Episode 2 Food Inspectors

You ever thought of running a restaurant?

I have, but there's so much to think about.

The food, the customers, the service...

There's also another very important element which you've neglected.

Oh, yeah. 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?

Hmm. 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?

HE SHOUTS

You were living virtually as slaves.

I'll be 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?

-KIDS:

-No!

And, of course, we'll 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's a food poisoning outbreak,

you would end up being prosecuted.

This week, Tracey's on the trail of food with no name.

We're already in court on Friday with these.

After Horsegate, where could the next food scandal be 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 yogurt drinks.

I find out how they really make you feel.

Now, I'm going to reveal to all of you who was drinking what.

I knew it, I knew it, I knew it!

The food industry's 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.

About a year ago,

we discovered that there were things in our food that shouldn't

really be there and, when I say things,

I'm talking about giant quadrupeds like Eric here.

The scale of the horse meat scandal told us that this

wasn't just a mincemeat malfunction.

This was something much bigger.

Tests revealed that almost 5% of processed meat products across

Europe were mislabelled as beef, when they actually contained horse.

So, what I want to know is what's been the impact

of the horse meat scandal today,

and what could be the food substitution scandal of the future?

First off, let's rewind.

How did horse get into our burgers in the first place?

It all started when a horse found its way to a slaughterhouse.

nothing unusual or wrong in that,

as long as what comes out at the other end is labelled as

horse meat and the slaughterhouse claims that it was.

But as we now know, the processed meat journey

can be long and complicated.

The original horse meat could have been through countless processes

in numerous countries and, somewhere along the line,

it was relabelled as beef before landing on a supermarket shelf,

then served up on a plate.

These complex food chains still exist,

expert Professor Tim Benton is concerned.

The Horsegate issue, there is a degree of, in a sense,

regulatory failure,

because you've got so many steps in the chain, there is

always the potential for substitution and fraud

if somebody wants to change the system.

Right after the horse meat scandal,

the big winners were local butchers, and there was a 40% drop

in processed meat sales at the supermarket.

But this didn't last long and soon

we returned to our old ways of shopping from the big boys.

So, who exactly should be keeping an eye on the supermarkets?

Well, it's people like Peter Watson,

a Trading Standards officer in Gloucestershire,

but Peter's got a lot on his plate.

It's not just supermarkets on his watch,

it's all the local butchers as well.

I've come to take a sample of some of your burgers, if possible.

-Here's my

-ID. Oh, yeah.

What are you expecting from a beef burger?

For it to be able to be called a beef burger,

-it should have 62% beef in it.

-Right, OK.

Government regulations state a beef burger mustn't

contain any other type of meat,

but can contain ingredients such as onions and breadcrumbs.

Each burger has to be divided into three.

One's for the analyst, one's for the butcher,

and one is kept in the freezer in the office.

What Peter's doing at the butcher's is exactly the same as he would be

doing in any shop selling meat, and that includes the supermarkets.

Thanks for your time. And I'll see you again, now,

you'll get your results in the post. You know all of that. OK.

These burgers did contain more than the legal minimum amount of beef.

Tests also revealed small traces of pork,

this wasn't felt to be deliberate though, and the butcher was

simply advised to wash the machine thoroughly between each use.

Peter, this is a very time-consuming process,

-that's what I'm getting here.

-Yes, it is.

We can speed up slightly by taking another officer with us, but because

of the manpower we've got in the office at the moment,

that just takes another man off the job from doing other things.

'Alarmingly, even after the horse meat scandal,

'the numbers of Trading Standards officers nationwide have been cut,'

meaning that people like Peter are busier than ever.

In Gloucestershire, the workforce has been almost halved.

Inevitably, this means the food outlets we have to trust,

aren't being monitored as closely as they were.

Well, I was worried before.

Now, I feel like I should meet someone very important.

So, I'm going to see Anne McIntosh MP,

Chair of the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs Committee.

After a year's investigation, she believes Trading Standards

and the supermarkets have to up their game when it comes to testing.

About a year on from the horse meat scandal, do we now have a

system that we consumers can have some kind of confidence in?

Not yet, we're getting there.

We do need to make sure that we don't have another situation,

another food scare.

We're saying that there should be

the requirement from the Food Standards Agency that

retailers regularly check their products

and that the results of the tests are posted on the retailers' website.

We believe that that would go some way to reassuring

consumers of testing being done.

We spoke to the body representing supermarkets

and they assured us that, since the horse meat scandal,

they've carried out thorough reviews of their supply chains with

the intention of making them simpler,

and have implemented rigorous DNA testing systems.

Later on, could the fish industry be next in line for a crisis?

When I looked at all of the evidence, fish came top of the list.

Have you sent it yet? I haven't got it.

Meet Tracey Sweet, one of the food inspectors making sure

Newcastle's 280,000 residents are safe from food poisoning.

I don't like making people frightened of me, I just want to help them

and I want to make their businesses good businesses.

And with more than 2,000 food outlets in the "Toon",

that's a lot of business owners for Tracy to help.

Today, she's visiting local fish shop Joe's Fish Net.

The business currently has a food hygiene rating of 1.

It was given that rating approximately two years ago.

If we don't see improvements today, we will have to consider

whether we need to take some kind of formal action,

either by way of formal notice or prosecution.

It's been five months since Tracey's last visit

and now shop owner Anica has refurbished her premises.

£15 altogether, please.

But will that work lift the business off

the bottom rung of the food hygiene ratings?

Good morning. I'm from Environmental Health,

I've just come to see really what progress we've made.

-All right.

-And to do your inspection.

Refrigeration is vital in a fish business

and Tracey starts her inspection there.

Oh, my word! Has it been snowing in here? What's happened?

The door hatch, it's not shutting properly,

so, with it not shutting properly, what it does is it makes ice.

It's not long before Tracey spots something lurking in this

home-made winter wonderland that shouldn't be there.

The cartons of chickens here, where are they from?

Those are from a company that asked me to take them for a couple of days

and I said, "I don't want them," and they're taking those back.

You've got quite a few of those crates of chicken, haven't you?

Unlabelled chickens in a fish shop are concerning Tracey,

and she's keen to find out exactly where they've come from.

Where did you get them from?

They are from a supplier, a frozen food supplier.

OK, where are they based?

-Hull.

-They're based in Hull?

Yeah, it is. Is it Hull or Manchester?

It's...

I'm not too sure, I'd have to look up one of his invoices,

and me mam's just took them away, so...

If he's from Hull or Manchester,

why is he asking somebody in Newcastle to look after them?

Because he delivers to a couple of local shops and I said,

"I shouldn't really be taking them,

"I don't sell meat, I don't intend to sell meat."

I would like to see the invoices for them,

so that I can see where they're from, obviously,

cos, at the moment, there's no identification on them at all.

It's a vital part of the UK's food safety system,

that all products like meat and fish

can be traced right back to wherever they came from.

That way, if there is an outbreak of food poisoning, the authorities

can quickly remove items that can poison others from sale.

That's why unlabelled chickens without an invoice in the freezer

of a shop selling fish, are ringing alarm bells for Tracey.

I am concerned, obviously, that she's got chicken stored in there.

Where is that going to be going?

You know, I'm quite surprised to see that there.

And it's not the last surprise Anica has in her freezers.

Can you tell us a little bit about this salmon that you've got?

Where this is from? And they supply it to you like that?

-Yep.

-Without a label on?

-Mm-hm.

Right, OK. In a box or...?

No, it comes in a box, a cardboard box with no label on.

It's just his name and address.

Right, he shouldn't be supplying that to you, all right? Can you...?

I'd like you to throw those ones out if you can and, again,

I'd like to see some information about where they're from.

This time, Anica's unlabelled food

is out on display for customers to buy.

-It could be time for drastic action.

-This is the same stuff, isn't it?

-Yeah, it is.

-I don't know where it's from,

it's got no list of ingredients,

what's in it, so a customer wouldn't know whether it's got any

-additives in it or anything they might be allergic to.

-Yeah.

-All right?

-And that's one of the key reasons all of these pots have to be

-removed from sale.

-Do you want me to get rid of them now?

Yes, please.

It's a terrible blow for Anica and her business,

but there's more bad news.

She may also lose the chickens.

I'm going to come back later on today and if you can get the invoice for

the chickens, so we can see exactly where they've come from, all right?

The inspection has been a disappointment for Anica

and she finds herself having something in common with her fish.

I don't know, I'll see what happens. I feel gutted!

I've never known her to sell chicken before, so I'm just a little

bit concerned about where it's from, why she's got it.

We've got no traceability at all at the moment.

She should know what is required

and if the product isn't properly labelled, she shouldn't accept it.

The last thing Anica can afford is to have to

surrender even more stock.

Come back later and find out what happens to the mystery chickens.

Now, 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?

Now, when I was growing up, this was an example of a health drink,

a good old-fashioned pint of milk.

But, nowadays, many people choose these, the yogurt drinks,

and they used to actually say on the label, "good bacteria" and

"probiotics." But you don't actually see those words on here any more.

-Why's that?

-I have no idea.

-That means I've got to go and find out, right?

-Swap.

-OK.

These yogurt drinks were first launched in the UK with

glossy adverts making big bacterial health claims.

-TV:

-These friendly Lactobacillus casei Shirota are found in Yakult...

-TV:

-Actimel is scientifically proven to help support your immune system.

Adverts like these were on our screens until 2012,

when the European Food Safety Authority banned the health claims

and the term "probiotic."

I what to know why we'd ever consider drinking something with

added bacteria. How can bacteria be good for you?

Chris is meeting Dr Gemma Walton in a lab full of human poo samples.

Yes, you heard me right. She studies the bacteria in faeces.

It's a dirty job, but someone's got to do it.

Are my eyes watering?

-They are, actually, yes.

-It stinks in here.

-Sorry about that!

-Where are we?

-We're actually in a gut lab, so

we study the bacteria that live inside us

and we isolate these bacteria

-from human faeces. So, that might explain the smell.

-OK.

Do you spend all day in here?

-Not all day, no.

-Thank goodness for that!

OK, so, as far as I understand it,

we have loads of bacteria in our digestive system, right?

Yep, you're absolutely right.

We've all got billions of bacteria living within us.

In fact, we've all got about a kilogram of bacteria

living inside us, so that's about this amount of weight here.

-Like a bag of sugar?

-Like a bag of sugar.

So, if you think about it, we've actually got

more bacterial cells living inside us than human cells.

Wow. So, I could never really be bacteria-free, could I?

No. We need our bacteria. They help us.

Evidence indicates that good bacteria can, amongst other things...

..caused by taking antibiotics or travelling.

So, good bacteria can do us lots of good if we need it.

So, why was the term "probiotic" banned?

I've come to meet dietician Lucy Jones.

-Lucy, how lovely to meet you.

-Hello.

Now, these are massively popular, they sell through the roof, they used

to say "contains probiotics." Now, if I look at any of the labels,

that word isn't even on there. Why is that?

We're now ruled by the European Food Safety Association that

looks at what health claims can be made on products and,

so far, not a single health claim around probiotics has been approved.

What that means for the manufacturers is that they're

no longer allowed to call their products probiotic and,

instead, they have to list the type of bacteria on it as a type

of ingredient, rather than as a health claim.

But are they doing us any good?

For a lot of these products, we're not sure about the actual

benefit, particularly in someone who's already fit and well.

There is evidence to suggest certain brands can have benefits, but it's

debated whether the drinks have any impact on a normal healthy person.

No-one would ever say that probiotics or

friendly bacteria drinks don't work for anyone.

The trouble is the price and who they're marketed at,

cos actually the people who do take them are typically

the worried well that might not see that much of a health improvement.

We Brits are spending nearly £300 million a year on yogurt drinks,

drinks with added bacteria can cost up to three times

as much as those that contain none,

even though they no longer carry explicit health claims.

I want to see how people who say they're already relatively fit,

will feel after consuming these drinks.

Time for a snapshot survey of a small group of people.

MUSIC: "I Got You (I Feel Good)" by James Brown

We're at a Zumba class in London.

They've agreed to take part in a subjective blind test.

We've randomly split them into three groups, two of them will be

drinking market leading bacteria drinks,

and one will be drinking a similar drink with no added bacteria.

What will the volunteers say after taking the drinks

every day for three weeks?

I've always wondered whether the yogurt drinks actually work, so I'm

looking forward to seeing whether I feel the difference or not.

I quite like them, actually, and I believe in it.

I'm not sure whether the healthy drinks will actually work,

but I am interested to see what will happen.

Later, we reveal what effect was felt by our Zumba volunteers.

-ALL:

-Wow!

It's not just takeaway joints that get visits from the food officers.

Everywhere that serves food, from food stores to top restaurants

is subject to the inspectors' scrutiny and their hygiene ratings.

These range from 5 for excellent to 0, and the restaurants

in England can choose whether or not to display their rating.

In beautiful Oxford, it's up to inspectors Richard

and Rebecca to hand out the scorecards.

The food-loving, filth-hating duo often work in tandem,

not on a tandem, covering over 1,000 different establishments.

Today, the couple are paying an unexpected visit to

a brand-new cafe.

It's a big thing for a new business to be given

its first food safety rating, and their manager, Charlotte Buller,

will be hoping their cafe scores high.

Is that like brownie filling in these tarts?

Eh, yeah, it is, so it's like a chocolate tart

-with a gooey brownie filling covered in pastry.

-Great.

Yeah, move along, Richard. You're on Food Inspectors, not Bake Off.

Now, inside the tiny kitchen, Richard narrowly avoids

standing in a pair of freshly baked cakes cooling on the floor.

Now, this isn't just a near disaster for the cakes,

it also poses a contamination risk for customers.

The problem with this is you're kind of demonstrating

right now, that contamination that was on the floor

is on the underside of that, so, that's now gone on the bread board.

So, if you are struggling...

-We're going to get some racks.

-Yeah, yeah.

Next, the inspectors spot another potential hazard, a cooking

area squeezed into a narrow space behind a constantly opening door.

I'm kind of worried that if someone pushes and I'm here

and they're frying sausages or whatever,

that is horrific. Do we need a door on here?

Yes. Some people just really don't like looking into a kitchen.

Have a think about it.

-Another way round it could be to put it somewhere else.

-Yeah.

Back out the front, the cake display certainly looks appetising,

-but is it safe?

-It's winter now, people are going to have all sorts of

colds and things like that, um, they might also have something worse,

like winter vomiting disease, which is a viral airborne disease.

Winter vomiting bug or norovirus is

the most common stomach bug in the UK.

It's extremely contagious

and as little as ten virus particles can pass it on.

How would you feel about putting a nice dome, you know,

a nice pretty glass one over some of the food?

-Yeah.

-Cos, then if someone sneezes...

-We're going to get a glass separator.

-Great.

It's not against the law to display uncovered cakes,

but it's best practice to keep them covered up. This could influence

the score Richard and Rebecca are about to award the new cafe.

It's not going to sound good, but the good news is that,

with not a lot of work, we can make the score here good.

So, today, I'm giving you 2...

-OK.

-..which means improvement necessary. All right?

We can come back and if you've done the work satisfactorily

and the standards have otherwise been maintained, this will go up.

I think the scoring was a little bit harsh, but you have to just

go along with it, you can't really fight it, you just have to...

follow what they say, really!

Since this visit, all of Richard's concerns have been addressed and, as

a result, he's expecting their rating to improve on his next inspection.

I'm examining the fallout from the horse meat scandal.

So far, we've seen that even though supply chains are still

incredibly hard to police,

national Trading Standard inspection budgets have been drastically cut.

Now, I want to look at another unexpected development that

has followed all of this drama.

People have actually started to think about

whether they'd mind tucking into a horse.

One rather high profile person thinks it could

actually be good for horse welfare.

Our attitudes to the horse meat trade, I think

might...and the value of horse meat, may have to change,

should we be considering a real market for horse meat.

So, the Princess Royal thinks a regular trade in horse meat,

could actually help horses, the idea being that if animals have a

commercial value as food, they might be better looked after.

Now, this isn't a show about animal welfare,

but I wanted to know, even if it stood a chance of improving

the lives of horses, would you be prepared to eat horse meat?

And I hit the streets to find out more.

Some people are saying that, in fact, if we, as a nation,

were prepared to eat horse, horses would be treated better as a result.

-OK.

-Does that make sense to you?

I can see, yeah, like the way we look after cows and things.

Would you consider eating horse meat?

-No.

-No?

-No.

-You both said no straightaway there.

Oh, just the thought of a horse! No, couldn't do it.

Why is a horse different to a cow?

It just is. I don't know. It just is.

I probably would, if I knew what I was eating.

That's the main thing, I need to know what I'm eating.

Not really, cos the fact some chickens aren't treated

correctly anyway, or like lamb or cows.

It depends on where you get it, so it doesn't really matter.

Anecdotal evidence is all well and good,

but we wanted something a bit more scientific.

So, we commissioned a real bona fide survey. Yeah.

We asked 1,000 people

whether they agreed or disagreed with Princess Anne's statement.

Well, the results are in.

51% of people disagree with Princess Anne

that we should consider eating horse meat because it could

improve the welfare of horses. 38% agree,

for 11%, it's neither here nor there.

But whether horse is on the menu or not, one thing is certain, what

people don't like is being sold one thing only to find

out it is in fact something else.

So, where could the next big food scandal come from?

Stick around and find out.

Newcastle Food Safety officer Tracey Sweet left a bitter taste in the

mouth of Joe's Fish Net owner Anica when she called earlier in the day.

Oh, my word!

Her fishmonger's shop had chickens in the freezer

and a mystery fish paste for sale.

These are serious problems, and Tracey is returning with back up.

Because there's no labelling attached to the food, and

we've no identification about where the food has come from, we need

to make sure the food is of good quality, safe and, more importantly,

has been processed in a manner

which is safe for the food to be eaten.

-Hello.

-Hiya.

-How have you got on?

-Very well.

-All right. OK, good.

Tracey has asked Anica to provide paperwork for the chickens she said

she was just storing as a favour,

and the unlabelled fish paste she's already confiscated.

We said we'd like you to provide some invoices for the chicken

and I don't know whether I said the fish,

but I would like to see an invoice for the fish as well.

-Which fish was that?

-The little pots.

Oh, no, I've actually e-mailed him

-and he said in this one that he's sending us labels.

-Right, OK.

I'm onto that. Em, and as for the chickens, obviously,

they didn't belong to me, like, I said that.

So, I've had them took away today.

So, who has actually taken them away then?

The person who, like, dropped them off. He's called Andy.

-I said, "You're going to have to get rid of them."

-Right.

-They're not mine.

-I need some contact details for him, then.

-I need to be able to...

-I've wrote them down, you know.

Tracey obviously isn't pleased that the mystery chickens

are now on the loose.

But what about that fish paste?

-So, the fish?

-Give us two seconds, I think I've got

a label or something, you know, off him.

She has, at least, been able to give me the name of the company

or the gentleman where the chickens have gone to,

so I will definitely have to ring him

and get some more information from him.

Until I see these labels, I don't know, really,

what's going to happen now, but I'll...

She's coming.

Here are them labels.

Yeah, but he's got two different numbers on here.

Yeah, because one could be for shellfish, one could be for meat.

OK.

Would you be able to go and get the box of fish that

-you put in the freezer before, please?

-Yeah.

Until Tracey and David can confirm who supplied the fish,

they also need to confiscate the stock not on display.

-So, what have we got?

-Eight pots of mackerel.

Two, four, six, seven pots of salmon.

OK, what I'm going to do is I'm going to take it away

and store it in the office.

As far as the fish is concerned, she's given us a little bit

more information now about where the fish actually originates from.

So, I can go and do some research

and find out exactly what the company name and address is.

The issue about the chicken is extremely serious.

It is something that we will certainly have to

look into a lot further.

Traceability, or knowing where the actual chicken has come from,

is critically important.

We need to establish that it hasn't come from an illegal slaughterhouse

or, in fact, that it was intended for something like pet food.

Anica says meat salesman Andy, who may come from Hull or

Manchester, has now collected the chicken that was in the freezer.

Come back later when it all gets too much for Anica.

I'm actually doing everything I can. I'm doing my best.

Remember these little yogurt drinks from earlier?

Back in 2012, European Food Safety Authority banned

manufacturers from marketing specific health claims.

TV: Activia is scientifically proven to help

improve slower digestive transit.

But celebrities still pop up promoting the drinks.

GOK WAN: Activia's dairy goodness can help look after you from the inside.

So, even though manufacturers have removed those health claims,

do we still believe these drinks are good for us?

I've come to Goldsmith's University

to meet consumer psychologist Gorkan Ahmetoglu.

We're looking at that and it's pretty similar, the message,

to the ones before, except they don't use the words "good bacteria".

does that make a difference to you, then, when you watch that?

I think they will just have this halo effect

-and the exact wording won't really matter that much.

-The halo effect?

-What do you mean by that?

-So, the halo effect is pretty much that

people associate one particular word

with many other associations, so, "low fat"

with "low calories", so it's taking small associations that will

kind of reinforce that health related product.

In a snapshot subjective experiment, I'm asking how the drinks

made my Zumba class feel over a three week period.

This isn't a scientific health trial, I'm just asking for their opinions.

In unlabelled jars, one of the best-selling drinks with added

bacteria, Yakult, was given to one group.

Another best-seller, Actimel, was given to a second group.

A third group had a placebo with no added bacteria.

'We've been monitoring their progress through video diaries.'

So, today is day six, I've had my yogurt drink for the day.

I don't feel much different.

If something dramatic had happened in the first week, I would have

been very impressed, but I know this is not a magic bullet or anything.

I feel, still, really energetic.

I'm not noticing any impact just yet, but, we'll see how it goes.

The three week period is up, and it's time to pay them a visit.

They're going to find out which drink they had

and we're going to find out if they found a difference.

All right, can I have a show of hands, please? Who's in Group A?

THEY WHOOP Thank you. Group B?

THEY WHOOP Thank you. And Group C?

THEY WHOOP

Now, on the whole, who feels better for having the drink?

'Out of the three groups,

'only two people in Group C actually felt better.'

Can I have a show of hands for the people who believed

they were drinking...

those yogurt drinks with the good bacteria?

So, Group C, you believe you were drinking that?

So, who out of you guys thinks they were drinking the placebo?

-Mm-hm.

-Wow. That's very interesting.

Now, I'm going to reveal to all of you who was drinking what.

Group C, you were drinking

Yakult. Well done. You guessed right.

'Remember, this is only a subjective test on a small group.

'Here are all the results.'

Group C took the Yakult.

Not everyone has turned up, but, of the eight people in the group,

six said they generally felt the same as before,

and two people felt better.

Group B...

..you were drinking...

..the placebo.

I knew it, I knew it, I knew it, I knew!

Group A, you had yogurt drinks.

-Oh, wow.

-Oh, yes.

-Wow.

That is an amazing reaction.

I was convinced we had the placebo, because

I just wasn't feeling anything and I was consciously looking for,

"Am I tired? Do I have a bit more energy?" Anything!

Group A were drinking Actimel.

'There were six people in the group.

'All said they felt generally the same as before.

'Two did say they felt less bloated.

'Even though the placebo Group B were given just soya milk with no

'good bacteria, results were very similar.

'Six said they felt generally the same as before.

'One felt worse, and one felt better.'

We put our results to Yakult and Actimel.

They both questioned the robustness of our survey, saying...

Probiotics, when prescribed, can treat some ailments,

but, interestingly, at the end of our three week experiment,

the majority of the people didn't feel any better.

-Foot up.

-What?

-Come on.

What are you doing, man?

Putting a bit of bacteria in the yogurt. It's good for you.

Back in Newcastle, and Tracey's returned to Joe's Fish Net.

Andy, the mystery chicken salesman, has not been traceable

and neither has the paperwork for the confiscated fish paste.

Without the paperwork, the little tubs of paste need to be destroyed.

On this occasion, she decides not to prosecute the retailer.

So, I've seized the products now.

The products will be taken before a magistrate and he will give an order

to me to destroy them, so that's your notice and I just need you to sign.

-OK.

-So, what's she got in the freezer now?

Let's have a look at some of this labelling.

-More of the same.

-I'm a bit concerned, because, obviously,

these are what I took the last time, which are going before the court.

They're going to be in touch.

-Right.

-And I've not had any more.

-We're already in court on Friday with these.

-Mm-hm.

You've got two options. I can seize these as well, or...

-Just take them, yeah.

-..voluntary surrender them to us.

I'll surrender them to you,

-cos I didn't even know they were there.

-OK.

PHONES RING IN BACKGROUND

They unlabelled product is what I seized previously.

And I'm going to court with these on Friday

and we've still got them on sale.

I'm really getting annoyed now,

because I haven't done anything wrong.

I'm going to have to walk away.

Losing even more stock proves too much for Anica to bear.

I'm trying my best. I'm breaking my legs to do this.

I'm actually doing everything I can. I'm doing my best.

Anica, I know you're doing everything you can.

This is why you need to have all the labelling in place,

so that we know where everything's from.

-I'll take those away. All right?

-Yeah, definitely.

-And we'll leave you today. All right?

-No problem.

-OK.

'At the end of the day, I'm still a human being.

'It's still really hard to see people get upset.'

She's trying to do her job and she is trying to improve.

To be told time and time again that it's still not right,

must be hard for her.

The court date has arrived.

It will now be decided whether Tracey can go ahead

and destroy the food.

The magistrate has made the order for us to destroy the food.

It isn't personal, but it is difficult when you know somebody

and you've worked with them for a number of years.

We'll also work with her to get things right in the future as well.

A little bit distressing, but...

it's all right, it's over now,

so, it's given us a little bit of a lesson,

when I do buy products, I need to check it thorough

and Tracey's actually shown me how to do that and it's very helpful.

Not long after the hearing,

Joe's Fish Net was awarded a great 5 out of 5 hygiene rating.

I've been looking at the winners and losers since Horsegate.

Certainly, the horses are no better off and,

as for the supermarkets, well, it's pretty much business as usual.

What I'd really like to know is,

where is the next food scandal coming from?

Because, if horse meat's taught us anything,

it's that we'd really rather know what it is that we're eating.

There is one man that can help me, Professor Chris Elliott.

He was commissioned by the government to investigate

the horse meat scandal and it's led him

to some startling findings about other parts of the food industry.

When I looked at all of the evidence in relation to food fraud,

fish, basically, came top of the list.

Fish is, again, a very complex supply chain.

What we think is most fish are landed in the UK

and they end up on our supermarket shelves.

It's generally far from that.

That fish will end up being shipped off to China,

where it will be filleted

and what you might find is there's another four or five trades

on that fish commodity before it ends up on the supermarket shelves.

So, Professor Elliott thinks there's a lot of potential for fraud

in the fish industry.

A few years ago, two fish and chip shops were prosecuted for selling

cheap Vietnamese catfish, or pangasius,

under the guise of being cod.

I wanted to see how easy it would be to mistake the two.

So, I started my search with specialist fishmonger John Purkis.

So, John, here we have a selection of white fish and,

if I'm looking at them, to be honest, I can't tell the difference,

but, I'm trusting to the fact that you can. I hope so.

Anyway, let's start here. What have we got?

Cod fillet there. It's a nice thick fish...

nice green skin on the back.

We've got haddock next.

Dark at the top, lighter at the bottom, and then these big spots.

-Yeah.

-What would you make of that?

Wow.

-Have you sold one of those before?

-No.

-It's obviously an imported fish.

-Why do you say that?

-Just the texture.

-I'll tell you what,

-that is pangasius.

-Oh, OK.

-It's an Asian farmed fish.

Do you think people will know the difference? You know the difference.

I think people would definitely know the difference.

The fish-buying public in general, do you think?

If you cut that open, even with breadcrumbs around it,

you will see the difference in the two.

Yeah, but you're John Purkis, specialist fishmonger.

How about the rest of us? Can we spot the difference?

I set out a stall with several popular species,

all selling at today's market price.

Cod, el classico, thick white flesh.

11.95 a kilo.

Haddock, thinner, also white and flaky.

£11.95 a kilo.

Pollock, smaller, longer, cheaper.

£8.95 a kilo.

And, finally, pangasius, small, pink,

and a snip at 5 quid a kilo.

So, you can see why substitution pays.

The prize for anyone who can identify them all correctly,

a tune from my mate Trevor the Trout.

He's not a trout, he's a "sole" singer.

FISH SINGS

But, will the British public be able to identify them?

Let's find out.

They do all look the same though, don't they?

I think this is cod.

You'd go for cod here? Right, let's go. Cod.

-You're going with pollock there?

-Yeah.

Pollock here, pangasius...

-You go pollock, pangasius?

-Yeah.

You're going for pollock there? OK. You've got two out of four. 50%.

One out of four.

You've got two right out of four.

-Is this pollock?

-You'd like to make that one pollock.

And swap that and make that pangasius.

-Now you've got none right!

-Oh, well!

So, what we've proved here is that the British public cannot

identify white fish, even when they've still got their skins on.

We might not be able to see the difference,

but surely we can taste it?

This time we've lined up cod, haddock and pangasius,

all battered just like you'd find them at your local chippy.

I wouldn't really know the difference.

I've got no idea what they actually are.

Of the three of them, I wouldn't be able

to tell the difference between them.

I'm not sure I could tell them apart.

Of the 12 people we asked,

no-one could correctly identify all three fish.

Many could taste the difference, but didn't know which was which.

So, if we can't tell the difference by looking at a fish

or by tasting a fish, surely we're wide open to food fraud.

We tested 12 cod samples and found nothing untoward.

Other surveys tell a different story.

One person who knows his fish is

marine biologist Dr Stefano Mariani at Salford University.

He tested for cod mislabelling

and discovered that over 7% of the samples weren't cod at all.

When I started back in 2009,

out of curiosity, really, we were quite staggered and shocked

by the amount of mislabelling.

Within my research over the past five years,

the rate of mislabelling of different species ranged between high rates

of 30%, 40% down to 0 in some cases for some species in some studies.

So, it's very variable.

Mislabelled or substituted fish can be dangerous.

A 26-year-old man nearly died in 2011 from an allergic

reaction after unknowingly eating pangasius.

We asked the trade body representing the seafood industry

what they thought.

They told us surveys undertaken since 2007...

They've said they've spoken to Professor Elliott

and are...

They added that..

We've established we can't rely on our own taste or sight to

correctly identify the food we're eating,

and we've seen that the authorities themselves have

had their ability to police a very complex food chain cut.

So, who's left?

Well, maybe it's time for the food industry themselves to

step up to the plate.

Now, if you've never had food poisoning, you can

count yourself extremely lucky, cos, remarkably, every single year,

one million of us fall foul of a nasty little

bacteria in our grub and I'm not just taking about feeling

a bit under the weather, because 20,000 of us end up in hospital

and, sadly, in 500 of those cases, it can prove fatal.

Now, when it comes to food poisoning,

a little bit of knowledge goes a very long way,

so, each week, I'm going to be telling you about

the most severe cases in the UK,

explaining exactly what happened and, hopefully, you'll be

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

Meet Nicola and Alex Hammill from Luton in Hertfordshire.

They're your typical newly-wed couple.

-I met Nicola in 2006.

-5.

-In 2005!

See what I mean? Men, eh!

'So, when Alex popped the question in 2009,

'the happy couple wanted a wedding day that they and their guests

'would never forget, and, boy, did they get their wish.'

Aww! It was a good day.

It was lovely.

For their wedding reception, the couple chose Letchworth Hall Hotel

in Hertfordshire, a four-star country hotel.

Like most brides, Nicola had planned her day to perfection.

She'd even had a food tasting beforehand and, for starters,

she'd opted for...

chicken liver pate.

Now, this is a popular choice with chefs

who are catering for large numbers,

because they can make this in advance and serve when required,

but, on Nicola's big day, things started to go badly wrong.

What came out on the starters was

a bit of stodge on the plate, which was the pate.

It wasn't presented in the same way, it didn't look the same,

and it certainly didn't taste the same.

But they were determined not to let anything ruin their big day.

They ate the pate and two days later set off

on their dream honeymoon to Vegas.

# Come fly with me

# Let's fly, let's fly away... #

But what they didn't know was that back in the UK,

a large number of their guests were violently ill,

including Nicola's big sister and chief bridesmaid Sam.

A couple of days after the wedding, I started to feel stomach cramps.

Everything that I was eating was just going straight through me.

I felt absolutely terrible.

Back in Vegas, the happy couple were

also starting to feel green around the gills.

He was just...looked awful.

It was like a conveyor belt of pain, just rotating up and down, up

and down, like someone was scraping knives down inside your stomach.

I think you thought I was dying at one stage, didn't you?

It was...! Although, she didn't call the doctor.

And it wasn't long before Nicola fell victim too.

I was just bowed over with big, massive stomach cramps,

and then I had a little unfortunate accident happen,

which I couldn't control.

Not the best way to start your married life, shall we say?

We were in each other's arms for the wrong reason.

Big sister Sam was also devastated.

And I found out that they'd been ill as well.

I didn't know that they'd been ill...

and, um, their honeymoon had been ruined.

What the bride and groom and some of their guests didn't know,

was that the chicken liver pate had infected them

with our old friend campylobacter.

This bacteria builds up in the intestine

causing stomach cramps, sickness and diarrhoea.

In bad cases, it causes severe dehydration.

Every year, campylobacter is linked to about 460,000 poisoning cases...

Nearly two thirds of chicken has campylobacter.

So, if you take this table of six chickens...

one...

two...

three...

..four, will all be contaminated.

Now, a typical contaminated chicken will contain 1,500,000 bacteria.

And do you know how much it takes to make you poorly?

Just 500.

Sam reported the food poisoning

to her local Environmental Health officer.

He went straight down to the hotel kitchen to investigate.

I spoke to the chef and the chef explained that...

his recipe...

he followed was that the chicken livers are to remain slightly pink.

This set alarm bells off in my mind.

Out of the 118 guests at the wedding,

49 of them order chicken liver pate.

Now, to make that amount, you need this number of chicken livers

and to make pate, you need to cook them

and then churn them all together in a food processor, but...

if just one of the chicken livers is contaminated...

and isn't cooked properly, and chucked in with the rest,

the whole lot is contaminated.

And it could have been a mistake as simple as that

that resulted in Letchworth Hall Hotel being successfully prosecuted

and fined over £12,000.

The management have apologised to the Hammills

and say the incident was unprecedented in their history.

They say they've worked closely with safety officers

and have taken on board suggestions as to ways in which they can

prevent any recurrence, including additional training for staff.

The business has since had its food rating of 5 restored.

So, what should have been done to avoid so much distress?

Find out later in the programme.

In Kettering, Northamptonshire,

food safety officer Eleni Middleton

knows all about kitchen nightmares.

She used to be Gordon Ramsay's health and safety manager,

but she threw in the tea towel about ten years ago,

turning from poacher to gamekeeper.

Today, she's doing a routine inspection of

popular Indian restaurant The Raj.

It's been a favourite with the locals for over 20 years,

and, although its food safety record isn't perfect,

it usually scores a satisfactory rating of 3.

We've haven't been to do a full inspection in the kitchen for 18

months, so, it'll be interesting to see what we find today.

Um, but, hopefully, we'll all be good.

But Eleni arrives to find nobody's in.

After a quick call to the owner, she decides to take this

opportunity for a little snoop out back all alone.

Because there is this outside area, which is at the back of the kitchen,

so I can have a look and see what the situation is before the owner comes.

Eleni investigates a storeroom.

Inside she finds fresh food and piles of washing up.

I'm a bit confused as to why this room is

used for this purpose, keeping...

..um, pots and pans that, clearly, are in use.

This is still wet.

A good storeroom should be well-built,

so that what's inside is protected.

This area here is quite open to the elements.

There's a door, which isn't very good,

so, even if you try to close it...

Oh, it doesn't close, cos it gets stuck here.

What I've found so far, doesn't necessarily fill me

with confidence that the kitchen's going to be brilliant.

Normally, if the outhouse is in that state that I've just found

this one in, it's an indication that the kitchen's not going to be

brilliant either.

As soon as Mr Miah, the owner, arrives, Eleni brings him

-up to date with what she's found.

-When I was waiting for you...

-Mm-hm.

-..I had a look in this room and it's not really acceptable.

-Uh-huh.

And it's not really suitable to be used for food storage.

As you can see, your walls are flaking,

and the paint could contaminate food.

Shall we walk in? And I'll show you exactly.

And when you find a dirty light switch, what does that tell you?

You're touching the same light switch, transferring bacteria onto it,

and when somebody has washed their hands,

they come in and they touch it, and their hand is dirty again.

Unless you are able to paint the walls, make them impervious, yeah?

-Make them clean and you can make sure the door closes safely behind...

-Yes.

..then you can use it for storing these items,

but, at the moment, you've got to repair it.

Eleni now has a good nose around the kitchen...

-Hello, everybody.

-..and she soon finds something that bugs her.

What's this area for?

This is, um, like, you know when they do the takeaways?

-Yeah, OK.

-It's to keep them warm.

Well, these type of exocutors, what happens is

when the bacteria are they get zapped,

they explode. If you have food below it,

-then they'll explode onto the food.

-OK.

-You don't really want flies in your food.

-No, no.

-Yeah?

-Yeah.

Now, Eleni's beady eye is drawn upwards,

about eight feet upwards.

Can someone reach that container for me, please?

So, it takes two men to bring this down?

Why up there? Are you just worried that they're going to break?

Once you cut the poppadoms, to dry off all the oil...

-They have to stand up, yeah?

-It's the driest place.

So, they are crunchier, yeah?

But what my worry is that

that container looks very heavy.

What if it falls on your heads?

Can I just try and lift it? Thank you.

Eleni's job isn't just to worry about customers.

She's also there to keep the restaurant staff safe.

This is really heavy!

-Yes.

-Yes, but, like... No, sorry.

Find a different container or find somewhere else to store it.

-It's too heavy.

-I can store it in a different place, if you want.

Sacrifice the crispiness of your poppadoms for your staff's welfare.

Eleni takes her leave from The Raj,

concerned that their safety standards may have dropped.

She'll be back later on to see if they've improved.

Mr Miah welcomes the advice.

I think, sometimes, you need eyes from the outside.

Sometimes you're just too focused in here that you possibly

don't see, from the outside, where you're going wrong or what

sort of things that you need to look at to make the improvements.

Earlier, we saw how one young couple's dream wedding turned into

a nightmare when they and 47 guests were struck down with

food poisoning after eating the chicken liver pate starter.

The pate contained the bacteria campylobacter, which is

present in around 65% of chickens.

So, I've come to Ston Easton Park in Somerset to discover

the dos and don'ts of cooking chicken liver pate.

Now, this hotel hosts over 50 weddings a year,

which can be for up to 200 people.

They cannot afford to get it wrong,

so let's go and find out how to cook pate properly.

'With two AA rosettes and an FSA rating of 5,

'head chef Daniel Moon certainly knows his way around a kitchen.'

Here we are in your kitchen.

This is your domain. What are we making today?

Right, we're going to be making chicken liver parfait.

-So, I've got a hot pan of oil.

-Yeah.

-Right.

'Safety guidelines recommend cooking chicken livers till

'they reach a minimum of 75 degrees for 30 seconds.

'First up, Chef shows me what happens when

'you don't get your temperature right.'

So, if we slice that open...

it's almost red-raw there, isn't it? In the middle?

'If it's as purple as these, then you can't be certain that

'you've got rid of any potential campylobacter.'

Show me how to get one of these babies up to 75 degrees,

the magic number.

Now, a lot of people at home don't have one of these thermometers.

I would definitely recommend getting a food thermometer.

Food thermometers are a fail-safe way of ensuring your food is

hot enough to banish the bacteria,

and you can find them on your local high street for under a tenner.

That's it. 75 degrees.

That...

is cooked

all the way through, compared...

So, that's the raw one.

And, of course,

that is...and you can see it's cooked all the way through.

Time then for a food pleb like me to cook some chicken liver pate.

I mean, "parfait".

First, we blend the raw livers and the other ingredients.

One yolk at a time...

..a steady stream of butter.

'To show you how to tell a good pate from a bad one,

'the chef is going to cook two today.'

So, we put a lid on.

-Super.

-Let's get it in the oven.

'One is going to reach the correct temperature of 75 degrees,

'the other will be well under, at around 50.'

Time for 35 minutes of R and R.

ALARM GOES OFF

Chris! Parfait! Come on!

I forgot, I forgot! Sorry, mate.

So, here we go. Moment of truth.

We have the undercooked pate and the one that we have cooked properly.

So, there's not a lot of difference visually.

Shall we get a fork into this?

'The pate on the left is undercooked, while the one on

'the right has been cooked at the correct temperature of 75 degrees.'

What am I looking for to make sure that it's a good pate?

Just a smooth texture.

-And that is the same texture all the way through, isn't it?

-Exactly.

It's definitely that. It's consistent.

Let's try the one that has been undercooked. Here we go.

Ah! The telltale signs of an undercooked pate.

That's really gooey, isn't it?

Yeah. As you can see, it's really gloopy, wet and...not good.

-Very runny.

-The other parfait is very, very smooth.

-This is the time to call the manager?

-Yes.

If you see that gooeyness, do a runner.

-Yeah.

-Is that right?

-Yes.

Now, remember, pate needs to be cooked to 75 degrees

and look firm, not gloopy.

If meat served to you at a restaurant or venue looks

strange, or tastes strange, please send it back.

If it's too late, and you suspect you may have food poisoning

from a restaurant or venue, contact the local authority immediately.

You could stop an outbreak.

It's six weeks since food safety officer Eleni visited

The Raj restaurant in Kettering.

It normally scores a satisfactory safety rating of three,

but on her last visit, Eleni had concerns.

She found a poorly maintained storeroom.

-It's not really acceptable...

-Uh-huh.

..and it's not really suitable to be used for food storage.

She was worried about blasted bugs near the takeaway area.

If you have food below it, then they'll explode onto the food. Yeah?

And Eleni was concerned for the staff having to deal with

the heavy and high poppadom box.

What if it falls on your heads?

Today, Eleni heads straight out back with Mr Miah.

So, you repaired all the doors.

That's very good, yep.

But the biggest change is inside the storeroom,

which has had a head to toe hygienic make-over.

It is very good, yeah. That's what it should look like.

I can see that somebody's put a lot of effort in cleaning the switches.

Because last time we were here, they were covered in dirt, weren't they?

So, that's good to see. Obviously, it needs to be maintained like that.

Absolutely.

In the kitchen, Eleni checks to see if her advice has been taken.

So, the fly-killer that was over there, you've moved it to...?

A different area. It's a bit further away from food now.

So, you're now using these containers for poppadoms?

They're much lighter, yeah.

Is it better now, Chef, with this container?

-Yeah.

-Yeah.

The Raj's food safety record isn't perfect,

but it's been a good re-inspection

and Eleni feels it deserves its satisfactory hygiene rating of 3.

It's brilliant when someone decides,

"Yep, I'm going to listen to what the food inspector said,

"because it's good for my business,

"it's good for public health for food poisoning not to happen

"and for me to run a clean business and attract more customers."

-What are these ones? The blue ones?

-Don't go for those,

-cos those are my favourites.

-Tut! Matt!

What are you doing?!

Magic breath! Sanitized!

Good night.

Next week, we're back on the road with the food inspectors.

You haven't got the space for safe food preparation.

We're going to do a voluntary closure

until the hot water supply is restored.

I lift the lid on slave labour

operating right here in the UK.

You were living virtually as slaves.

I show you just how easy it is to cross-contaminate your kitchen.

The utensils that I've already washed have also got

traces of campylobacter.

And I find out what's in bacon.

Are we eating too much of this national favourite?

Has this made any of you feel differently...?

-It's certainly made me think twice.

-Yeah.