This article needs additional citations for verification. Please help improve this article by adding reliable references. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. (November 2009)

A digestive biscuit, sometimes referred to as a sweetmeal biscuit, is a semi-sweet biscuit popular in the United Kingdom and in other Commonwealth countries, for instance in Ireland and in Greece. The term 'digestive' is derived from the belief that they had antacid properties due to the use of sodium bicarbonate when they were first developed.

Contents 1 History 2 Ingredients 3 Consumption 4 Chocolate digestives 5 Recipe substitution 6 References 7 See also

[edit] History

Digestives are known at least as far back as advertisements for Huntley & Palmers in 1876, with a recipe being given in 1894 Cassell's 'New Universal Cookery Book' of 1894.^[1]

Rumours exist that it is illegal for them to be sold under the usual name in the United States,^[2] in fact they are widely available in imported food sections of grocery stores and by mail order.

[edit] Ingredients

The typical American digestive biscuit^{[clarification needed]} contains coarse brown wheat flour (which gives it its distinctive texture and flavour), sugar, vegetable oil, wholemeal, high-fructose corn syrup (sometimes referred to as "glucose-fructose syrup") or partially inverted sugar syrup, raising agents (usually sodium bicarbonate, tartaric acid and malic acid) and salt. Dried whey, oatmeal, cultured skimmed milk and/or emulsifiers such as E472e may also be added in some varieties. Digestive biscuits outside of the United States, like many foods, are not reliant on high-fructose corn syrup and use natural sugar instead, such as in New Zealand ^[3] or in the United Kingdom ^[4].

A biscuit averages around 70 calories, although this sometimes varies according to the factors involved in its production.

Digestive biscuits may not however be suitable for nut or soya allergy sufferers due to peculiar production methods. Also, such biscuits may contain milk and wheat gluten.

[edit] Consumption

Digestive biscuits are frequently eaten with tea or coffee. Sometimes, the biscuit is dunked into the tea and eaten quickly due to the biscuit's tendency to disintegrate when wet.

In the UK alone, the annual sales of chocolate digestives total about £35 million. This means that each year, 71 million packets of these are sold - and each second, 52 biscuits are consumed.^[5] Digestives are also popular in food preparation for making into bases for cheesecakes and similar desserts.^[6]

[edit] Chocolate digestives

Chocolate digestive biscuits also are available, coated on one side with plain, milk, or white chocolate. Originally produced by McVitie's in 1925 as the Chocolate Homewheat Digestive, other recent varieties include the basic biscuit with chocolate shavings throughout (chocolate 'chips' within the biscuit mix), or a layer of caramel, mint chocolate, orange-flavored chocolate^[7] or plain chocolate. The US travel writer Bill Bryson described the chocolate digestive as a British masterpiece.^[8]

[edit] Recipe substitution

In recipes calling for digestive biscuits, it is common in the US and Canada to substitute Graham crackers.

[edit] References

1. ^ OED
2. ^ QI, Season B, Episode 7, 'Biscuits', In America it is illegal to call them "digestives"
3. ^ Griffins Digestives
4. ^ McVities Digestives
5. ^ McVitie's Brand History
6. ^ Waitrose : Banoffee Pie
7. ^ EnglishTeaStore.com: McVities Milk Chocolate & Orange Digestives 300g Accessed 2008-01-05
8. ^ Bryson, Bill. (1996). Notes from a Small Island; William Morrow, ISBN 0688147259

[edit] See also

• Graham cracker
• Rich tea