Episode 1 Food Inspectors

There are over half a million food selling establishments in the UK.

That's a lot of places where you could be unintentionally poisoned.

-Yes, but most of them are as clean as a whistle.

-I would accept that.

However, a tiny minority lay on a veritable feast

for disease-spreading animals like mice and cockroaches.

Yeah. And that's why we welcome back...

..The Food Inspectors.

We've never been more interested in our food and this is the programme

that reveals what you really need to know

about the food on your plate.

Do you think people will know the difference?

It doesn't look like chicken.

Are they doing us any good?

I'll be lifting the lid on our billion-pound food industry.

Are our supermarkets as safe and clean as you might expect?

You were living virtually as slaves.

I'll teaching you how to avoid becoming the next food victim.

The Campylobacter has splattered everywhere.

I honestly thought I was going to die.

And I'll be joining Chris

to help reveal what's really in our favourite foods.

Anybody fancy eating any of this?

ALL: Urgh!

And, of course, we will be back out on the front line

with the food inspectors.

We can't leave you open with cockroaches.

From takeaways to gastro pubs, everyone is open for inspection.

If there is a food poisoning outbreak,

you would end up being prosecuted.

This week, Jen finds signs of a very unwelcome visitor.

That is a rat dropping.

Matt reveals the truth about the bugs lurking in our supermarkets.

They can be dangerous in the elderly

and they can be dangerous in the very young.

And I'm joining forces with Gaby Roslin

to find out exactly what's in ice cream.

Urgh!

The food industry is worth billions and, over the last few years,

it's totally transformed the way we shop and eat.

But that means, when it goes wrong, it can also have a massive impact.

Every week, I'll be lifting the lid on the big food stories

that could affect us all.

Last year, we Brits spent over £100 billion in supermarkets.

In fact, according to a recent survey, over 27 million of us

visit one more than once a week.

Of course, you'd expect the food that supermarkets sell us

to be safe and clean.

But the supermarkets themselves?

Well, tonight we're going to find out.

Are our supermarkets as safe and clean as you might expect?

Would you eat in a restaurant if it was dirty? Possibly not.

But what about the place where you buy your groceries?

Just how clean do you expect your supermarkets to be?

When you go into the supermarket, do you worry about germs?

No, I never worry about that.

No, I wouldn't. Maybe that's naive, but no.

Would you say you look at that as an inherently clean environment

or a dirty environment?

I would assume it would be a clean environment.

-I would think it's a dirty place.

-In what respect?

There are people touching things, picking them up, putting them down.

You don't know whether they're washing their hands.

I just assume it's all clean.

This one looks quite clean.

Do you ever think about this trolley

and the hygiene of this trolley when you're putting your son in there?

-Especially because he's always got this bit in his mouth.

-Really?

-Yes.

And it's filthy, obviously.

So, what have we learnt from that snapshot survey

of the British public?

Well, they believe they can trust the supermarkets

to keep themselves clean.

So are they right?

A couple of years ago, industry magazine The Grocer

reported that 54 supermarkets had been told to

improve their hygiene by food inspectors.

Meanwhile, across the pond, scientists in Arizona

were discovering indications of faecal matter

on shopping trolley handles.

It's an alarming survey from the US.

But then, along with Miley Cyrus and DVD box sets,

alarming surveys are one of America's chief exports.

What we really need is an unalarming American scientist

who can put all of this in context and tell us,

are supermarket bugs something we really need to worry about?

I've come to Reading University to meet Dr Ben Neuman.

He spends his life looking at the bugs and bacteria

that can make us sick.

So, Ben, what have we found from the American research that you've seen?

That was very interesting.

They looked at the sorts of bacteria

that you could find on shopping trolley handles.

The theory being that if you put your baby

right up there in the front of the shopping trolley,

he's going to be holding on to the handle

and a lot of times you'll see him chewing on the handle a bit.

And they were wondering what sorts of bacteria

could they be transmitting and also picking up?

What they found was a lot of different bacteria

that you'd find on your skin,

but also some much more problematic bacteria.

They found E. coli, which is basically an indicator

that they have faecal contamination and that's not nice.

So there are bugs on the handles of shopping trolleys

in the United States of America.

Well, that's a long way away.

How about here in the UK?

Are our trolleys clean? Are our supermarkets clean?

This is a swab kit and I have absolutely no idea how to use it.

But I know some people who do.

It's the food inspectors' team of secret swabbers.

They'll be visiting five of Britain's biggest supermarkets.

And they will swab the potato trays, chicken shelves and trolley handles -

just some of the places you'd regularly touch

while you're out shopping.

Join us later to find out what we discover.

And I warn you, it's not pretty.

Some of the trolley handles were really quite dirty.

We're in the university town of Coventry,

the second largest city in the West Midlands.

With a population of over 300,000,

there are plenty of diners eating out.

And, luckily for them,

there's a dedicated team of food safety officers,

whose job it is to keep places clean.

Meet germ-hating Jen, who's been keeping restaurants in check

for over six years.

Sometimes she works on tip-offs but, more often than not,

she's doing spot checks on all of Coventry's 2,500 food businesses.

I'm just off to a fried chicken place

that's popular with the students.

It's due for its routine food hygiene inspection.

So we'll see what we find.

Today, Jen is visiting the Hales Street branch of Benny's Chicken.

This busy takeaway is open 17 hours a day, seven days a week,

serving kebabs, burgers and chicken.

Co-owner is Mr Hussein.

Hi, are you all right? Is it all right to come in?

-Absolutely. Carry on.

-Brill, thanks.

I'll just put my white coat and hat on. So round the back? Lovely.

A quick change into her uniform, Jen is ready to get down to business.

She sticks her nose into places not many have been before.

Yeah, look. You need to make sure you're cleaning that

that little bit better. Make sure you scrub.

I mean, the floor generally, where you walk, is quite clean.

But it's this ingrained dirt down here.

The dirt is one thing, but now Jen spots another worrying sign.

What's that down there? Have you got a problem with mice?

Yeah, in the yard area.

Yep.

It's good to take precautions but Jen wants to dig deeper,

and further investigation shows the poison trays aren't up to scratch.

Your bait station shouldn't have ingrained dirt like that on them.

When you've got so much dirt and grease,

there's no way the mouse or rats are going to go and eat the poison.

And more poking around soon confirms Jen's worst fears.

That is a rat dropping.

So that would suggest that a rat has been in here.

Rat droppings are up to three times as big as mouse droppings

and can spread diseases such as Weil's disease,

which can bring on jaundice and kidney failure.

To find a rat dropping in a food premises is concerning because

it means that at some point a rat has obviously been in the kitchen.

It could be that a rat has been in here long time ago

and, due to the cleaning, it wouldn't surprise me

if that rat dropping had been there for some time.

Alternatively, there could be a current problem.

We need to have a look round and see if we can see any more evidence.

Now, one ancient rat poo

is not necessarily a sign of rats in the kitchen now,

but if Jen finds lots of fresh droppings,

there's almost certainly a problem.

Jen's hunt takes her to some boxed-up pipes.

Now, this is just the sort of place

the rodents might like to spend the night in -

quiet, warm and close to food.

It could be like a little run for rats.

They're quite happy living under there

and if they can come out somewhere

because your void seems to go on quite a way

and actually comes out where we found the previous rat dropping,

and that could be where they're running up and down.

It is a place which is hard to get to, so...

It could be an old one.

-A very old one.

-Yeah. Hopefully.

Jen's seen some pretty unpleasant sights in her time

but when she uncovers part of the boxing, it's a shock.

Wow, OK. That is a lot of rat droppings.

The important thing to remember with rats

is rats only go to the toilet quite infrequently,

so to have lots of rat droppings

suggests it has either gone on for some time or lots of rats.

It's really unacceptable to have a rat problem

at any point within a food business.

Rats carry food poisoning bacteria

and when they defecate and urinate everywhere,

potentially, that's a source of food poisoning bacteria.

They often run across work surfaces and things like that,

so we have to make sure that rat infestations are prevented.

The possible rat attack

isn't the only health and safety issue Jen unearths.

More snooping reveals other species

have also left droppings in the premises.

Is this the toilet?

I am a bit concerned that there's a pool

of what looks like potentially raw sewage down there.

The toilet is for use by customers and staff

and it's near the kitchen, meaning if there is a sewage leak,

harmful bacteria could be trampled near food preparation areas.

Luckily, there is another loo for staff upstairs.

With the list of problems mounting,

Jen decides to call in a workmate for a second opinion.

When a premises poses a clear risk to public health,

it could be shut down immediately.

I'm so glad you're there.

I don't suppose you'd be free to pop down, would you?

We'll be back later to find out whether the inspectors decide

to make the drastic decision to close Benny's down.

-It smells fairly rodenty, doesn't it?

-Yes.

Most of the food we eat does exactly what it says on the label.

Other food, well, it doesn't need a label.

But, in the modern world, food is getting more and more complicated.

So, have you ever wondered what is in your food?

This is what life is all about -

a cone, a big chunk of chocolate

and the biggest dollop of ice cream I could find.

How about this? The posh expensive stuff.

Mm. That's good too.

It says, "dairy ice cream".

But the one in your cone just says, "soft scoop".

-So what's in it, then?

-I don't know. Can you go and find out?

-You've really ruined my ice cream experience.

-Give me the cone.

We Brits love our ice cream.

In fact, each of us scoffs

an average of six litres of the stuff every year.

But, with so many options available, do we even know what we're eating?

-Do you eat ice cream?

-Yeah! I love ice cream.

-What do you think is in your ice cream that you eat?

-I don't know.

-What do you think it is made from?

-Cream? Mostly.

Dairy?

-Milk. Stuff like that.

-Milk and flavourings?

It should be made with cream and eggs.

In spite of strange ingredients like emulsifiers and whey powder

listed on the tubs, people think ice cream is still about the cream.

Award-winning dairy queen Susanna Austin agrees,

and insists on only natural ingredients.

She's going to show me how to churn it up the old school way.

So how do you make home-made dairy ice cream? What are the ingredients?

We've got double cream, whole milk, sugar, egg yolks and vanilla pods.

-That's it?

-That's it.

So first of all, we add the cream and the milk to the pan.

Then we're going to add our vanilla pods. Pop the seeds in the pan.

We bring that to a gentle boil and whilst that's happening

we're going to start separating the eggs, cos we just want the egg yolk.

And then we're going to add it to the sugar.

What made you start making your own ice cream?

I started out as a chef

and one thing I always loved making was ice cream.

It's my favourite thing to make in the kitchen.

What is the weirdest flavour you've ever made?

We did a burger ice cream once for National Burger Day.

-What, with meat in it?! Urgh! What did it taste like?

-Revolting!

-And how long do I have to do this for?

-About 15 minutes.

Then we're going to pour it into the ice cream machine and churn it.

It's important to churn it

because that will stop the ice crystals from building up.

And then we switch on.

-That's it?

-That's it.

-And then you've got ice cream.

-It's so simple.

Delicious, natural, home-made ice cream.

And it tastes really good.

Thank you very much.

So Gaby's home-made ice cream is full of natural ingredients.

Milk, cream, egg yolks, vanilla pods and a touch of sugar.

Now, I have had a little scoop and I can tell you it doesn't quite

taste like the ones in the supermarket and I want to know why.

So I've come to Reading University to meet Andrew Wilbey.

-Andrew.

-Morning, Chris.

-How are you?

-Fine, thanks.

Andrew is a lecturer in food and nutritional sciences.

His specialist subject - mass-produced ice cream.

He's going to teach me how to make the economy soft scoop version.

But the ingredients look nothing like I expected.

Just a bunch of white powder, basically.

First things first,

I don't see any bottles of milk or anything with that.

No. We've just used skimmed milk powder.

So no liquid milk or liquid cream, but we can still call it ice cream?

Yes, because that's the term that is permitted

under the food labelling regulations.

In go the whey powder and an array of sugars.

We have got a little tub here with emulsifiers.

Emulsifiers and stabilisers, yes.

I can see people at home almost sort of panicking

that this is going into our ice cream.

-Is it harmful to us?

-No, not at all.

Making this ice cream could not be easier.

Add it slowly.

All that powder is simply poured into a vat of water.

That's fine.

But we're not finished adding our ingredients yet.

What is this? Is this fat? Vegetable fat?

This is coconut oil. This is going to replace the cream.

Oh. I like cream.

Yes, but the one we are making now is the lower-cost ice cream.

Lower cost.

But there's one ingredient that bumps up the profit margin

on our economy soft scoop more than anything else.

-We are adding air to it?

-Yes.

-Is that necessary?

-Yes.

If you don't add any air, it's going to be a very solid product.

Most people expect a little bit of air in the ice cream.

-The soft and fluffy kind.

-Yes.

And obviously the less expensive ice creams

tend to have a bit more air in them.

So they put more and more air into it?

Yes. It's the cheapest ingredient.

It's chocks away as we churn up

around three litres of ice cream mix.

There we are. There's our ice cream.

That's probably seven litres.

Better than 50% increase in volume.

Wow! So we've managed to fluff up

our not-so-creamy budget dessert to double the size.

No wonder it's cheaper.

Later on, we stage a dairy showdown.

-What would that be?

-21.

21% fat?!

And I burst some ice cream bubbles.

I'm thinking already tonight I'll change my dessert!

I've always thought of you as a classy guy, Chris. I can say that.

Thanks, Matt. Yeah, I do like nice things in life. Good restaurants.

You would think that a really posh restaurant

would be a danger-free zone, wouldn't you?

Well, I would hope so, yes.

Well, then you should watch this.

It's not just takeaway joints that get inspected.

Every kind of food outlet, from simple sandwich stalls

to gastro pubs, are checked out by Britain's food safety officers.

In Oxfordshire, hygiene heroes Richard and Rebecca

oversee around 2,000 establishments

and, to build up an appetite, they do it all by bike.

Today, they are heading to popular gastro pub The Perch,

just a mile and a half from Oxford city centre.

It gets rave reviews for its fabulous French food.

But that doesn't mean the food hygiene is top notch.

On its last inspection, the officers gave it a lowly one out of five

for food storage and handling safety.

Although, after this visit,

The Perch is about to get new owners.

With fine dining, you get some particularly high-risk foods.

Things like steak tartare, which is basically raw meat.

Raw oysters, pink duck.

Things that are a little bit out of the ordinary.

It may be an old English pub, but the menu is inspired

by the homeland of the head chef, Stephane Pasquier.

For this Frenchman, nothing is more important than the taste

and the flavour of his food.

Even if it means serving it rare.

But our food inspectors have a different priority.

Keeping the public safe.

We've got a busy kitchen here so we'll let Chef get on

whilst we have a little look around.

Great. Let's look in the walk-in fridge.

So, yeah, we're all dated, we're all labelled.

Shallot, haricot beans.

The storage is looking OK.

Rebecca is now keen to have a close look

at how the meat is being cooked.

-So are these the beefburgers?

-Yes, they are.

-Do you mind if I just take a quick temperature of it?

-Go ahead.

Like any self-respecting Frenchman,

Stephane likes his beef pink and bloody.

I believe that you should have the choice.

Especially for me,

if I order a burger somewhere and it's well done, I'm not happy.

Customer preference is one thing,

but the Food Standards Agency says minced beef should be cooked

to at least 75 degrees to kill off all harmful bacteria.

A lot of people don't realise how dangerous it can be.

People are exercising a choice

when they don't really know what's going to happen to them.

The thing is, if it's a fresh burger,

you think it's still dangerous?

If the meat is contaminated on the outside

and it's got E. coli on it and then you mince it,

yeah, the burger's going to have E. coli in it.

E. coli is the bad boy of the bacteria world.

Last year, there were over 32,000 reported cases.

It's especially dangerous to the young, old and vulnerable.

If there is a food poisoning outbreak,

you would end up being prosecuted.

And, more importantly, people would be ill

if there is contamination there.

I'm going to follow your advice.

I'm going to put it back in the oven.

Richard and Rebecca have won the battle of the burger,

and now they've set their sights on another meat dish -

chicken liver parfait, which is pate to you and me.

When the parfait comes out of the oven,

-what temperature is it?

-65 degrees.

And in the process of cooking, before it comes out of the oven,

so when that boiling water's added, do we achieve 75 degrees?

-Do you know?

-No.

-OK.

-No, we don't.

-OK.

-The reason why, if I bring it to 70 or 75...

-Yeah, it's going to change...

-I'll stop making the parfait.

It'll change the texture, I understand that.

I would rather take it off the menu because the texture is like...

It's not parfait, it's like, er...

Richard is brave enough

to give the award-winning head chef some cooking advice.

Maybe par-cook the livers initially.

-Just par-cook them.

-No.

Mm, it's enough to make Stephane break out into a cold sweat.

Inspection over, now the time for Richard and Rebecca to give

The Perch a mark out of five for hygiene and food safety.

It's not going to be a great score,

and that's not because everything you're doing is bad.

That's not the case at all.

What it is, we've got certain very high risk dishes where I'm concerned

that the hazards aren't being controlled as well as they could be.

As it stands, erm, it's a one,

which means major improvement necessary.

But it is because of the specific dishes.

-Are you clear on that?

-Yeah, it's fine.

Is there any of those bits that you want to go through a bit more?

Yeah, it's no problem.

A rating of just one out of five

means major improvements are required.

If I still want to have my parfait on the menu,

I need to change radically, you know.

I need to do some research, I need to do some sampling, you know,

change the way I cook it. Er, I don't know.

But, yeah, that's my next step.

I think that it's possible for him to find a safe method, especially for

the parfait, cos there are high-end restaurants that are doing it safely,

and the customers still like the food.

We'll be back later to see if Chef Stephane has been able to

compromise his Gallic priorities and act on their food safety advice.

Earlier, I dispatched my team of secret swabbers

to do a snapshot test of ten supermarkets in north-west London.

Two each of ASDA, Sainsbury's, Tesco, Waitrose and Morrisons.

How clean are they?

The results are in. First up, the chicken shelves.

Across the board, they were hygienic,

indicating well-washed surfaces and leak-free packaging.

The trolley handles, though, told a different story.

Dr Ron Cutler is a microbiologist at Queen Mary University in London.

He's been analysing the swabs.

What we found was, alarmingly, some of the trolley handles

were really quite dirty and unhygienic, and that was a concern.

Of the 20 trolleys we tested, two from Tesco

and two from Morrisons had mixtures of potentially harmful bacteria

that were well above average levels, similar to the levels

you might find on dirty hands, mobile phones and toilet surfaces.

In these high-level mixtures, we found E. coli and enterococci,

which can cause a range of problems from vomiting to diarrhoea.

There were also staphylococci,

a skin bacteria which can cause infections like boils and abscesses.

I was quite surprised to find

so many Staphylococcus haemolyticus in these specimens.

Given the opportunity, they can cause infection.

They can be dangerous in hospitals,

they can be dangerous in the elderly,

and they can be dangerous in the very young.

Are you saying that this could be indicative of a systematic failure

to clean these trolleys on a regular basis?

It's obvious that some supermarkets do clean their trolley handles

on a regular basis, and maybe some don't.

Maybe somebody should look at it and just say,

"Well, what's happening here,

"and how do we actually protect the customers

"slightly better than we do?"

And the easy way to do that is just to wipe the handle

with an alcohol wipe.

It then puts the emphasis on both the supermarket to supply the wipes,

unless they want to sell them,

and the customer to actually do what they feel is correct.

To be clear, for the healthy,

these bugs are unlikely to pose a serious risk,

but for the very young, old and the vulnerable they can be harmful,

and the higher the levels of bacteria

the more chance there is of falling ill.

What about these potato trays?

At least one from each branch showed levels of bacteria higher

than you'd expect to find in a reasonably clean kitchen.

This is not surprising, as bacteria occurs naturally on raw vegetables

but does show that supermarkets aren't a sterile environment.

So which supermarkets had exactly which bugs?

All will be revealed later on.

So it sounds like there are some fairly unpleasant bugs

to be found in our supermarkets. But that's only half the story.

We now need to know how likely they are to spread.

And that requires another experiment.

Because if bugs like these can get onto our hands,

well, then, they can also get onto our food.

Welcome to the Food Inspectors supermarket.

We've added a special powder to some of the places where we found bugs.

Under a UV light, the powder shows up blue on the veg,

pink on the meat,

and green on the trolley handles.

When our shopper touches the powder,

it will spread from place to place just like germs do.

I've invited hygiene expert Dr Lisa Ackerley

to join me watching the action.

Out comes the trolley.

And in she goes.

Your typical shopper, that's all she is.

Right, so, she's picking up one of the vegetables

with the powder on it, and then some other vegetables.

We've got fruit now.

Chicken and meat can be contaminated

on the outside surface of the packaging,

there's been studies showing that.

We can see now with the ultraviolet light showing that the powder

that was put on the meat, that's transferred onto the bread.

So our leeks have got...

-They've got the green powder on.

-Which is the human stuff.

-Yeah.

From the trolley handle.

-Oh, no, so that's chicken germ on grape.

-Yeah, that's not good, is it?

Well, I'd be upset if I was then feeding those grapes to my child.

'So there's cross contamination between the foods.

'But is our shopper contaminated as well?'

It's all over her hands.

A little bit of everything - green, blue, pink.

'That means our shopper has picked up bugs

'from every surface she's touched.

'Trolley handle, meat packet and raw veg.'

So these bacteria are completely invisible.

We're just simulating them here.

But they can pass on from one contact surface to another,

so from a dirty food to your hands to a contact surface,

and then back onto someone else's hands,

and then onto a sandwich and into someone's mouth.

'In fact, we found signs of potentially dangerous bugs

'in all ten supermarkets we swabbed.

'And, thanks to our UV experiment, we now know just how easily

'germs can spread once they're on your hands.

'It's good practice to wash your hands

'as soon as you can after shopping.

'It gives you something to think about, doesn't it?

'In a bit, I'll be revealing exactly which bugs were found where.

'Back in Coventry,

'germ-hating Jen has found some rat droppings in a popular takeaway.'

Wow. That's a lot of rat droppings.

'She isn't sure whether they're new or old.

'She's also concerned that the staff

'and customer toilet could be leaking sewage. Hmm...

'Jen's asked her colleague, Becky,

'to join her for some more nosing around.

'If they both agree that the takeaway's a danger to its customers,

'they may be forced to close it down.

'Becky gets straight to business.'

Just have a look down the back there.

That's something you're going to need to get repaired

as soon as possible because, at the moment,

obviously there is a risk of you coming in here,

getting sewage on your feet

and then walking that into your kitchen, which is not very hygienic,

erm, and could cause a problem, so you need to get that sorted.

In the meantime, I think

it's probably best if you, erm, put an out-of-order sign on the toilet

and say that you're not going to use it for now.

'No-nonsense Becky is then shown the boxed-in pipe

'where, earlier, Jen found dozens of rat droppings.'

-Smells very rodenty down here.

-It does.

'The pipe leads through the kitchen

'and outside to the back of the property.

'They find a ready-made adventure playground for rats -

'mounds of loose garbage from neighbouring businesses.'

When you've got, you know, a communal area like this,

you will get rubbish dumped, unfortunately.

But obviously you've just got to make sure that you

keep your area nice and clean and tidy so that you don't encourage

any rats to come into your, you know, back yard, basically.

I know it sounds harsh because you haven't put that waste there

but, for the benefit of your business,

it might be worth a five-minute clean-up.

'Back in the kitchen, the duo scour the premises

'for any signs that the rats are hanging out inside.

'It's a tense moment for Mr Hussein, the owner, whose means of making

'a living could be put on hold if the inspectors discover fresh rat poo.'

I can't see any signs at the front of the shop.

There's no further rat droppings that I've seen so far.

And the ones that we have found in the void

do look like they may well be old droppings,

so I'm not concerned that there's a current rat infestation.

I was of the same opinion.

I couldn't see anything around those areas but I wanted a second opinion

because the level of cleaning around the edges isn't good enough.

You really need to improve that, er, because of all this fixed equipment,

and because you've got such a high amount of grease behind there,

and that's a perfect area where, you know, rats and mice are going to

run to because they like those sorts of areas if it's nice and warm.

We're not going to close you down today or ask you to close,

but we will need to do some serious sorting out

and remedial works to make sure

that it definitely isn't a current infestation.

And, generally, the cleaning really does need to be improved.

'The takeaway is left with a stern warning

'and a hygiene score of just one out of five.

'Jen and Becky order immediate action.

'We'll be back later to see

'whether Mr Hussein is able to turn this takeaway around.

Right, moment of truth...

'My economy soft scoop is well and truly frozen.

'It's time now to compare it to Gaby's home-made dairy ice cream.'

So we'll start off with the cheap ice cream, delicate little morsel.

Yes.

I like the texture in my mouth - nice, light and fluffy.

I have to say, it's, um...

..quite an artificial taste. It's sort of...

marzipan-y, sort of vanilla-y.

It doesn't feel like a natural flavour. Does it to you?

It's lacking the natural cream flavour.

All right. Well, we'll try Gaby's one.

Quite hard work to get it on the spoon.

Nearly broke the spoon.

You have to chew this, don't you?

-Yes, you've got ice crystals initially.

-Mm.

But you'll notice that it melts away very quickly.

-Yeah, once it's on its way.

-Then it's gone.

-It is very rich, though.

-Very rich.

Much creamier, much heavier ice cream.

You've got a higher fat content. The first one, the low-cost one,

-was 6% fat.

-What would that be?

-21.

-21% fat?!

-Yes.

So it's not diet ice cream, that one, is it?

HE LAUGHS

You'd have to be very careful how much you ate.

OK, Mr Ice Cream, over 30 years of experience in the business...

I'm going to give you a choice - Gaby's ice cream,

no additives at all but 21% fat.

And this one, 6% fat and all those additives in them.

Which one would you go for?

-I'll go with the 6%.

-Really? Why?

Lower fat content, the emulsifying stabilisers do no harm,

but a lot of good in maintaining the texture.

Mr Science Man says it's not doing you any harm at all,

those emulsifiers and additives, and he'd go for that one.

I'm going to have another test.

Go on, then, Chris.

I want to talk fatty facts with two generations of ice cream lovers,

and show the grown-ups their favourite

might not be as healthy as they think.

I'm taking the soft scoop kids love

and the posh stuff adults often prefer to a school.

-Who here likes ice cream?

-ALL: Me!

-Would you like to try some, guys?

-ALL: Yes!

I've got some soft scoop ice cream.

Grab your ice cream, but nobody eat it yet.

All right. Now, I'd like you all, get your spoons,

have a taste and then tell me what it tastes like.

ALL: Vanilla!

OK. But what does it feel like in your mouth?

-Cold, soft.

-Soft and cold.

-ALL: Yeah.

I'm just going to give your teachers some ice cream.

-They've got the posh stuff.

-Thank you.

Go on, have one of those each.

OK, teachers, what does that taste like?

-Very creamy.

-Very smooth.

-It doesn't taste like it's full of sugar.

-Do you eat ice cream often?

-Yeah.

-Go on, tell me how often.

-Probably about twice a week.

About two or three times a week, I reckon.

-Two or three times a week you have ice cream?

-I enjoy ice cream.

Which do you think would be "better" for you?

-That one or this one?

-This one.

-So you're saying the expensive, posh stuff would be better for you?

-Yes.

Why do you think the posh, expensive stuff would be better for you?

You're just convinced if something's more expensive

-then it's better quality.

-Made with better ingredients.

They are very natural ingredients, there's no denying that,

but I'm going to show you something very interesting.

If you were to have, of the soft scoop, two scoops a day

for a year, this is the amount of fats that you would have consumed.

Two scoops a day, every day for a year.

Do you want to put your ice cream pots on the bottom?

But I'm not finished!

All of that is just one person's for a year.

-Am I allowed to smell it?

-You can smell it.

ALL: Urgh!

You can touch it. Feel how greasy it is.

ALL: Ew!

OK, pop them back on here then.

Right. Now, wait there, everybody.

-Look at that.

-Oh, my...

Three times the amount of fats are in the posh, expensive ice cream.

Oh, wow. That's amazing. Oh.

The cheaper stuff filled these 15 cups.

The more expensive, a whole 45 cups.

Three times the amount of fat.

Guys, can you go and load these up on your teachers?

-This is two scoops a day for a year.

-CHATTER

-How does that make you feel now?

-Disgusting.

-It's definitely not so healthy.

-You think, "Can't be that bad."

And now I'm looking at it and it really is.

I mean, looking at this and smelling it,

I'm thinking already tonight I'll change my dessert.

-So you're quite shocked by that?

-Yeah, very.

-Could you blow up that balloon for me, please?

-I can try.

Beautiful. Thank you very much.

What has just filled up this balloon?

-ALL: Oxygen!

-Air.

Air. Well done, all of you.

-And guess what else is full of air.

-Ice cream.

-How did you know?!

-Er...cos we're doing things about ice cream.

Give me five really quickly.

So this is what your ice cream is also full of.

LAUGHTER

Put up your hand if you're still going to eat ice cream.

-For a treat.

-Always.

-Maybe.

-Always.

-Maybe.

-A maybe.

Only as a treat, definitely.

So would you go for the soft scoop or would you go for the posh stuff?

I do like the expensive ice cream.

I might... I might try and go for the soft scoop

and see if I can get used to that first.

And then...maybe only as a treat go for the expensive stuff from now.

Anybody not going to have ice cream ever again?

-But I love...

-Oh, is he your boyfriend?

-How long have you been going out? Just a few weeks?

-Er, yeah.

Oh, that's very nice. Are you in love? Are you going to get married?

-LAUGHTER

-Aw...

That's so lovely.

Thank you very much indeed. Give yourselves a big round of applause.

Are you doing to eat that?

Yeah. All the major food groups - vanilla, chocolate, strawberry.

-Thank you.

-Haven't you just seen the film?

The point is, though, this is the cheap stuff,

so I can eat three times as much.

Back at The Perch restaurant in Oxford,

head chef Stephane has been working hard to make sure

his French cooking is meeting our British food safety standards.

But has he had to compromise the taste

and texture of his food to keep Richard and Rebecca happy?

Two pork. Two salmon.

On their last visit, our food inspectors gave The Perch

just one out of five for food storage and handling safety.

That meant big improvements had to be made.

The restaurant is now under new management,

so will our bacteria-busting duo be satisfied by Stephane's changes?

We've been working on a new cooking technique for the chicken

liver parfait to make it perfectly safe to the guests, you know?

I didn't compromise anything, which is the most important.

Safe and uncompromised.

Stephane's signature dish, the chicken liver pate,

was causing our food inspectors most concern,

so has Stephane managed to balance safety and taste?

The recipe is still the same, it's just the cooking process

is just... I cook it a little bit longer than usually.

We're going to start with the livers. I'm going to add the eggs.

Eggs, raw livers, this is mega high risk at this moment, isn't it?

Oh, yeah, it is. Big time, yes.

And that is why it has to be cooked properly.

We don't want to be killjoys.

That's one of the painful aspects of the job,

when you're kind of telling somebody,

"You can't do your signature dish."

It's a nightmare, but obviously it has got to be safe as well.

But if we can get both - brilliant.

Now I'm going to put those bad boys in the oven.

They'd be potentially harmful if they weren't cooked properly.

But it's not just the parfait that Richard is keen to inspect.

Have they reduced the E. coli risk in their burgers by cooking them

to the recommended safe temperature?

What about the burgers then, Stephane?

-I now cook them through.

-Right.

-Yeah, we do.

-Right.

-We do.

Some people still ask...

-Still ask for the burger to be medium rare...

-Yeah.

..so we still do that.

But we tell them, you know?

So you're doing it to 75 as a point temperature?

I think that's better.

You have to make it safe. That's all, really.

This whole idea of gourmet food, it's happening more and more.

I mean, I think there's a demand for it.

And I think my concern is that customers are going to think,

"Well, I had it in a restaurant so I'm going to cook this burger

"from the supermarket pink," and the results aren't going to be pretty.

Right, parfait.

Gourmet Stephane will have to prove his new cooking methods

meet food safety guidelines.

He has to show his pate reaches a minimum temperature if

he's got any chance of improving his one-out-of-five food hygiene score.

Will the proof be in the parfait?

Just checking the core temperature to see that it gets up to 70,

which is the safe cooking temperature.

-OK, so we've got up... we've got past 70.

-Yep.

It hit 74,

so the time and temperature combination of that is fine.

-It should be wobbly, which is good, you know.

-Yeah.

If it's not wobbly any more, it will be overcooked.

Inspection complete, will Richard and Rebecca be satisfied enough

with what they've seen to improve on The Perch's one-star rating?

This place is really solid now.

What you've just demonstrated there is great.

All the other dishes, you know, spot on.

I can give it a new score and I will give it a new score.

-I'm going to give it four.

-OK.

-Which is... Which is good.

Really appreciate your hard work

and I'm extremely pleased that you've got par...

-Well, I think parfait should go back on the menu.

-Yes.

I'm happy with it from a food safety point of view.

If you're happy with it from the taste point of view, brilliant.

-Yes, fine.

-Nice one.

-Thank you very much.

-Thanks for your help.

Well, I'd love to get a five-star rating for my food hygiene procedure

because I think it's paid off since the last visit.

Yeah, great, very pleased, yeah.

So safety and taste have been preserved at The Perch,

and, with their work here done for another day,

our food inspectors get back on their bikes.

Now, if you've never had food poisoning,

you can count yourself very lucky, because every year one million of us

fall foul of a nasty bacteria in our grub,

and I'm not just talking about feeling under the weather.

20,000 of us end up in hospital

and, sadly, in 500 cases, it proves to be fatal.

Now, when it comes to food poisoning,

a little bit of knowledge can go a long way, so each week we're

going to be telling you about the most serious cases in the UK.

We'll be explaining exactly what happened and hopefully along the way

you'll pick up a few tips to make sure you're not the next victim.

These are the Poison Files.

-We're going to go this way. Come on.

-Meet Ian Mason.

He lives with his wife and family in a picture-postcard village in Devon.

A self-employed builder, he's in his early 50s.

His life changed radically, though,

after a visit to a local charity fundraiser in April 2011.

It was a red-hot day, sun was out, fantastic, there was lots of markets.

The beach...you couldn't see for people.

There must have been over 1,000 people here.

There were several stalls selling food, including a hog roast.

The hog roast had finished

and the chap was putting everything in his van and he was driving off,

but there was trotters and bits of meat on the table

and I thought, "Can't let that go to waste,"

and I put this piece in me mouth and I went, "Oh, my God,"

and I just knew.

It was, "Oh, that is disgusting." I just needed to spit it out.

But because there was so many people around me,

I thought, "Don't do that, just swallow it.

"It's only a piece of meat, what could go wrong?"

It was a decision that had terrible consequences.

Next day I just started getting a few pains.

I went to the toilet and it was as if...all hell just broke loose.

All that came out was, er, black blood.

The following day, Ian's condition hadn't improved,

and he visited his GP.

The doctor discovered he was suffering from

salmonella food poisoning.

I lost so much weight and I was losing so much blood,

I honestly thought I was going to die.

The salmonella bacteria enter the stomach,

invade the small intestine and secrete toxins which make you sick.

So, up to 12 to 72 hours after contracting salmonella,

depending on how strong your body is,

you'll start getting the symptoms of food poisoning -

stomach cramps, vomiting and diarrhoea.

We asked Dr Dilys Morgan, head of the public body

that monitors gastrointestinal infections,

to explain how this could have happened.

Salmonella is caught from eating the organisms,

so that can be directly from the animals

or it can be via foods which are

either incorrectly prepared or not properly cooked

or contamination from other products in the kitchen.

Not long after falling sick, Ian started to pass fresh blood.

And that means the bacteria has worked its way

the length of his body into his large intestine.

His doctor immediately sent him to hospital.

Where he ended up in the isolation ward.

You're in pain, you're crying, it's like the end of the world.

And I was getting worse and worse and worse.

Tests revealed he'd developed ulcerative colitis.

Now, that's where ulcers are formed on the lining of his gut,

which were causing bloody diarrhoea and intense stomach pain.

It's an incurable condition that has serious long-term implications

for Ian and his family.

No vegetables.

I can't eat them, basically. Salami, that would make me so ill.

Anything spicy, can't eat.

Tuna, mmm, keep away from it.

Juice, can't drink that.

Beer, can't drink it. So when you come home, you're hungry, you go...

"Hmm, what are we going to eat? Oh, I know. Toast."

Ian wasn't the only one to fall ill following the fundraiser.

There were seven confirmed cases of salmonella poisoning

after the event.

While Ian may be certain what had caused his problem, health officials

didn't have access to the meat or the cooking area from the festival.

And therefore it's quite hard to prove it was the hog roast.

Although we all feel it was, it was difficult to prove this.

Almost two years on, Ian is trying to rebuild his life,

but the food poisoning incident has had a lasting impact.

Obviously, you'd give anything to have your health back.

You don't think this would ever happen. Not from one bite.

Coming up, we find out how to avoid potential pitfalls

when it comes to eating street food.

It's just like being in a professional kitchen.

And we go deep undercover to see if vendors are following the rules.

Earlier, we tested ten branches of five leading supermarkets

for harmful bacteria.

Most notable were some of the trolley handles.

I was quite surprised to find

so many staphylococcus in these specimens.

And I saw just how easily germs can be passed around.

-It's all over her hands.

-Yeah.

We tested 20 trolley handles, so which stores were home to which bugs,

and what can that mean for your health?

So, which supermarket trolleys were the cleanest

and which needed a little bit more TLC?

First, Waitrose.

Nothing much to report, low levels of contamination.

There were low levels of staphylococci,

which can cause skin infections such as boils and abscesses.

And enterococci, which can cause wound and urinary tract infections.

But we're talking the kind of levels you'd find in a very clean kitchen,

no cause for concern.

ASDA.

Two of their trolleys had slightly higher levels of bacteria.

One of them had staphylococci.

Again, staphylococcus can cause boils, abscesses and skin infections.

But we're still talking hygienic levels

you might find in a reasonably clean kitchen.

Sainsbury's.

Three of the trolleys we tested had low-level contamination

but two of them did have E. coli.

E. coli can cause cramps, diarrhoea and vomiting.

There were also staphylococci and enterococci.

Again, the levels were clean enough to be considered hygienic.

At Tesco, two of their trolleys had too many bugs to count.

They also had E. coli amongst other bugs.

Now we're talking quite dirty,

posing a higher risk of getting these conditions.

The levels were similar to those you might find on grubby hands

and toilet surfaces.

Morrisons.

Trolleys from one of their stores came out well but in the branch

down the road, both trolleys were grossly contaminated with E. coli,

staphylococci and enterococci.

Gross contamination is just another way of saying too many bugs to count,

so well above reasonably clean levels.

Our survey was a snapshot of ten supermarkets

but we did find some potentially dangerous levels of bacteria

where it could easily spread to our food and then to us.

We put our findings to the body that represents supermarkets,

the British Retail Consortium.

They told us...

..so preventative controls on trollies are limited.

..and are not unexpected

on raw meat and vegetables.

They added that supermarkets provide...

..and make improvements where necessary.

The risk levels we're talking about are low, but they are there.

And if you thought that your supermarket

was a sterile environment, well, clearly that's not the case.

Worth thinking about next time you pull out a trolley.

Earlier, we met Ian Mason, a father of three from Devon who became

dangerously ill after salmonella bacteria entered his system.

He believes it came from a hog roast at a local fundraiser.

Making food on the road can be a very tricky

and a very risky business, so to learn how to do it properly,

I'm going to meet food street vendor Atholl Milton.

He's got 20 years of experience in the food business.

He's worked with the likes of Jamie Oliver.

He knows how to make top-notch nosh on the move.

I hope I get a free lunch out of this one.

'All the food is cooked here, in this mobile van, and these guys

'run a tight ship to make sure that their customers stay safe.'

Now, as Atholl gets the van ready to cook,

and shows me how things should be done,

I wonder if everybody's playing by the same rules.

Well, I've called upon the services of a certain Jenny Morris.

During the Olympics, her responsibility

was to make sure there was no outbreak of food poisoning.

Well, she won a gold medal there. Now I've got another task for her.

I want you to go and have a look around a few stalls,

and make sure that everybody is doing the right thing.

-Will you do that for me?

-I'd be very pleased to.

'I'm sending her deep undercover

'to see what's really happening on London's mean streets.'

'She'll be using covert cameras

'to keep tabs on these unsuspecting vendors.

We'll catch up with Jenny later on.'

'Back in Atholl's van, I'm going to discover how it's possible

'to be clean even when your kitchen is in the street.

'These guys follow some simple rules. They're called the four Cs.'

'First up, cleanliness.'

-Grab a sanitizer bottle.

-Right.

'Cross contamination, our next big C,

'is one of the most common causes of food poisoning in the UK.'

I've come into the kitchen. I feel as if it's in two halves.

Why the split?

We keep our raw meats separate from all the rest of our products

over there. It prevents cross-contamination.

It is a really simple process. We have the space. Why not do it?

'C number three is cooking.'

When do I know they're ready?

'Well, a catering thermometer will be able to tell us if these beauties

'have got up to the recommended minimum temperature of 75 degrees.'

'And our final of the four Cs is an important one. Chilling.'

'The staff here allow any hot food to cool down

'before it's placed in the fridge at a chilly five degrees.'

'Time to see if other London street food vendors

'have been as vigilant as these guys with the four Cs.'

-Hi, Chris.

-You caught me having a tea break.

'Jenny's back with her covert surveillance.'

Show me some of the footage. First and foremost, cooking.

-What have you seen?

-OK.

What we are looking at here in particular is the mounds of food.

And what you'll actually find is the heat is at the bottom,

so the bottom will be hot, but the top of the mound won't.

And the dangers of lukewarm food?

When you come below a certain temperature, you get into what

is called the danger zone, which is the zone where any bugs can grow.

What else have you got to show me?

Well, let's have a look at some of the cross-contamination risks

-we saw today.

-I can see he's eating. Is that the problem?

It is part of the problem.

He has put his gloves on, which are meant to avoid cross-contamination.

He is then eating, so he's got hand-to-mouth contact.

The gloves potentially are a contact with his mouth,

where there can be bugs, and then he goes back to handling food again.

The answer should be hand-washing facilities and good hand-washing.

-And did you see that?

-No.

Cleanliness.

When I go and look at a street stall, what I want to see is that

the food handler looks clean and the place looks clean.

We saw the opposite on many occasions.

You're talking about appearance or their clothes and their aprons?

Both. In some cases, people didn't have their hair tied back.

-It could get into the food.

-OK, next C.

Chilling, ie keeping things nice and cold. What did you see today?

I'm looking at the guy here, who I can see has got a little

cool box right down at the bottom of the screen there.

You weren't impressed with that?

No. What we were seeing here was people using domestic cool boxes.

That is just meant for taking your family

out for a picnic for a short time, not for commercial operation.

So, hand on heart, would you eat your lunch at any of those places?

I saw some really interesting food today,

-but I'd want to choose very carefully.

-Point taken.

And if you are choosing very carefully, consider the four Cs.

Make sure it's cooked well, chilled properly,

avoid cross-contamination and always look out for cleanliness.

In Coventry, Jenny's now been closely monitoring

improvements at Benny's chicken shop for five weeks.

It's time for the final visit, and manager Mr Afsal shows her around.

-How are you?

-I'm OK.

-Good.

On the first visit, Jen discovered dozens of rat droppings

and a leaking toilet. That was put right straight away.

Today, she wants to make sure standards are being maintained.

We're just here today to make sure you've done the things that we

said in the last inspection report that were left over,

and just see how we get on with things. Is that all right?

Yes, that's all right. You are welcome.

You can see the things we have done.

Jenny's ushered into the newly-renovated toilet.

The builder checked everywhere. He says there is no leak.

But he put the sealant around the whole pipes and everywhere.

It's not the prettiest fixing I've ever seen,

but generally, I think it's done the job.

Jenny then inspects the boxed-up pipes

that previously had been full of old rat droppings.

Much cleaner than last time, isn't it? Much, much cleaner.

I can't see any evidence, I don't think. That's good.

Five weeks ago, Jen was concerned by the level of cleanliness

in the kitchen and around the poison traps.

I remember last time the mouse boxes

and poison boxes were quite dirty, weren't they?

So the fact that it's nice and clean shows that you have been

keeping on top of the cleaning, which is really good.

And, lastly,

Jen checks the outside communal area for the level of piled-up garbage.

So, this area outside, how have you been making sure it's kept clean?

Every night when we close the shop, we thoroughly brush this area

so that it can be cleaned thoroughly.

So even though it's not your rubbish, you're still cleaning up.

I know it's really irritating, isn't it, but...

Yes, but we have to do it for the business.

Benny's chicken shop had been a big concern to the food and safety team.

Since their final inspection, the change has been noticeable,

and now Benny's has a good hygiene rating of four out of five.

Overall, I'm very pleased with what you've done.

You've made a lot of improvements.

You've worked hard, I think, to make improvements.

If you come next time, you will see more improvements.

Exactly.

-Matt, why don't you ever ask me round for dinner?

-Are you kidding?

The Poison Files? You're like the Hercule Poirot of food poisoning.

-You show up, and then people drop like flies.

-That's ridiculous.

That's like saying Robert Peston caused that economic crisis.

BOTH: Good night!

Next week on Food Inspectors, Tracey's on the trail

of a food with no name.

We're already in court on Friday with these.

16 months on from Horsegate, we ask, where's the next scandal coming from?

I wouldn't really know the difference.

I've got no idea what they actually are.

I'm not sure I could tell them apart.

And those little yoghurt drinks.

I find out how they really make you feel.

Now, I'm going to reveal to all of you

who was drinking what.