Mars bars were developed by Forrest Mars who invented the first chewy bar. His father, Frank Mars had patented the Milky Way in the United States. Forrest Mars also invented the Snickers bar, Maltesers and M&Ms. The Christmas edition of The Lancet (Vol 364:9452, December 18-31 2004) carried an article by David S Morrison and Mark Petticrew entitled "Deep and crisp and eaten: Scotland's deep-fried Mars bar". In 1995 the Scottish Daily Record cited the deep-fried Mars bar as typifying Scotland's diet. Morrison and Petticrew conducted a telephone survey in June 2004 of a random selection of the 627 fish and chip shops in Scotland. Of 488 telephoned, 303 (62%) responded. 66 (22%) shops sold deep-fried Mars bars, though an additional 51 (17%) had in the past. Mean weekly sales were 23 bars but ten shops sold much higher numbers, from 50-200 a week. They were mainly sold to children and young people. Cooks reported that they made a mess of the frying equipment. Shops had also deep-fried Cream eggs, Snickers bars and the authors report evidence of the penetration of the Mediterranean diet in that it is now possible to find deep-fried pizza.
