree with the sandwich psychology survey. While it's right that most ham salad people would probably holiday in the Costa Del Sol, we have two staff who are Taureans - Susan Caine and Dilys Critchley - who are suppose to love bacon, lettuce and tomato but in fact dislike them."

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