Food Fraud Food Inspectors

Did you know, there are 600,000 places selling food in the UK?

That's hotels, pubs, bars, restaurants, supermarkets

and market stalls.

And here's another fact for you - there are only 3,000 people

responsible for making sure that they're clean and safe.

So, for every one of them, there are 200 food outlets.

No wonder those Food Inspectors are busy.

And throughout this series, we're with them

as they leave no cupboard unopened...

You've got insect legs in there.

..and no shelf unchecked.

You're selling fake wine to members of the public.

We'll be there as they take on the businesses that flout the rules.

We're off here, and you can go to hell.

And we'll be revealing the invisible risks you face every time

you eat out.

You're exposing your customers to get food poisoning.

'This week I'm down on the farm,

'discovering how infected milk and meat

'could end up on your table.'

This animal shouldn't be on this farm

so we need to know what's happened.

And we call in at this road-side food stop,

although YOU may want to keep on driving.

Those are mouse droppings again.

'I'm in the lab, looking at our bacteria of the week.'

In the right conditions it can spread like wildfire.

'And I'll discover how to avoid food poisoning at your party,

'with my special guest.'

He's a food inspector.

Great!

The average British family spends over £50 a week on food,

the majority of it spent in supermarkets, but do you really know

where your food comes from and whether it's safe to eat?

Food fraud is big business, and whether it's buying eggs that aren't

quite as organic as you thought, or prime Scottish beef which is

just old mince, it usually involves not getting what you paid for.

But here's a thing - a food fraud that could

result in you becoming ill.

It starts on the farm and could end up with

you or your kids eating diseased meat or drinking infected milk.

It's called "cow clocking",

and I'm about to meet part of the team trying to stop it.

-Hi, guys, how are you doing?

-Hi, pleased to meet you.

So, Steph, cow clocking.

I mean, I'm interested already. The name's great.

Where we're going today, we've reason to believe

there's problems with cattle identification, and cow clocking

is, basically, we think the identity of an animal is being switched.

So why should I care if cows are being confused?

Well, ultimately, that animal is a live animal

and at some point is likely to end up on our dinner plates.

Come on, we better go.

'Tuberculosis is on the rise in the UK.

'Last year, 25,000 cattle had to be destroyed because of the disease.

'And that's where cow clocking comes in.

'If the diseased cow is valuable, the farmer sends a less valuable one

'to slaughter, leaving the infected animal in the field

'and headed for your dinner table.'

Sadly, it's one or two individuals but those people are effectively

compromising the food chain in relation to tuberculosis

and that stems from, either a very good producer giving

a lot of milk, or the animal, if it's a beef animal,

is worth a lot of money.

This is a surprise visit to a Staffordshire farm.

The inspectors believe there are more cattle on this farm

than have been declared.

It could be an innocent mistake, or something more serious.

What are you mixing up there, what's going on?

-This is disinfectant, which is suitable for TB.

-Right, OK.

'With tens of thousands of cows testing

'positive for tuberculosis each year, stopping infected milk

'and meat ending up in your shopping basket is a massive task.

'To help the animal health team, every cow on every farm has

'an ear tag stamped with a unique identification number.'

-165-363.

-Correct.

'The team can check these numbers against a national database.'

-101-002.

-Yep.

'And the farmer, Michael Fenton, explains to me

'why they are all worth recording.'

Each one of those animals in there today has a real value for you.

-Yeah.

-How much on average are we talking?

A freshly calved cow is making £1,500 to £2,000 nowadays

cos there's a shortage of them all over the country.

The guys coming along totally out of the blue, is that all right for you?

I don't mind them coming, they're always here to help us

when we've had trouble in the past.

200-474 and 200-131.

The farmer's happy to cooperate with the officers,

but midway through their checking operation something doesn't add up.

Right, she's not on there. Right.

What's just gone through is a green-cross cow,

and a green-cross cow, they put a green cross on it because they can't

quite work out why it's not on the list, bit of a discrepancy there.

As far as we are aware, this animal shouldn't be on this farm

so we need to know what has happened

and why it hasn't been reported as being on this farm.

Whether it is actually that animal it says it is.

It's 100-862.

'Checking over 100 cows is painstaking work,

'but it's kept us largely free from tuberculosis,

'a potentially lethal disease which attacks the lungs.'

Another mystery cow.

'And there are also cows that should be on the farm but aren't.'

What I don't understand is that there are loads of gaps.

This has to be done so that we can find out where these

animals are so that if they are dead, if they've moved off the farm,

we can update the records, make sure that we've got traceability.

In all, Stephanie and her team have uncovered 28 suspicious cattle.

If they find even one cow has been clocked,

the farmer could face a criminal prosecution.

Can you understand why some farmers would be tempted to switch them?

Mmm. It seems to be always the good ones that end up

getting it and going, that seems to be the trouble.

-You get compensated for that?

-Yes, you get compensated,

but it's not as much as it costs to buy a new one.

We'll find out later

if the farmer's putting his profits ahead of our health.

Now, we all like a celebration, a gathering of friends

for a good old-fashioned knees-up, but did you know that

nearly 90% of all domestic food poisoning cases happen at parties?

Mass catering or reheating of pre-prepared food can be really

dangerous, and if it's not done properly,

you can wake up the next morning with more than just a hangover.

Hello!

Here in High Wycombe, Justine Jackson is cooking for her

Hollywood party and I'm about to gatecrash.

I promise you, this is how I am.

So, how do you have a knees-up without poisoning your friends?

To explain all, I've brought along a very special guest.

'Food Inspector Ben Milligan and I

'are not here to party - we've got work to do.'

-Hello, are you Justine?

-I am, yes.

-I'm Chris.

-Hi, Chris.

-Nice to meet you. This is Ben.

-Hi, nice to meet you.

-We've got a little surprise for you. He's a food inspector.

-Great!

We want to make sure that you're not going to poison any of your guests.

Oh, that's fabulous. I won't.

I like your confidence, Justine.

I wonder how long it'll last?

-So let's get this right, you're cooking for 37?

-Yep.

-Have you ever cooked for this sort of numbers before?

-No.

I've cheated before. Just got it all in.

-Alarm bells start ringing now?

-Some little ones in the background.

'The kitchen is spick-and-span, but 40% of party poisoning is down to

'bad food storage, and now Ben is making a beeline for the fridge.'

This is my favourite part - the fridge inspection.

I love to look at your face going, "Ohh!" What do we reckon?

Well, it's pretty organised.

There's no raw meats at the top, dripping on everything

so I'm quite happy with that.

It says it's at four degrees.

That'll be the air temperature but that's not necessarily

the product temperature, so the product might be a different

temperature and especially when you've got such a full fridge.

Take a tip from Justine and keep raw meat at the bottom of your

fridge to avoid cross contamination, and make sure everything is kept

between zero and five degrees,

and if your fridge is full of party food, beware.

As you can see at the top here,

you've got a fan in there at the back so you need a good

circulation of the air, so if that's in front of that like it was, there

is a potential that this stuff might not

-be at the four degrees that it says it is.

-OK.

If we just check it quickly - that's the chicken - it's at eight degrees.

It is warmer than what it says there.

If Justine's chicken had stayed at this temperature

for more than 4 hours, it could have contained some dangerous

levels of food poisoning bacteria.

And if toxins are present, that's bacteria faeces to you and me,

even reheating the food won't destroy them.

'And if the host doesn't poison you, one of the other guests might.

'A third of men admit to not washing their hands

'after going to the toilet.

'A grim statistic and could mean

'that a party is one big germ exchange.

'Cue Ben and tonight's guinea pig, Jo,

you've got it, Dorothy from the Wizard of Oz.

OK, Jo, what I've got here is a special powder and I'm going

to put it on your hands and you'll just act as you normally will

round the kitchen, we'll come back to you in about 15 minutes.

OK.

'Start the clock.

'Imagine the powder is bacteria left on your hands after a trip

'to the toilet. Let's see how those germs spread.

'OK, so she's spent some time in the kitchen doing a bit of cooking...

'of course, and a bit of drinking...

'and a lot of chatting.

'Let's see where those hands have been.'

Three, two, one, lights off.

If you're not washing your hands properly, this will show us

-how you can transfer things if you don't wash.

-OK.

The powder glows under ultraviolet light,

so where has the bacteria spread first?

I noticed you scratching the side of your head.

SHE LAUGHS

Obviously you've come over here

to wash your hands, you then turned the tap back off,

so what you should really do is give the taps a little wash.

So, Jo's sharing it with whoever wants the next drink.

We've got fingerprints.

The next person who tries to pour a glass

is going to pick up a bottle that's got bacteria on.

'And 15 minutes later, the bacteria is in your mouth.'

-This is why I tell people don't bite your nails.

-Yes.

-You don't want to have your fingers in your mouth.

-Yeah, it's amazing.

So, if you're cooking for very large numbers,

there are a few of Ben's rules worth following.

Keep food in the fridge as long as possible before serving.

Don't overfill your fridge, and keep the fan uncovered.

And finally, store leftover food in clean covered containers

in the fridge and eat within 48 hours.

The roadside cafe found in lay-bys up and down the country

is a great British favourite,

both with hungry truckers and desperate television presenters.

Having my break - a legal requirement. Having some food

and then back to work.

Today we're near Wolverhampton,

if you couldn't tell. This one is about to be inspected by one of

South Staffordshire's most stringent inspectors - Mike Sullivan.

We're on our way to the Bread Bin where earlier this year

we found extensive mouse droppings on the vehicle.

It was evident immediately that the proprietor was still serving

customers as normal.

This van is just off the M6 and Michael Bromley

has owned it for five years.

Hi, Mr Bromley, are you all right? We're here for your food inspection.

Since his recent mouse problem, the inspectors have become

another group of unwanted regulars.

They come round probably twice a year

and I feel very intimidated with them, very intimidated, yes.

They've never got a good word for you.

It don't matter how much you try, they've not got a good word for you.

OK, it's not much more than a hut on wheels,

but road-side cafes must meet

the same hygiene standards as the most swanky restaurant and expect

the same scrutiny from investigators.

That means getting stuck in.

I'm looking for any signs of pests.

See that - those are mouse droppings again,

and you can see the Yellow Pages has been stored in here,

that's been chewed so there's evidence of mice on the premises.

You wouldn't want to be eating a sandwich if you'd just seen that.

No.

There's confusion over how old the droppings are.

Mike suspects they may be new.

Mr Bromley says they are old ones from the previous inspection.

I'm not sure which is worse.

Can you leave that there for me, please, Mr Bromley?

That was from the last visit, it's never moved.

The owner is happy with standards here

and so it seems are his customers.

I come to the estate about three times a week

and I normally pop in here if he's open.

Just bear with me a minute.

Service is spot on and the food is as good,

if not better, than anywhere.

I'm just at the Bread Bin...

Up till now, this has just been a spot check

but Mike now escalates it to a full-scale inspection

and calls in his boss for help.

Unleash Jasmin! She's familiar with the hygiene issues at the Bread Bin

but she has dealt with bigger problems elsewhere.

I've had a case of a dead mouse in a milk bottle.

And it was one of these

sterilised milk bottles,

so once it died the cleaning process didn't pick it up

and the controls that the dairy had didn't pick it up.

The mouse basically stayed in the bottle with the milk

and the top sealed on top.

Seems to be a dropping there.

Back at the van, Mike's forensic inspection is in full swing.

It's just...

They just keep on your back all the time, you know.

You can't get on with what you're doing.

I mean, you'd have a sandwich off here, I guarantee you would.

If you came here, you'd have a sandwich and you'd enjoy it.

-Hello, Mr Bromley. You OK?

-Not really, not really.

This is the box, I pulled it out to have a look.

Mouse droppings in there. There's quite a lot, isn't there?

Yellow Pages is all chewed.

Further inspection shows that Mr Bromley doesn't have a new

infestation, but he needs to clear the old droppings.

Then they find another pressing problem.

He's got no hot water as his urn has broken down.

You should have hot running water.

Excuse me, has anybody got any money to replace this? Because I haven't.

We'll have to serve a notice for you to provide hot water.

-Even though I use the kettle?

-You need hot running water.

You need a regular supply to the sink.

If you can't get it repaired, you need to get it replaced.

So I can actually be closed through not having running hot water?

If it's not replaced then we'll be looking at serving a notice

so you do need to do that.

At the moment, it's just a verbal warning, but if Mr Bromley's got

no hot water when the inspectors return in a week,

he could face closure.

Every business selling food, by law, needs to be registered and receive

regular visits from inspectors, and if you own one in Kettering in

Northamptonshire, you have to expect a knock on the door

from Eleni Vasilopoulou.

A cremated chicken wing!

I think cleaning as they go along is the answer to this.

Standards are not good.

Eleni's a former Chef, so comes down hard

on anyone not playing by the rules.

But after nine years in the job,

she's toned down her approach...a bit.

I tend to take quite a few breaths before I go into premises

nowadays and not pounce on people.

I've never been shy to say, "You're not doing a very good job",

because at the end of the day, I'm there to protect public health

and that's what drives me to be a certain way.

There are huge pressures in opening a business - staffing,

suppliers and getting cash into the till.

Food hygiene training may not be top priority.

I'm from Environmental Health

and I'm here to carry out a routine hygiene inspection.

I've just taken over five months ago so no-one's been round.

We don't actually know that you've taken over

so you haven't let us know.

Operating a food business without registering with the local council

is an offence. Obviously a law they didn't know about

and there are a few other worries.

-Is this your first time working in catering?

-It is.

What were you doing before, if you don't mind me asking?

-Driver.

-You were a driver?

-Who is in charge of the shop?

-Well, me and Marina joint, really.

Time for a crash course in food hygiene

and with Eleni as teacher, there's a lot to learn.

-You make the bread here, do you?

-Yes, we do.

-Right.

Not the cleanest of trays.

This one is broken, bits of plastic can fall back inside the bread.

Would you say this is acceptable,

the fact you have mould in the fridge seals?

You could get underneath there.

During the time when you're doing heavy-duty cleaning...

First impressions is they don't really know what they're doing.

-Can I ask, do you have a chopping board?

-I do, yes.

I'm worried that you'll cut your hand, the way you're doing it now.

She was handling food, she has false nails on.

At any time, a false nail can fall inside food

and cause a foreign body contamination.

Your thing is not working

so once you've washed your hands, you have to touch the lid.

This is an old piece of equipment

and there's bits inside the water, as well.

I want you to throw it away, really.

It's really made me feel very uncomfortable.

And what's making her more uncomfortable is that there's

a problem with the labels in the shop, too.

No, it's all Italian. There's no English on it.

By law, every product sold in the UK must have labelling in English.

Today, I'm taking more of a stricter approach because you are trading,

you have traded for four months and we didn't know about it.

Yes, he may be new to catering, but Eleni is leaving him

in no doubt about what he needs to do.

It'll take time, there's so many things we've had to do

since we've taken over and just little bits

and bobs that we have to get on top of.

Obviously, we need to step up a bit more to get it better.

Selling food to the public is a serious business -

you can't compromise.

Whatever you touch and handle will go inside somebody's stomach

and if that person is your mum and they get food poisoning

and they die, then it's my fault

that I didn't pick this up during my inspection.

Now for our bacteria of the week, and it can be a bit grim,

especially if you're not that clean and you handle food.

This is Staphylococcus aureus - great name,

not a great thing to have.

Let's have a look at it close up under the microscope.

So where does it come from?

Well, 50% of all people carry Staphylococcus aureus

and it spreads by people having very bad personal hygiene - you know,

picking your nose, picking spots, scratching your ears,

that sort of thing, and then you shake hands

and in the right conditions it can spread like wildfire.

If it gets into your food, it can produce a highly dangerous toxin.

OK, the symptoms.

Now, once the bacteria has entered the body, the illness can be

quite bad - abdominal pain, vomiting, diarrhoea and a fever,

but the good news is, it doesn't normally last more than a day.

So how can we avoid Staphylococcus aureus?

It doesn't like the cold, so when you've got food and you're

storing it, try and put it in the fridge. But above all, hygiene.

Staphylococcus aureus lives on our skin so keeping clean is important.

Cuts and grazes are especially vulnerable

so make sure any injuries are clean and covered.

Be careful with food that's handled a lot, like prawns,

cream cakes and cooked meats.

Use utensils instead.

It's been a week since food inspector Jasmin Thomas

visited the road-side cafe near Wolverhampton

which had mouse droppings and no hot water.

The mouse droppings have been removed, what about the water?

OK, Mr Bromley?

The reason for coming back today was really to see how you're

getting on with the hot water.

The urn wasn't working, was it?

I'm still waiting for one to come in so I've got that on order,

but I was telling the gas man about it, he says, "Hang on,

"the majority of catering vans don't even have them, they use a kettle."

Forget about what the gas man has said,

he is not responsible for advising you on...

-Yes, I know...

-..the legal requirements.

So, tips on food hygiene law from the gas man?

No wonder Jasmin suspects he isn't taking her advice seriously enough.

We may have to serve a notice for you to get the hot water installed.

-Never be in catering. Hard work.

-You're getting there so that's good.

Anything to do with health and environment is a headache.

The mouse problem may have gone, but if the hot water is not

replaced in 72 hours, Jasmin will start to close him down.

I am going to push him to resolve this sooner rather than later,

because by the end of the week I'll need to know whether I need

to serve a notice or not, or whether he's just stringing me along.

Back at the Staffordshire livestock farm,

Stephanie Young and her colleagues are continuing their investigations.

Earlier, they discovered that 28 of the cows here don't match

those on the official records.

-So what was the number, sorry?

-305-947.

Another mystery cow.

The team needs to know whether or not any of the animals

on the farm is infected with tuberculosis.

There's one medical test that will prove it definitively.

Roger, who is the animal health officer,

he will find out in 72 hours whether it's come up in a red bump.

If it is, then it's got TB and needs to be sent for slaughter.

After a long and agonising wait, the tests proved negative.

None of the animals had TB.

-200-391...

-So what about the mystery cows in the barn?

In the end, it emerged that they were all legitimate.

The farmer had simply fallen behind with his registration paperwork.

You've got to do it so they can trace things.

It's just, by the time you've finished at night,

you don't feel doing the paperwork.

For Stephanie Young, it's a good outcome but it's only because of

inspectors like her that we can be confident about what we're eating.

Every time anyone has a glass of milk or a steak,

they need to know all this work has been done

and they don't have to think about it.

That's it. You want to know the food on your plate is going to be safe,

whether for yourself or your family,

and ultimately, this is a critical stage for that.

We're at the beginning of the food chain,

so that's why it's important that we identify a problem,

we come in and we get it sorted.

It may seem extreme that the Government wants to know

where every cow is all the time, to the point where

they even give them a passport, but then, last year, 25,000 cows were

infected with TB and it's essential that they are destroyed so that

both their milk and their meat doesn't make it into the food chain.

In Kettering, the Italian bakery complied with the law

and registered with the local council.

It also put all Eleni's hygiene and labelling advice into practice.

Bit stressed out at the beginning

but it's good to know what we need to do now.

In South Staffordshire, road-side cafe owner Michael Bromley did

finally heed the officers' warning.

He cleaned up his premises and fixed the urn.

-That's great, that's sorted then.

-But he was still in legal hot water.

In January this year, Mr Bromley pleaded guilty

to food hygiene offences and was ordered to pay £3,300.

And there's a lesson for business owners.

You might not like what the Food Inspectors have to say,

but you have to listen.

That's because they have the law behind them

and they are not afraid to use it.

Just as well, or even more of us could end up getting sick.

-Till next time, goodbye.

-Bye-bye.

Next week, I'm off to the seaside to check out takeaway terrors

with food inspector Steve Ramm.

This can form toxins and they could give customers food poisoning.

And I'm going back to university with Ben Milligan to study

the contents of the students' kitchen.

There could be salmonella, E.coli, campylobacter...

I think we're going to order a pizza!

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