The biscuits' beginnings are difficult to pinpoint exactly although the biscuits are generally accepted as having been part of the war effort by those left at home.
One story is that the biscuits developed as ways were explored to create a food product that would survive the long transit to the frontlines of World War I. The Country Women's Association is often credited with inventing the Anzac biscuit although the CWA wasn't founded until 1922, so that the biscuits wouldn't have had currency during World War I which ended in 1918.
The New Zealand version of the origins of the Anzac biscuit says it arose from the recipe for Scottish oat cakes and thus started among the Scottish settlers in Dunedin.
What seems to be established is that Anzac biscuits were being sold from the days of World War I to raise funds for the Red Cross and the Returned Servicemen's Association.
Biscuit manufacturer Unibic has put Anzac biscuits on supermarket shelves and in some shops, donating 4 per cent of its sales to veterans.
