Is National Chip Week the same as National Fish and Chip Day?

No. National Fish and Chip Day is a separate event run by the National Edible Oil Distributors' Association, generally on the first Friday in June.

Who started National Chip Week?

The week was run for years by Britain's potato levy body and, in 2024 and 2025, by the three fish and chip wholesalers of the Q Partnership. No source names who organised the first edition in 1992, and the Potato Council, usually credited with it, did not exist under any of its names until 1997.

Does National Chip Week always fall on the same dates?

The listed dates are 20 to 26 February, but the organisers have set different dates in different years. The 2005 week ran from 14 to 20 February and the 2010 week from 15 to 21 February.

National Chip Week

Next celebratedSaturday, February 20, 2027

National Chip Week ran every February from 1992, then stopped dead after 2015. Three fish and chip wholesalers brought it back in 2024, with offers in shops across Britain and one instruction on the poster: Choose Chips.

See how to celebrate

Countdown to the day

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Last updated September 6, 2026 · by the Holiday Calendar TeamHave an update or spot an error?

YEARLY DATEFeb 20th to 26th

OBSERVED INUnited Kingdom

CATEGORYFood

SUBCATEGORYSnacks

ORIGIN

Institutional Initiative

FOUNDING ENTITY

Not documented

FIRST OBSERVED

1992

“The first chip week ran in 1992, five years before the Potato Council existed under any of its names.

HOW THE HOLIDAY CAME TO BE

The year is documented; the organiser is not.

National Chip Week's first edition ran in 1992. No source names the organisation behind it, and the body usually credited with the week, the Potato Council, did not exist under any of its names until 1997.

Read AHDB's 2016 wind-down noticevia potatopro.com

INTRO

Eight missing years inside a 33-year count

When three fish and chip wholesalers brought National Chip Week back in 2024, they billed it as the 33rd. A year later the same quote, carrying the same number, ran again in coverage of the 2025 week.

Counted in calendar years, that is right. The campaign that began the sequence stopped after 2015. No nationally organised edition is documented in the eight years that followed.

By the potato levy body's own count of that run, the revival was the 25th edition. The difference is exactly the length of the interruption. The week has no founding document either, and no source names who organised the first one.

ORIGINS

Chip Week history

INTRODUCTION

Trade coverage more than a decade apart credits the same organisation. Farmers Weekly called it the brainchild of the Potato Council. No body of that name existed in 1992.

The Potato Industry Development Council Order 1997 set up the council that traded as the British Potato Council. The shorter name arrived later, after a 2008 order folded that body into a larger levy board. Whoever ran the first chip week, it was neither of them.

CHAPTER 01

The year that outlived its author

The founder is missing, but the year is not. AHDB Potatoes said the campaign had run for twenty-four years to 2015. Counting back puts the first edition in 1992.

Three reports from inside that run agree. The Fresh Produce Journal called the 2005 week the fourteenth. Farmers Weekly made 2011 the twentieth, and PotatoPro made the year after that the twenty-first.

CHAPTER 02

A week replaced by a website

The last edition of that run fell in February 2015, with the Choice Chip Awards at its centre. That was a customer vote for the best chip shop chips.

The following January, AHDB Potatoes put up an online resource for chip shops and said the site replaced the campaign. NEODA, which runs a separate fish and chips day, explains on its own site that its event began after AHDB disbanded Chip Week.

The date did not go with it. Three weeks after that announcement, Shropshire Fire and Rescue Service was warning chip lovers about pan fires for a National Chip Week it dated from 15 February. What had stopped was the national campaign, not the week itself.

CHAPTER 03

The wholesalers take it on

In 2024 three family firms that supply the fish and chip trade picked the week up. Henry Colbeck, Friars Pride and V.A. Whitley trade together as the Q Partnership. By 2025 shops could order branded T-shirts and baseball caps for their staff, and download a poster carrying one instruction: Choose Chips.

WHY THIS DAY MATTERS

Why National Chip Week Matters

OWNERSHIP

The levy body's campaign became a wholesalers' campaign in 2024.

National Chip Week spent its first decades under Britain's statutory potato levy body. The revival put it in the hands of suppliers to the frying trade, which moves the campaign from the growing end of the potato business to the cooking end.

DEMAND

Frying takes a real share of the crop

AHDB Potatoes put the frying trade at 12% of the GB potato crop in January 2016. A week aimed at chip shops is therefore aimed at that slice of the crop.

SEASON

Built for a quiet stretch of the trading year

The week's stated job is commercial: lift demand in what the trade calls a traditionally quieter trading period. FRY Magazine gave that as its aim when it reported the 2024 revival.

TIMELINE

Timeline

The first chip week runs

The earliest edition, its organiser unrecorded, is where the published counts point back to.

Ministers set up a potato council

The Potato Industry Development Council Order creates the body that traded as the British Potato Council, five years after the first week.

The fourteenth week runs

The Fresh Produce Journal reports the 14th National Chip Week taking place from 14 to 20 February.

The original run ends

The last edition of the sequence falls on 16 to 22 February, with the Choice Chip Awards at its centre.

A website replaces the campaign

AHDB Potatoes puts up an online resource for chip shops and says it replaces the annual Chip Week campaign.

Three wholesalers revive the week

Henry Colbeck, Friars Pride and V.A. Whitley run National Chip Week from 20 to 26 February.

BY THE NUMBERS

National Chip Week by the Numbers

5.5M tonnes: UK potato harvest, 2025 (Defra)
£1.46bn: Value of UK potato production, 2025
550 g: Potatoes bought per person weekly, FYE 2024
~7,210: UK independent fish and chip takeaways, 2026
£11.41: Average cod and chips, Seafish sample 2026

GOOD TO KNOW

Surprising facts about National Chip Week

The 2025 week ran for eight days

The campaign's own site set it from Friday 21 to Friday 28 February. That is a Friday to Friday span, not a calendar week.

The organisers put a return figure on it

Potato Council's review of the 2012 campaign claimed a return of £23 for each £1 invested. The figure comes from the body promoting the week, not from an independent measurement.

It once opened on Valentine's Day

The 2005 week began on 14 February under the slogan Love Chips. Heart-shaped chips featured in a national radio campaign.

American chips are a different food

US farm statistics count potatoes used for chips separately from those used for frozen french fries. What Americans call a chip is what Britain calls a crisp.

Britain does not grow all its own potatoes

Defra put UK production at 71% of total new supply for use in the UK in 2025. The rest arrives as imports.

GET INVOLVED

How to Observe National Chip Week

Order chips from an independent chip shop

Everything the campaign produces, from the posters to the prize draw, is aimed at the shops that fry the chips. Buying a portion from a local one is the observance in its plainest form.

PILE

Pile the toppings on and make loaded chips

Loaded chips are what the wholesalers build their campaign material around, a portion of hot chips under piled toppings. Building one at home is the closest a kitchen gets to what the shops are pushing that week.

CHECK

Check the dates the organisers actually set

The week has not fallen on the same days every year, so the campaign's own National Chip Week site is where the dates appear. In 2025 it also carried a prize draw for a £250 gift card.

LOOK

Look up the official potato figures

Defra publishes the UK potato tables each year, covering the harvest, its value and how much of the supply is grown here. They are the official counterpart to the trade's own figures.

COMPARE

Compare what your chip shop charges with the trade

Seafish priced haddock and chips at an average of £10.29 across its sample. A quick comparison shows where a local shop sits against the rest of the sector.

Test your knowledge

How well do you know National Chip Week?

1 / 8

Which country observes National Chip Week?

Answer

No. It is an industry promotion rather than a bank holiday, and the government's official bank holiday list carries no entry for it in England and Wales, Scotland or Northern Ireland.

COLOPHON

Sources

How we know what’s on this page. References, not endorsements.

16sources

10primary records

14independently dated

Primary records

Legislation.gov.uk1997

The Potato Industry Development Council Order 1997

The 1997 order establishing the body that traded as the British Potato Council.