Chip fork

Two-pronged wooden chip forks in a container

A chip fork is a small fork made from wood or plastic that is given away by fast food suppliers with portions of french fries, currywurst, and similar, and used when eating.^[1] Chip forks are specially designed to keep eaters fingers clean of grease, sauces, mayonnaise, and other, while at the same time being cheap enough to be thrown away after use.^[2] 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.

A three-pronged plastic chip fork

The usual design of chip forks has either two or three prongs 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 area which had to be cleaned and reused. Whether the throw-away version was first used in Berlin, Germany, or the Netherlands is disputed.

Other meanings

In Germany, the local name Pommesgabel", also "Pommespicker" (literally: "Chip/French fries fork/picking device") is a popular alternative denomination for the mano cornuta.

References

1. "A Food Lover's Guide to Berlin". Condé Nast. 12 November 2014. Retrieved 9 January 2015.
2. "10 Things We Learned at Berlin's Museum Dedicated to Currywurst". Condé Nast. 17 December 2014. Retrieved 9 January 2015.