's Digestive tin box, located in the
Victoria and Albert Museum, London In 1839, digestives were developed in the United Kingdom by two Scottish doctors to aid digestion. In an 1851 issue of
The Lancet, London's advertising section offered
brown meal digestive biscuits. At the time, it was asserted that grain millers knew only of
bran and
endosperm. After 10% of the whole grain's coarser outer-bran coat was removed, and because the innermost 70% of pure endosperm was reserved for other uses, brown meal, representing only 20% of the whole grain, remained, consisting of about 15% fine bran and 85% white flour. By 1912, it was more widely known that brown meal included the
germ, which lent a characteristic sweetness. Digestives featured in
advertisements for the Berkshire-based biscuit company
Huntley & Palmers in 1876, with digestives sold by
chemists alongside indigestion powder. Rival biscuit company, Edinburgh-based
McVitie's, has Golden-baked their best-selling digestives to a secret recipe developed by Sir
Alexander Grant since 1892. Despite rumours that it is illegal for them to be sold under their usual name in the US, they are, in fact, widely available in the imported food sections of
grocery stores and by
mail order. McVitie’s digestives are also distributed in Canada. Digestive biscuits are manufactured by Canadian companies - for example, by the Christie company. == Ingredients ==