‘Shocking’ lack of knowledge about food we eat

Fewer than half of young adults in the UK know butter comes from a dairy cow and a third do not know eggs come from hens, according to a survey.

More than a third of 16 to 23-year-olds (36 per cent) do not know bacon comes from pigs and four in 10 (40 per cent) failed to link milk with an image of a dairy cow, with seven per cent linking it to wheat, the poll of 2,000 people for charity Leaf (Linking Environment and Farming) found.

Some 41 per cent correctly linked butter to a dairy cow, with eight per cent linking it to beef cattle, while 67 per cent were able to link eggs to an image of a hen but 11 per cent thought they came from wheat or maize.

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Although four in 10 young adults (43 per cent) considered themselves knowledgeable about where their food comes from, the results revealed a “shocking” lack of knowledge about how the most basic food is produced, the charity said.