0:00:02 > 0:00:04Hello and welcome to a very special edition of Fake Britain.
0:00:04 > 0:00:08By now, we're all familiar with the horsemeat scandal.
0:00:08 > 0:00:12But Fake Britain has discovered that many other foods are being mis-sold,
0:00:12 > 0:00:17mislabelled or mistaken for the real thing.
0:00:17 > 0:00:20In fact, it turns out that food fakery is much more common
0:00:20 > 0:00:22than you might think.
0:00:23 > 0:00:26Today's programme is a menu full of fakes.
0:00:26 > 0:00:30We have a fish dish that nearly killed a man.
0:00:30 > 0:00:35Without instant medical assistance, I probably would have died.
0:00:35 > 0:00:39A big-money ethical jam, where the main ingredient was fraud.
0:00:39 > 0:00:43What people don't expect is that fruit described as "Suffolk"
0:00:43 > 0:00:45is actually from China.
0:00:45 > 0:00:47And when is a ham not a ham?
0:00:47 > 0:00:50Well, when it's on top of some pizzas, apparently.
0:00:50 > 0:00:54It seems we haven't been getting what we ordered at the takeaway.
0:00:54 > 0:00:57- Is this actually ham on the pizza or is it...?- It's turkey.
0:01:04 > 0:01:09We eat 250 million portions of this every year.
0:01:09 > 0:01:14Yes, it's fish and chips - the UK's number one favourite takeaway.
0:01:14 > 0:01:18But this is the Fake Britain house, so it won't surprise you to know
0:01:18 > 0:01:22that under the batter, not everything is as it seems.
0:01:27 > 0:01:30When it comes to food, we all expect to get what we're paying for,
0:01:30 > 0:01:33but now that the fakers have got hold of it,
0:01:33 > 0:01:37even a good old plate of fish and chips isn't safe.
0:01:37 > 0:01:40Stefano Mariani of Salford University conducted a survey
0:01:40 > 0:01:46across Britain that shows just how widespread fish fakery has become.
0:01:46 > 0:01:50In the UK, we found that 7%
0:01:50 > 0:01:54of about 100 samples that we screened were mislabelled.
0:01:56 > 0:02:02The cases of mislabelling are clearly making certain people rich.
0:02:02 > 0:02:06Stefano's survey was one of the first to flag up that the UK
0:02:06 > 0:02:09fish industry was being hit by fakery.
0:02:09 > 0:02:12As ever, it's all about money.
0:02:12 > 0:02:14Customers weren't getting what they asked for.
0:02:14 > 0:02:18They were paying for cod - which is an expensive fish -
0:02:18 > 0:02:21and they were being given something much cheaper.
0:02:21 > 0:02:26Restaurants and pubs with fish on the menu now don't legally
0:02:26 > 0:02:30have to specify which fish they are serving, but for Luke Marvell,
0:02:30 > 0:02:32a visit to a pub that he used to work in
0:02:32 > 0:02:35highlighted the dangers of not knowing what you're eating.
0:02:35 > 0:02:39When I worked there, the fish was haddock and it was all hand-battered.
0:02:39 > 0:02:43We chose to have that. It was good produce, and I had enjoyed it in the past.
0:02:43 > 0:02:46It wasn't something that was completely new to me.
0:02:46 > 0:02:49But unbeknownst to Luke, since he worked there,
0:02:49 > 0:02:53the fish had been changed, and it was no longer haddock.
0:02:53 > 0:02:56I instantly knew something was wrong within a mouthful.
0:02:56 > 0:03:00There was an instant reaction and I just couldn't breathe.
0:03:00 > 0:03:03My face began to itch and it went from there.
0:03:03 > 0:03:05Luke's throat began to swell,
0:03:05 > 0:03:08but because he had never had an experience like this before,
0:03:08 > 0:03:12he had absolutely no idea what was wrong with him.
0:03:12 > 0:03:15Yeah, at first, I just thought I was choking on a bit of food.
0:03:15 > 0:03:19I got a glass of water and it didn't help, cos I couldn't swallow it.
0:03:19 > 0:03:24It was kind of like a stinging sensation, like a stinging nettle.
0:03:24 > 0:03:26That kind of sensation.
0:03:26 > 0:03:30But yeah, all across my head, and my lips apparently went blue.
0:03:30 > 0:03:33Luke had suffered a massive allergic reaction.
0:03:33 > 0:03:35His friend called an ambulance,
0:03:35 > 0:03:37and within 10 minutes of eating the fish,
0:03:37 > 0:03:40he was on his way to hospital, where he was pumped
0:03:40 > 0:03:43full of adrenaline to make the reactions subside.
0:03:43 > 0:03:47It's anaphylactic shock, so without instant medical assistance,
0:03:47 > 0:03:49I probably would have died.
0:03:49 > 0:03:54Luke was soon referred to an allergy consultant to find out what it was
0:03:54 > 0:03:57that he had reacted to so violently.
0:03:57 > 0:04:00I went into the pub and asked what the fish was,
0:04:00 > 0:04:05and they had to check and read it off the box, because they had no idea.
0:04:05 > 0:04:09E-mailed the name to my allergy consultant,
0:04:09 > 0:04:12because she had never heard of it either.
0:04:12 > 0:04:17Luke found out that the name of the fish he had eaten was pangasius,
0:04:17 > 0:04:20a cheaply-priced type of catfish from Vietnam.
0:04:20 > 0:04:23Got a bit of the fish, took it into the hospital,
0:04:23 > 0:04:26went through the system of putting little dabs on your arms,
0:04:26 > 0:04:31and within ten seconds of it touching my skin, a lump came up on my arm,
0:04:31 > 0:04:32so we kind of knew it was that.
0:04:32 > 0:04:37British law states that customers should always be given what they ask for.
0:04:37 > 0:04:39And with food allergies increasingly common,
0:04:39 > 0:04:42it's clear the law is there for a good reason.
0:04:42 > 0:04:44The pub hadn't done anything wrong.
0:04:44 > 0:04:47They had just written "fish" on their menu.
0:04:47 > 0:04:50But Luke Marvell didn't know he had an allergy to the fish he had eaten.
0:04:50 > 0:04:54Worryingly, it seems that more and more of us are finding that
0:04:54 > 0:04:59we aren't getting the fish we've asked for in chippies and restaurants.
0:04:59 > 0:05:01Trading Standards teams across the country have found that
0:05:01 > 0:05:05when customers have asked and paid for cod, they've sometimes
0:05:05 > 0:05:08been given pangasius, which is half the price of cod.
0:05:08 > 0:05:11And sometimes they've been given haddock,
0:05:11 > 0:05:13which is also cheaper than cod.
0:05:14 > 0:05:17Officers in Wales surveyed their local chippies.
0:05:17 > 0:05:19Can I have a piece of cod, please?
0:05:20 > 0:05:22I'm from Trading Standards.
0:05:22 > 0:05:25They ordered cod from local restaurants and takeaways...
0:05:25 > 0:05:27I'm from Trading Standards.
0:05:27 > 0:05:30..and had the lab analyse what they had been sold.
0:05:30 > 0:05:33The results were a surprise.
0:05:33 > 0:05:36The overall results were that across all six authorities,
0:05:36 > 0:05:40of the 42 samples, seven came back incorrectly,
0:05:40 > 0:05:42which is around 16-17%.
0:05:42 > 0:05:46If that level of fish fakery is the same right across the country,
0:05:46 > 0:05:50hundreds of thousands of us are being deceived every week.
0:05:50 > 0:05:54For Luke Marvell, it's a risk he's no longer prepared to take.
0:05:54 > 0:05:56I occasionally eat fish and chips now,
0:05:56 > 0:06:00but it's very much a case of, "I'll make it myself," so I know what's gone in it.
0:06:07 > 0:06:10Maybe you're one of those people who avoids takeaway foods.
0:06:10 > 0:06:15Perhaps your weekly shopping basket is a free range and organic bonanza.
0:06:15 > 0:06:20The top end of the food chain has got its share of fake products too.
0:06:20 > 0:06:25You may have been paying a huge mark-up for premium food that was nothing of the sort.
0:06:25 > 0:06:28Food fraud, it would seem, is all around us.
0:06:30 > 0:06:33Suffolk Trading Standards officer Clare Davies makes routine
0:06:33 > 0:06:39inspections of food premises to ensure a level playing field amongst companies.
0:06:39 > 0:06:41We visit manufacturers to find out whether the claims
0:06:41 > 0:06:45they put on their packaging are accurate, that the food is fresh,
0:06:45 > 0:06:48it's organic, or it might be origin claims, like the food is local.
0:06:50 > 0:06:53On a visit to a farm shop, Clare came across a series of very
0:06:53 > 0:06:57expensive jams, made by a company called Stonham Hedgerow.
0:06:57 > 0:07:03She decided to investigate whether the claims made by the manufacturers were actually true.
0:07:03 > 0:07:07This is the leaflet that we found displayed next to the jams on sale.
0:07:07 > 0:07:10It makes various claims. So, for example, we've got,
0:07:10 > 0:07:14"Made by hand in Suffolk from whole and fresh fruit,"
0:07:14 > 0:07:17and inside, we've got a claim about the origin of the product.
0:07:17 > 0:07:21So, here it says, "We use a range of East Anglian soft fruits in all
0:07:21 > 0:07:25"the jams, so unusually, our strawberry jam is genuinely English."
0:07:26 > 0:07:28But as Clare was about to find out,
0:07:28 > 0:07:31that couldn't have been further from the truth.
0:07:31 > 0:07:35When she visited the company, they admitted they were using some
0:07:35 > 0:07:39frozen fruit, but a whole lot more fakery was about to emerge.
0:07:39 > 0:07:43The company indicated they used another supplier in Suffolk.
0:07:43 > 0:07:46Our food officers visit all companies in Suffolk,
0:07:46 > 0:07:48so we were aware of this particular supplier.
0:07:48 > 0:07:52We knew that they were a supplier of frozen and imported fruits.
0:07:52 > 0:07:56That was a trigger for looking into it a little bit more.
0:07:57 > 0:08:00Clare made test purchases.
0:08:00 > 0:08:04Liaising with the supplier and using the batch number on the bottom of the jars,
0:08:04 > 0:08:08she was able to trace the precise origin of each pot of jam.
0:08:08 > 0:08:14She also went back through Stonham's fruit supply history to 2008.
0:08:14 > 0:08:16She couldn't believe what she discovered.
0:08:16 > 0:08:22The company hadn't actually sourced any fruit from Suffolk during that period.
0:08:22 > 0:08:26We have a certificate of origin which shows that the strawberries in this
0:08:26 > 0:08:29specific batch of jam that we were looking at originates from
0:08:29 > 0:08:31the People's Republic of China.
0:08:31 > 0:08:36We have a shipment of 2,400 cartons of frozen strawberries to the supplier,
0:08:36 > 0:08:40and then part of that batch was then supplied to Stonham Hedgerow.
0:08:40 > 0:08:45Stonham Hedgerow claimed it was selling "genuinely English" strawberry jam.
0:08:45 > 0:08:50In reality, it was buying in frozen fruit from halfway around the world.
0:08:50 > 0:08:52The company was selling fake jam.
0:08:52 > 0:08:55Clare's investigation showed that since 2008,
0:08:55 > 0:08:59the company had progressively sourced its fruit from further
0:08:59 > 0:09:02and farther away from Suffolk.
0:09:02 > 0:09:05The fruit was sourced from Essex and then further afield to Norfolk,
0:09:05 > 0:09:10a bit further afield to Yorkshire, and then to Europe.
0:09:10 > 0:09:14So the fruit was sourced from Poland, and then more recently,
0:09:14 > 0:09:16the fruit was sourced from China.
0:09:16 > 0:09:19The maths of the fakers' operation soon became clear.
0:09:19 > 0:09:22Had the company used genuine, fresh, local fruit,
0:09:22 > 0:09:26it would have cost over £50 for a 20-kilo batch.
0:09:26 > 0:09:29In reality, during the period that Clare checked,
0:09:29 > 0:09:32they were getting their fruit for a lot less.
0:09:32 > 0:09:35What we're looking at here is a table which shows us fruit prices
0:09:35 > 0:09:38and the corresponding origin of that fruit.
0:09:38 > 0:09:43What we can see through the timeline is the fruit got cheaper as
0:09:43 > 0:09:46the fruit was sourced from further afield.
0:09:46 > 0:09:51Using frozen strawberries from Essex brought the cost down to £40.
0:09:51 > 0:09:53From Norfolk, to £35.
0:09:53 > 0:09:56The Suffolk fruit would have cost £50.
0:09:56 > 0:09:58The company then went to Yorkshire,
0:09:58 > 0:10:03and the frozen strawberries there came in at £30.
0:10:03 > 0:10:07Finally, September 2010 to March '11, we have frozen strawberries
0:10:07 > 0:10:11coming in from China, and the price was £1.27 a kilo.
0:10:11 > 0:10:15So the cost of fruit has, you know, gone down to £25.
0:10:16 > 0:10:19The company had halved their fruit costs by buying cheap,
0:10:19 > 0:10:21frozen fruit from China.
0:10:21 > 0:10:27But they were still charging consumers a small fortune for their fake premium jams.
0:10:27 > 0:10:32£3.85, it's one of the most expensive jams we found in the market.
0:10:32 > 0:10:38We went into a supermarket and picked up a jar of strawberry jam for, I think, about 69p.
0:10:38 > 0:10:41In reality, you're probably not getting an awful lot more.
0:10:41 > 0:10:45Fake origin claims were found with six varieties of the company's jam.
0:10:45 > 0:10:48Stonham Hedgerow were in a sticky situation.
0:10:48 > 0:10:51The company pleaded guilty to 12 charges of falsely
0:10:51 > 0:10:55claiming its jams contained locally-sourced produce.
0:10:55 > 0:10:58Not only were their strawberries from China, but their blackcurrants,
0:10:58 > 0:11:02redcurrants and raspberries were actually from Poland.
0:11:02 > 0:11:06Their fines and costs came to over £12,000.
0:11:06 > 0:11:09They've since removed the description "Suffolk" from their ingredients list.
0:11:09 > 0:11:13They are also no longer producing misleading literature.
0:11:13 > 0:11:16Suffolk is known as a foodie destination.
0:11:16 > 0:11:20What people don't expect is that fruit described as "Suffolk"
0:11:20 > 0:11:22is actually from China.
0:11:29 > 0:11:32The discovery of the fake food certainly seems to have had
0:11:32 > 0:11:35an effect on the consumer. A recent Which? survey
0:11:35 > 0:11:39found six out of ten people have changed their buying habits
0:11:39 > 0:11:41since the horsemeat scandal started.
0:11:41 > 0:11:45But, even the very top end of the market isn't free from fraud.
0:11:45 > 0:11:48Trading Standards have uncovered major fakery amongst the most
0:11:48 > 0:11:51supposedly ethical suppliers.
0:11:51 > 0:11:54Eight out of ten UK households buy organic food.
0:11:54 > 0:11:58And this husband and wife team saw that as a way to easy money.
0:11:58 > 0:12:01Setting up a firm called Swaddles with this manager,
0:12:01 > 0:12:05they went into the fake organic market, but with a twist.
0:12:05 > 0:12:09They simply repackaged a range of ordinary foods
0:12:09 > 0:12:13and charged premium organic prices for them.
0:12:13 > 0:12:17Basically, they were buying in non-organic ingredients
0:12:17 > 0:12:19and then passing them off as organic.
0:12:19 > 0:12:22And over the five-year period that they were doing this,
0:12:22 > 0:12:26we've calculated that the fraud is worth half-a-million pounds.
0:12:26 > 0:12:31They boasted on their Swaddles website to be "organic, natural, and ethical."
0:12:31 > 0:12:35Trading Standards got a warrant and moved in.
0:12:35 > 0:12:38And they found that Swaddles was a swindle.
0:12:39 > 0:12:44While our officers were there seizing evidence, lo and behold,
0:12:44 > 0:12:48we have two deliveries from their main non-organic suppliers,
0:12:48 > 0:12:51who came in their own-branded vehicles to deliver that very day.
0:12:54 > 0:12:57But it was the paper trail that really shocked them.
0:12:57 > 0:13:00We found that there were bagfuls of receipts
0:13:00 > 0:13:04from their local Waitrose and a local Tesco store,
0:13:04 > 0:13:07where they had quite clearly been going almost on a daily basis
0:13:07 > 0:13:11and purchasing supplies from them.
0:13:11 > 0:13:14The vast majority of those receipts showed
0:13:14 > 0:13:16that they were purchasing non-organic produce.
0:13:18 > 0:13:23Among all this was a vital receipt for a Waitrose salmon costing £20.
0:13:23 > 0:13:28Swaddles then sold it on as organic for £51.
0:13:28 > 0:13:31It was sent to a lab and provided vital evidence in court.
0:13:31 > 0:13:35We had it analysed by the public analyst, and he found that
0:13:35 > 0:13:37it was the artificial colour that was in there,
0:13:37 > 0:13:40so we were satisfied that it was not an organic fish.
0:13:40 > 0:13:44And the Swaddles scam wasn't just supplying food locally.
0:13:44 > 0:13:47It went all the way to the top of the food chain.
0:13:47 > 0:13:51Even Fortnum & Mason were deceived into buying Swaddles'
0:13:51 > 0:13:53fake organic pies.
0:13:53 > 0:13:59With the Royal Warrant over the shop, who knows who has been fooled?
0:13:59 > 0:14:03Using lab analysis, Northampton Trading Standards set out to uncover
0:14:03 > 0:14:07where the pork pies Swaddles were selling really came from.
0:14:07 > 0:14:11They found a locally-produced pie that looked identical.
0:14:11 > 0:14:15We had information that they were buying in pork pies from somewhere.
0:14:15 > 0:14:20In a small village, they discovered an old family butchers making
0:14:20 > 0:14:23delicious pork pies, but they weren't organic.
0:14:23 > 0:14:27By analysis by our public analyst, who chemically analysed them,
0:14:27 > 0:14:29he confirmed that they were the same pies too.
0:14:29 > 0:14:34Chris Saul had no idea Swaddles were buying his pork pies
0:14:34 > 0:14:39at £1.30 apiece and selling them on as organic for £2.50.
0:14:39 > 0:14:41I'm amazed, and...
0:14:41 > 0:14:46well, I find it pathetic, really, that they've got to go and do that.
0:14:46 > 0:14:50So many people that are trying to fraudulently sell you stuff
0:14:50 > 0:14:53that isn't what they say it is.
0:14:53 > 0:15:00And, basically, the number of people that just don't know when enough money is enough.
0:15:00 > 0:15:04People who buy organic food expect it to be organic, and rightly so.
0:15:04 > 0:15:08It should be exactly what it says it is. This is just a complete con.
0:15:10 > 0:15:13In the end, the case went from the kitchen to the courtroom.
0:15:13 > 0:15:16The year-long investigation cost £60,000,
0:15:16 > 0:15:21and all three were found guilty of fraudulent trading.
0:15:21 > 0:15:24Neil Stansfield got 27 months in prison.
0:15:24 > 0:15:29His wife, Kate, got 50 weeks in jail, suspended for two years.
0:15:29 > 0:15:32And their manager got 40 weeks behind bars,
0:15:32 > 0:15:34suspended for two years.
0:15:34 > 0:15:37Are you sorry you lied? Any apologies for those you cheated?
0:15:37 > 0:15:39Apparently not.
0:15:39 > 0:15:41No. No comment.
0:15:41 > 0:15:45I think the sentence is appropriate for the type of crime that he's committed.
0:15:45 > 0:15:49You know, it sends a clear message out to anyone in business
0:15:49 > 0:15:52that this type of fraud won't be tolerated.
0:15:52 > 0:15:53Anything for those you cheated?
0:15:55 > 0:16:01So, selling organic pork that isn't can be disastrous for a business,
0:16:01 > 0:16:05but as we'll now see, some products sold as ham have absolutely
0:16:05 > 0:16:08no ham in them, organic or otherwise.
0:16:14 > 0:16:20During their lifetime, the average Briton will consume 2,500 takeaways.
0:16:20 > 0:16:24It's a fair bet that a big slice of those will be...pizza.
0:16:24 > 0:16:29Surely there's no such thing as a fake pizza? Well, I've got one here.
0:16:29 > 0:16:33You see, one of the most popular toppings for pizza is ham,
0:16:33 > 0:16:37and we've discovered that ham isn't always ham.
0:16:37 > 0:16:39Someone has been telling porkies.
0:16:39 > 0:16:43These Derby Trading Standards officers are ordering pizza,
0:16:43 > 0:16:45but it's not lunchtime.
0:16:45 > 0:16:47Hi, can I order some pizzas, please?
0:16:47 > 0:16:49Three ten-inch Hawaiian.
0:16:49 > 0:16:50Thank you, bye now.
0:16:50 > 0:16:54They're following up on some detective work they've been doing
0:16:54 > 0:16:55on pizza toppings.
0:16:55 > 0:16:58The team has discovered that takeaways in town were
0:16:58 > 0:17:02offering ham pizzas on the menu which produced surprising results
0:17:02 > 0:17:05when that ham was actually analysed.
0:17:05 > 0:17:08I visited numerous establishments throughout Derby
0:17:08 > 0:17:12and was purchasing pizzas which had toppings on described as ham.
0:17:12 > 0:17:15We took ten samples,
0:17:15 > 0:17:20and nine of those came back as turkey on the pizza rather than ham.
0:17:20 > 0:17:24This is a product that many takeaways in the area were using -
0:17:24 > 0:17:29not ham at all. It's turkey. Well, about 30% of it is.
0:17:29 > 0:17:34The rest is mechanically recovered chicken and other ingredients.
0:17:34 > 0:17:37We're now looking to go back to the premises that we visited
0:17:37 > 0:17:39where we found the initial problems
0:17:39 > 0:17:43and we will take formal samples and submit them to an analyst.
0:17:43 > 0:17:46It's four months since the takeaways received their warnings,
0:17:46 > 0:17:49and now it's time to revisit the offending restaurants to see
0:17:49 > 0:17:51if they've cleaned up their act.
0:17:51 > 0:17:55And that's why the team is ordering pizza. Now, it's time to collect.
0:17:55 > 0:17:58- You go in first and just grab it and then we'll walk in.- Yeah, OK.
0:17:58 > 0:18:01- Hi.- Hello, there.
0:18:01 > 0:18:03- £12, then.- Yep.
0:18:03 > 0:18:08My name's Paul King, I'm from Trading Standards. There's my identification.
0:18:08 > 0:18:11Paul explains that they're there to check that what they're putting
0:18:11 > 0:18:15on their menu is the same as what they're putting on their pizzas.
0:18:15 > 0:18:18I can see that you've got the turkey next to your ham on the Hawaiian,
0:18:18 > 0:18:21though obviously you would need to make it clear as well
0:18:21 > 0:18:24it applies to the ham on the Napoli as well.
0:18:24 > 0:18:27After their warning, this shop has made an attempt to comply
0:18:27 > 0:18:30by putting a handwritten "turkey" sign on the menu.
0:18:30 > 0:18:33But Gabrielle thinks there's still more they need to do
0:18:33 > 0:18:35to comply fully with the law.
0:18:35 > 0:18:38The issue is purely about describing things correctly.
0:18:38 > 0:18:42Is that it, can I have a little look? Halal Turkey Julienne.
0:18:42 > 0:18:45So really, what you should be describing it as
0:18:45 > 0:18:48is exactly what it says there, Turkey Julienne.
0:18:48 > 0:18:51They label and bag the pizzas, give one to the shop,
0:18:51 > 0:18:55keep one for themselves and one will be sent to the public analyst.
0:18:55 > 0:18:56Bye now, bye.
0:18:58 > 0:19:02Onto the next shop. Perhaps this one will fare a bit better.
0:19:02 > 0:19:06And is this actually ham that's on the pizza, or is it...?
0:19:06 > 0:19:08Right, OK.
0:19:14 > 0:19:17Yeah, the word "ham" can only be used to describe pork.
0:19:18 > 0:19:21Yeah, you're halal.
0:19:21 > 0:19:24There's no problem with you having turkey and not serving ham,
0:19:24 > 0:19:26but the problem is...
0:19:26 > 0:19:28the way you describe it, exactly.
0:19:28 > 0:19:30Like all the others, this shop is halal,
0:19:30 > 0:19:33so they don't want to serve pork products.
0:19:33 > 0:19:36But they still want their customers to believe
0:19:36 > 0:19:37that they have it on their menu
0:19:37 > 0:19:41because many of the top-selling pizzas have ham on them.
0:19:41 > 0:19:44So they continue to label their pizzas as just that.
0:19:44 > 0:19:46The team moves on to a third shop,
0:19:46 > 0:19:50which has been warned in the past for serving fake ham.
0:19:50 > 0:19:52Hello there.
0:19:52 > 0:19:56I've got an order to collect. We're doing a formal sample.
0:19:56 > 0:19:59And once again, Gabrielle and Paul find them
0:19:59 > 0:20:02serving a turkey substitute instead of ham.
0:20:02 > 0:20:05But the manager thinks he's got an excuse.
0:20:05 > 0:20:07He claims the business has just changed hands,
0:20:07 > 0:20:11and the new owners weren't aware of the situation.
0:20:11 > 0:20:14So when did he take over ownership of the business?
0:20:16 > 0:20:17The third week.
0:20:17 > 0:20:21His co-worker thinks that having only been there for a few weeks
0:20:21 > 0:20:22will get them off the hook.
0:20:25 > 0:20:28Unfortunately, that's exactly what's happened.
0:20:28 > 0:20:31We were here in the summer and we bought pizzas,
0:20:31 > 0:20:34that's why this is a formal sample. Yeah.
0:20:34 > 0:20:37The reality is the name of the person on the wall,
0:20:37 > 0:20:39on the public liability insurance,
0:20:39 > 0:20:42has at least been there since October last year.
0:20:42 > 0:20:45Out of the three pizza shops visited on the day,
0:20:45 > 0:20:48only one has shown any signs of improvement,
0:20:48 > 0:20:52and the other two appear to have ignored Trading Standards' warnings.
0:20:52 > 0:20:54There were some businesses that we thought,
0:20:54 > 0:20:56"They are listening to us," and actually,
0:20:56 > 0:20:58it looks as if we may have been proved wrong.
0:20:58 > 0:21:01But the situation did improve at two of the shops.
0:21:01 > 0:21:04They subsequently labelled their toppings properly,
0:21:04 > 0:21:06while the other one they visited,
0:21:06 > 0:21:09well, that later went out of business.
0:21:15 > 0:21:18MUSIC: "Flight of the Bumblebee" by Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov
0:21:18 > 0:21:20These British bees are busy pollinating flowers
0:21:20 > 0:21:23and producing the 6,000 tonnes of honey
0:21:23 > 0:21:26that the UK creates every year.
0:21:26 > 0:21:30But consumers here eat five times more honey than our bees can make.
0:21:30 > 0:21:34So we import huge amounts from across the world.
0:21:34 > 0:21:37Because we can't produce enough honey to meet demand,
0:21:37 > 0:21:40there's room for the fakers to move in.
0:21:42 > 0:21:46This is the Trading Standards office at Worthing near Brighton in Sussex.
0:21:46 > 0:21:49Like Trading Standards teams across the country,
0:21:49 > 0:21:52they're getting used to seeing food fakery.
0:21:52 > 0:21:57But one recent case they found in a local store surprised even them.
0:21:57 > 0:22:01We basically found a variety of products on sale,
0:22:01 > 0:22:04and one of these was this type of honey product here.
0:22:05 > 0:22:09It's described as honey, but inside it looks like a syrup-based product,
0:22:09 > 0:22:12and that's where our suspicions started off from.
0:22:12 > 0:22:15Trading Standards did a test purchase of a jar
0:22:15 > 0:22:19of the strange-looking honey, and decided to send it for analysis.
0:22:19 > 0:22:22Worthing Council came, they just checked it and it wasn't right,
0:22:22 > 0:22:24so they took it away from us.
0:22:25 > 0:22:29The honey was sent for testing at this specialist lab in Worcester.
0:22:31 > 0:22:35They have a variety of procedures designed to find out
0:22:35 > 0:22:37exactly what's in any product that's sent to them.
0:22:41 > 0:22:44There's a small sample of the supposed honey mixed in with
0:22:44 > 0:22:47other materials in that tiny bottle, but it's
0:22:47 > 0:22:52enough for the machine to analyse exactly which sugars it contains.
0:22:52 > 0:22:55The amount of the various different sugars lets us know
0:22:55 > 0:22:57whether it's a genuine honey or not.
0:22:57 > 0:23:00And elsewhere, the honey was put under extreme magnification.
0:23:00 > 0:23:03Chances are it should contain some of this...
0:23:03 > 0:23:04Pollen.
0:23:04 > 0:23:07If it was a heather honey I would have expected to have seen
0:23:07 > 0:23:11heather pollen, but on this sample there's no pollen grains present.
0:23:11 > 0:23:15And having spun, dipped and micro-analysed the honey,
0:23:15 > 0:23:18they reached their conclusions about what was in the sample.
0:23:18 > 0:23:21The analysis has shown that there's no honey present in the sample,
0:23:21 > 0:23:24and it's most likely a sugar syrup.
0:23:24 > 0:23:28With confirmation that it wasn't actually honey, Trading Standards
0:23:28 > 0:23:32decided that they needed to seize all supplies of the fake spread.
0:23:32 > 0:23:34They traced it to an East London importer
0:23:34 > 0:23:38and took their van to take away whatever they could find.
0:23:38 > 0:23:41When we entered the premises, we discovered over 1.1 tonnes
0:23:41 > 0:23:45of the fake honey, which certainly filled our van on that occasion.
0:23:45 > 0:23:49The company had imported the fake spread from the Middle East,
0:23:49 > 0:23:51and there was a simple economic reason
0:23:51 > 0:23:53why the manufacturer used syrup.
0:23:53 > 0:23:56It's as little as a quarter of the price of quality honey.
0:23:56 > 0:23:58When they described this product as honey,
0:23:58 > 0:24:01they clearly knew it was a syrup-based product,
0:24:01 > 0:24:03a cheaper version and an inferior product.
0:24:04 > 0:24:06And this was where the syrup ended up.
0:24:06 > 0:24:11It's a huge quantity, but it will all have to be destroyed.
0:24:11 > 0:24:14The discovery meant bad news for any shop owner who had
0:24:14 > 0:24:18unwittingly bought in supplies of the fake honey.
0:24:18 > 0:24:20We lost money, and, you know,
0:24:20 > 0:24:23we lost the reputation of the business as well.
0:24:23 > 0:24:27And with all the syrup doing porridge in the Council building,
0:24:27 > 0:24:30fakes are off the morning menu.
0:24:30 > 0:24:33Let's hope we have made the breakfast tables of Worthing a safer place.
0:24:40 > 0:24:43This is Rosie, and she is a free range chicken,
0:24:43 > 0:24:48which means that she's got loads of room to scratch around outside.
0:24:48 > 0:24:52It also means that her eggs are worth more than
0:24:52 > 0:24:55if she was a caged bird and all cooped up.
0:24:55 > 0:24:57That difference in price led to fakery
0:24:57 > 0:24:59on a multi-million pound scale,
0:24:59 > 0:25:03and more importantly, meant that thousands of us ended up
0:25:03 > 0:25:07paying for something that we didn't actually get in our egg cup.
0:25:10 > 0:25:12Welcome to the chicken run.
0:25:12 > 0:25:15If you're one of these birds, the biggest moment of your life comes
0:25:15 > 0:25:19when it's decided if you'll go to a free range farm with plenty of space
0:25:19 > 0:25:24like this one, or become a caged hen laying eggs behind bars.
0:25:29 > 0:25:31Some people still buy the caged hen eggs,
0:25:31 > 0:25:35but con men have given themselves free range
0:25:35 > 0:25:37to label them as something a bit classier.
0:25:39 > 0:25:45Profit. Hard and fast. If you buy a free range egg, £3 a dozen.
0:25:45 > 0:25:49A cage egg would cost you half that, and it's that extra profit
0:25:49 > 0:25:53which drives the criminal element of the industry.
0:25:53 > 0:25:57And it's our job to sniff these people out and to prosecute them.
0:25:59 > 0:26:02The egg industry is under constant attack from fraudsters,
0:26:02 > 0:26:05and Alistair and his team of investigators exposed
0:26:05 > 0:26:08a massive multi-million pound fraud.
0:26:08 > 0:26:12Keith Owen repackaged eggs from places like this and conned
0:26:12 > 0:26:16top supermarkets into thinking they came from wide-open spaces.
0:26:16 > 0:26:20He was found out when Alistair's team made a random visit
0:26:20 > 0:26:23to a warehouse using some forensic technology.
0:26:25 > 0:26:29Chickens can't talk but their eggs can tell a story.
0:26:29 > 0:26:32What we have here is a batch of eggs which
0:26:32 > 0:26:36I have selected at random from the packing centre.
0:26:36 > 0:26:39Can we have the lights out, please? Thank you.
0:26:39 > 0:26:42And we use this ultraviolet light
0:26:42 > 0:26:46to detect the marks which are left on the eggs,
0:26:46 > 0:26:50depending on... The marks depend on the type of cage
0:26:50 > 0:26:54and the type of production unit which the eggs have been produced in.
0:26:56 > 0:27:01When an egg is laid, the shell is wet, and the surface that the
0:27:01 > 0:27:06egg lands on will leave an impression on the shell of the egg.
0:27:08 > 0:27:13This line here is a typical mark which is left by an egg which is
0:27:13 > 0:27:20laid in a cage environment as opposed to a free range or barn system.
0:27:22 > 0:27:26With that evidence, someone else was going to be living behind bars.
0:27:28 > 0:27:33Inspectors had unravelled what was then the largest ever fake food scam
0:27:33 > 0:27:37in Britain, 108 million eggs had been re-labelled.
0:27:38 > 0:27:40Owen was jailed for three years.
0:27:42 > 0:27:45Today's inspection at this farm shows all is well,
0:27:45 > 0:27:48but the owner is angry that several honest farmers
0:27:48 > 0:27:51couldn't compete with the con man and went out of business.
0:27:51 > 0:27:53I think the wake-up call,
0:27:53 > 0:27:55the industry possibly could have been naive
0:27:55 > 0:27:58to think that most people are honest and trustworthy
0:27:58 > 0:28:02in every walk of life, but I think it did shock everybody,
0:28:02 > 0:28:05that someone would have the pure brass and greed.
0:28:05 > 0:28:08It's no different from rogue traders in the city.
0:28:08 > 0:28:09You just get greedy, I assume.
0:28:11 > 0:28:15If people aren't prepared to pay extra for free range or organic,
0:28:15 > 0:28:18it is their right to actually be buying what it says on the tin,
0:28:18 > 0:28:22and it's our job to ensure that that actually happens.
0:28:24 > 0:28:29And that's all from this special edition of Fake Britain. Bye-bye.
0:28:32 > 0:28:36Subtitles by Red Bee Media Ltd