A chip fork is a small fork made from

wood Wood is a structural tissue/material found as xylem in the stems and roots of trees and other woody plants. It is an organic materiala natural composite of cellulosic fibers that are strong in tension and embedded in a matrix of lignin t ...

plastic Plastics are a wide range of synthetic polymers, synthetic or Semisynthesis, semisynthetic materials composed primarily of Polymer, polymers. Their defining characteristic, Plasticity (physics), plasticity, allows them to be Injection moulding ...

that is given away by

fast food Fast food is a type of Mass production, mass-produced food designed for commercial resale, with a strong priority placed on speed of service. ''Fast food'' is a commercial term, limited to food sold in a restaurant or store with frozen, preheat ...

suppliers with portions of

fish and chips Fish and chips is a hot dish consisting of batter (cooking), battered and fried fish, served with French fries, chips. Often considered the national dish of the United Kingdom, fish and chips originated in England in the 19th century. Today, ...

french fries French fries, or simply fries, also known as chips, and finger chips (Indian English), are '' batonnet'' or '' julienne''-cut deep-fried potatoes of disputed origin. They are prepared by cutting potatoes into even strips, drying them, and f ...

currywurst ''Currywurst'' () is a fast food dish of German origin consisting of sausage with curry ketchup. It was invented in 1949 by Herta Heuwer, who began selling it at a food stand in West Berlin. The Deutsches Currywurst Museum estimated that 8 ...

, and similar, and used when eating. Chip forks are specially designed to keep eaters' fingers clean of grease,

sauce In cooking, a sauce is a liquid, cream, or semi- solid food, served on or used in preparing other foods. Most sauces are not normally consumed by themselves; they add flavour, texture, and visual appeal to a dish. ''Sauce'' is a French wor ...

mayonnaise Mayonnaise (), colloquially referred to as "mayo" (), is a thick, creamy sauce with a rich and tangy taste that is commonly used on sandwiches, hamburgers, Salad#Bound salads, bound salads, and French fries. It also forms the base for various o ...

, and other, while at the same time being cheap enough to be thrown away after use. Thus they spare suppliers the cost and labour of collecting and cleaning traditional forks. This fits well with the image of fast food as kinds of products to be taken away and being consumed elsewhere. The usual design of chip forks has either two or three tines at one end. Their length is somewhere between 7½ and 9 cm, their width between 1 and 1½ cm at the widest place. Today, these forks have completely replaced an earlier version of chip forks from the

BeNeLux The Benelux Union (; ; ; ) or Benelux is a politico-economic union, alliance and formal international intergovernmental cooperation of three neighbouring states in Western Europe: Belgium, the Netherlands, and Luxembourg. The name is a portma ...

area which had to be cleaned and reused. Whether the throw-away version was first used in

Berlin Berlin ( ; ) is the Capital of Germany, capital and largest city of Germany, by both area and List of cities in Germany by population, population. With 3.7 million inhabitants, it has the List of cities in the European Union by population withi ...

Germany Germany, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It lies between the Baltic Sea and the North Sea to the north and the Alps to the south. Its sixteen States of Germany, constituent states have a total popu ...

, or the

Netherlands , Terminology of the Low Countries, informally Holland, is a country in Northwestern Europe, with Caribbean Netherlands, overseas territories in the Caribbean. It is the largest of the four constituent countries of the Kingdom of the Nether ...

is disputed.

Other meanings

In Germany, ''Pommesgabel'' or ''Pommespicker'' (literally "chip-picking device") is a local term for the mano cornuta, or sign of the horns.

References

{{Reflist Fast food Forks