UK leads EU fruit and vegetables consumption

Brussels : Britain leads the way in consuming the recommended five portions of fruit and vegetables a day, EU figures showed Friday, while Romania and Bulgaria are the worst.

One third (33.1 percent) of Britons aged 15 and over follow the World Health Organization's advice for eating their greens, according to the European Union's statistics agency Eurostat.

Britain is not normally renowned in Europe for its healthy cuisine, and its shock "Brexit" vote to leave the EU means it will soon not be included in the figures.

Denmark (25.9 percent) and the Netherlands (25 percent) were also healthy eaters, the figures showed.

At the unhealthy end of the scale, 65.1 percent of Romanians ate no fruit or vegetables on a daily basis, as well as 58.6 percent of Bulgarians, according to Eurostat.

Romania and Bulgaria are the two poorest countries in the EU.

Overall around a third (34.4 percent) of people in the 28-nation EU ate no fruit or vegetables on a daily basis and only 14 percent ate the recommended five-a-day, Eurostat said.

The figures, which date from 2014, do not include potatoes or other "starchy tubers" such as yam.

The EU agency noted that consumption was directly related to education, notably in Britain where more than 40 percent of people with higher education followed the five-a-day rule compared with only 25 percent of people with lower qualifications.