04-03-2025
Almost half of Britons do not know how to make pancakes
Almost half of Britons do not know how to make pancakes from scratch, a survey has found.
Only 45 per cent of British adults know the recipe for pancakes, which are made using a simple batter of flour, eggs and water.
The YouGov poll of 2,000 adults found that 25 per cent of people were also unaware that eggs are an ingredient.
Supermarkets now sell premade pancake mixtures in bottles, eliminating the need to make the batter from scratch.
Kate Parkes, a hen welfare expert at the Royal Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (RSPCA), said the findings proved the public no longer knew 'where our food comes from'.
'Something as simple as not knowing what ingredients are in a pancake might seem innocuous and funny,' she said.
'But it exposes an important truth – we just don't know enough about what we are eating and where our food comes from.'
Pancakes are traditionally eaten on the last day before Lent, the 40-day period where Christians fast before Easter.
They were historically eaten to use up a household's supplies of fat or lard.
The day is now increasingly known simply as 'Pancake Day' as Britain has become less religious and less familiar with Christian traditions.
It is thought that 145 million eggs will be sold this week, according to statistics from analysts NielsenIQ.
The survey, commissioned by RSPCA Assured, also found that 60 per cent would buy eggs produced by farms with high animal welfare standards.
In Britain, eight million hens spend most of their lives in cages, representing approximately 20 per cent of the hen population.
'Ethical food choices'
Ms Parkes said: 'People want to make ethical food choices; for example, 60 per cent of people who make pancakes said it is important to them that the ingredients come from higher-welfare farms.
'But many don't realise that everyday foods, like pancakes, depend on egg production, and nearly 20 per cent of UK egg production comes from caged hens.
'This lack of knowledge could mean people are inadvertently supporting lower-welfare farming and funding cruel practices such as hens being kept in cages.'
She added: 'The old battery cage was banned in Europe in 2012, but many were just replaced by a new type of cage called a 'colony' or 'enriched cage'.
'In reality, these are not much better and only give each hen about as much space as the size of a large pancake, which is totally unacceptable.'
