Episode 4 Food Inspectors

You know what it is that really keeps a restaurant

-on its toes, though?

-Yeah, customers, restaurant critics.

-No.

It's another group of people, who scour the country

looking into the places we eat, and they can turn up any time, anywhere.

-Ahhh. The food inspectors.

-Yep.

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?

Doesn't look like chicken.

Are they doing us any good?

I'll be lifting the lid on our £1 billion food industry...

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

POLICEMAN GRUNTS

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 reveal what's really in our favourite foods.

Anybody fancy eating any of this? KIDS: Eugh!

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 is a food poisoning outbreak,

you would end up being prosecuted.

This week, Richard uncovers a potential banquet for pests.

Cleaning's shocking. Absolutely filthy.

-But Nicky finds the real thing.

-You've got cockroaches.

Seven years on from bird flu,

what's the latest crisis facing the poultry business?

When can you tell me that campylobacter

won't be the problem it is?

And I find out what's really in those chicken nuggets.

It really is, it's disgusting.

Oxford - home to 150,000 people, including over 30,000 students.

Feeding them all are the city's 1,500 eateries,

and making sure they're clean and safe is Richard Kuziara.

He's one of Oxford's elite team of food inspectors,

and he takes his job very, very seriously.

We're not about trying to put people out of business,

we're about trying to make things safe for the public.

And when it comes to hygiene,

there's one thing that really gets under his skin.

Typical reasons I've closed places down in the past have been

things like pest infestations,

incontinently spreading their wares all over your food.

Tonight, Richard's on his way to the Pink Giraffe,

a Chinese restaurant in central Oxford.

He's keen to find out if things have improved

since his previous inspection.

The last inspection wasn't very good at all, they got a one,

so I'm not especially hopeful as to what we're going to find today.

If it's got pests or something like that we could be looking at closure.

A hygiene rating of one is the second lowest score,

it means the owner must make major improvements.

Hello there, Richard Kuziara, environmental health officer.

New owner Chen recently took over the business from his brother,

so has he done enough to improve the restaurant's rating?

I'll just wash me hands first, Chen.

Right, I think that drain's got a bit blocked, hasn't it?

Someone wants to wash their hands now, they can't.

It's crucial there is a working hand wash basin,

because germs can survive on your hands and spread.

It's not a great start.

If you look under here, it's really grubby.

In terms of being a food supply for pests, that's a huge amount.

And Richard also spots plenty of muck in one of the fridge freezers.

This is really, really horrible, this one. Cleaning's shocking.

Absolutely filthy. My hands are completely contaminated now.

And the space underneath the cooker is overflowing with

potential food for unwanted visitors.

Look at all that food in there.

That, basically, is a load of cockroach and rat food.

It's a banquet, so...we don't want that.

Pests can spread disease.

If Richard spots any, he has the power to shut down the restaurant.

But eagle-eyed Richard isn't just looking for filth on the floor.

Chen, we've got quite a lot of fat in that filter.

OK. Yeah, there's a lot of oil on that.

As much as anything, I'm bothered about fire.

The way it is now, I can see the fat dripping.

That won't be hygienic, yeah?

Fat dripping from the ceiling fan could spread bacteria onto

cooking surfaces and food.

There's all sorts of bacteria and contamination there,

just from a health and safety point of view, we've got staff

living upstairs, if this place catches fire,

they don't stand a chance.

Then Richard finds something shocking under the counter.

These containers, like this one here, look at it. It's horrible.

And what was in these boxes?

We've got seaweed in that one, but what was in these boxes before?

OK, so it's halal.

So, seaweed is being kept in boxes labelled as chicken.

So if that's salmonella contamination,

or campylobacter contamination, that's going to go onto the seaweed.

So, sorry, Chen, but can I ask you to throw that away?

We've got to treat them as contaminated.

Salmonella and campylobacter are major causes of food poisoning.

-Richard has had to take immediate action.

-I wouldn't eat here.

I really wouldn't.

Richard's found some serious failings in the kitchen.

No hand-washing facilities, dirt which could attract pests,

fat dripping from a ceiling fan and the potential for food poisoning.

The general standard of cleanliness is appalling, yeah?

That's bad in there today. That's bad.

I'm going to have to come back, yeah?

I want it absolutely sparkling.

I'm giving you a bit of a break here, and I'm not going to

serve any legal notices, which I'm entitled to do, I could do that.

But think about what you're going to do to your systems

and procedures to make sure this doesn't happen again.

-Do you understand all that?

-Yeah.

-OK.

That place was a disaster today.

Things like the seaweed,

that really did have potential to cause food poisoning.

We binned that immediately, he agreed to that,

and we've got an immediate clean-up starting to go on.

So I'm going to be back there on Monday

to make sure that's all right.

If it's not, if it's still like that on Monday, that's prosecution.

It's going to be a long weekend for Chen.

He has a lot of work to do to get the restaurant up to

Richard's exacting standards.

Find out how he gets on later in the programme.

I was hoping to see it immaculate, and it's not immaculate,

it's certainly not immaculate.

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.

Around half the meat we eat in Britain is chicken.

In fact, we eat nearly one billion chickens

and 20 million turkeys every year in this country.

But, in the past decade,

our poultry industry has played host to some fairly unpleasant bugs.

But tonight, I'm reporting on the single biggest problem

facing the industry.

A form of food poisoning which is carried in two out of three

chickens and which can be deadly.

Are our poulterers doing everything in their power to make sure

the bird on our table is completely safe?

But first, a little history.

The poultry industry is all too familiar with crisis.

In November, turkeys on a farm

in East Anglia tested positive for MRSA.

Now, experts say the risk of catching the bug from

eating meat is extremely low,

but it's not the first disease to affect British poultry.

Remember this?

-Bird flu has arrived in Britain.

-Scientists have confirmed H5NI.

The top priority now is to ensure that this outbreak is contained.

In 2006, the authorities slaughtered 35,000 birds in an effort

to control an outbreak of bird flu on a Norfolk farm.

More poultry are being culled tonight on suspicion of bird flu.

The same virus which has killed more

than 100 people across the world in three years.

By the end of the following year, almost a third of a million

chickens and turkeys had been slaughtered to control the bug.

Thousands of birds were slaughtered to protect you and me from

avian flu, and yet there was only ever one human case

diagnosed here in the UK.

Meanwhile, every year, over 100 people are killed by a bug

that can be caught from birds.

Do you know its name?

CHICKENS CLUCK

Yes, it's campylobacter.

We've seen over the course of the series that this bug

can be incredibly serious.

It's the most common cause of food poisoning in the UK.

Now, in my final report, I'm taking an in-depth look at what the

poultry industry is doing about the food inspectors' arch enemy.

If you're unfortunate enough to get it, it can be very nasty indeed.

Professor Brendan Wren from

the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine

knows all about the bug. He's been studying it for years.

We get campylobacter from contaminated food,

and it's quite often poultry products.

The organism quite naturally lives within chickens,

where it's quite happy to be - it doesn't cause disease in chickens,

but just 100 cells will cause severe bloody diarrhoea in humans.

And it's very painful, occasionally bloody,

and it will last for two to three days,

maybe even up to seven days, and on rare occasions it can cause

paralysis and can cause death.

And it's on the rise.

In 2012 there were over 65,000 confirmed cases,

but even that is thought to be a huge underestimate.

Experts say the true number is closer to half a million a year.

With so many people being made sick, I want to know what's being

done to stop campylobacter getting into our food in the first place.

My first stop is the Food Standards Agency.

Bob, what is the situation with campylobacter in the UK right now?

We recognised it from when we were set up in 2000 as being

one of the most important bugs that causes food poisoning in the UK.

It's the biggest cause of food poisoning, more than salmonella,

E. coli and listeria put together.

It's a difficult one to get rid of,

it's not as easy as salmonella, it's a different type of bug.

What is the FSA doing to protect us?

We're looking at reducing the initial colonisation

of chickens on the farm

so that they don't carry campylobacter in the first place,

but also, as we do with everything, working farm-to-fork to try

and make sure that the contamination is

reduced along the production chain, and also that the consumers -

when they get hold of it - can do their bit to protect themselves.

The FSA says it is working with the poultry industry to tackle

campylobacter before it gets onto your plate.

So what exactly are producers doing?

Join me later when I find out how one chicken farmer is trying

to fight the threat of campylobacter.

You're sure you're not running a secret missile silo?

-Just chickens.

-Right.

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.

Have you ever wondered what is in your food?

Matt's shown us that a major cause of food poisoning are chickens,

but there's still more you need to know about one of

the nation's favourite foods.

The chicken you're eating may not be all you think it is.

It's lunch time - a quick snack,

some nice, dark,

crispy chicken nuggets, phwoar,

and they're cheap.

Well, in fact, they come in under £2, even in major cities, which is

why lots of kids on the way back from school stop in to

-the chicken shop to buy some.

-Which is OK, cos they're chicken.

But we have no idea what's in them,

cos there's no labels as it's a takeaway.

Hey, hey, hey, that's my lunch - don't crush me nuggets.

Doesn't exactly look like the chicken from your Sunday roast, does it?

No, it does look a bit rubbery and foamy.

But they must have chicken in them?

Well, how much chicken, and what part of the chicken do they use?

-HE SIGHS

-You're putting me right off these now. Shall we go

-and find out exactly what's in these nuggets?

-Yeah, go on, then.

Think I'll have a sandwich.

While Chris heads off to find out what's actually in those

factory-formed nuggets, I've been joined by award-winning

school cook Caroline Parry, famed for feeding kids fresh food.

She's going to show me what's in a home-made chicken nugget.

Now, you're a school dinner lady, you have been for 17 years,

-you make everything in that school from scratch.

-Yep.

Fresh chicken breasts, breadcrumbs, herbs and an egg wash.

Take it away please, Caroline.

'Caroline's nuggets contain nothing but diced chicken breast.'

The parents must be delighted that you do this from scratch,

as well as the kids, aren't they?

The children get a nice, healthy, well-balanced meal.

What made you want to start making home-made meals for the kids?

It's easy enough to make and it's better for the children.

Next, we get the diced chicken pieces

and dip them into the egg wash.

-And then we dip them into the breadcrumbs.

-And that's it?

That's all there is to it.

What time do you get into school to prepare all of this?

You must have to be in very early in the mornings.

-Seven o'clock, I start.

-How many of you are there?

-Six staff.

What's your opinion of the nuggets that you get in the takeaway

and the local chicken shop?

My children don't really have them,

because you don't really know what goes into them.

20 minutes in the oven and they're done.

Home-made chicken nuggets.

So this way, you know exactly what's going into your food -

some chicken breast, some fresh breadcrumbs and a few herbs.

-And a bit of egg.

-Just plain and simple.

-I wish you'd been my school dinner lady.

-Thank you.

So, a home-made nugget can be wholesome and nutritious,

but what's in shop-bought nuggets?

Chris has gone to find out.

Gaby's chicken nuggets look great,

and she knows they are made of top-quality chicken,

but most of us can't be bothered with the faff -

we go to the supermarket and buy them in a bag.

But when we read the label it says, "made with 100% chicken breast",

but if you look on the back it says,

"each nugget contains anything from up to 30 to 70% percent chicken."

Confused? So am I.

'To find out how some frozen supermarket nuggets are made,

'I'm meeting food scientist Richard Marshall,

'who's a senior lecturer at Bath Spa University.'

So these are the ingredients that are going to

go into our chicken nugget. We'll start with the chicken breast.

If I was making them at home, I'd think about cutting them up in

nice, thick nuggets,

covering them in breadcrumbs - Bob's your uncle.

Yeah, well, we're going to try and make them go a bit further,

which is what the manufacturers are doing.

Richard shows me the ingredients manufacturers sometimes use to

bulk nuggets out, but it all starts with one thing - chicken.

What I do need to check is the weight of this first.

Tip this in, see how much we've got. Just over 200g.

-OK, 200g of chicken breast.

-That's right.

Now we're going to start bulking this up.

'Richard starts by adding flour, starch, flavouring and water.'

Mix that all in. So in theory, that's my chicken.

Yep, that's your chicken, with all the added ingredients.

'A few seconds in the blender, then it's time to get our hands dirty.'

Just roughly shape them into nuggets.

-How's that?

-Yeah, that's not bad.

So, what did we have, about one-and-a-half breasts of chicken?

-So pretty well doubled it with the other ingredients.

-13 nuggets.

Yeah, baker's dozen.

So we're going to coat it in a little batter

and dip it in the breadcrumbs.

'In some budget nuggets, bulking agents

'and breadcrumbs can account for more than

'two-thirds of the product.'

-Chicken nuggets ready, let's put them in the fryer.

-There it goes.

-They look a lovely golden brown.

-Look at that.

-Look at that!

I don't want to sound cocky, but they look good.

-They do, they look pretty good.

-I wonder how much they weigh now.

Right, our chicken nuggets.

'Manufacturers sell their nuggets by weight, so bulking them

'up with cheap additives is a great way to boost profits.'

326g. So we've gone up quite a bit,

haven't we? 126.5g worth of extras.

Have a look inside the nuggets now, this big, juicy one here.

As I break it open...

It looks a bit like dough, it doesn't look like chicken.

Yeah, that's formed meat.

It's the mixture of the chicken meat and the other ingredients.

I've got some that I made from whole chicken breast.

-These haven't been reformed.

-OK, I'll just break it open.

Now that...looks like real meat. What do they say, the proof?

-Mmm, in the eating.

-Mmm.

It tastes like, you know, texture-wise,

you expect it to feel nice and crispy on the outside...but doughy.

And the breast...

..is delicious.

-I mean, it really tastes good, but it's three times the price.

-Yeah.

That makes it a tough decision, doesn't it?

I find out what is actually in some

cheap chicken nuggets from a takeaway.

KIDS: Eugh!

Meet no-nonsense Nicki, hygiene hero and Coventry food safety officer.

She scours the city's 2,500 food outlets for bugs,

bacteria or rodents, and the possibility she might find one

keeps food retailers on their toes.

We turn up, and we're probably quite scary to a food business.

We can go to some places and find appalling conditions which are

a real food safety risk, and you've got to stop that food going out.

Inspecting the food sellers across Britain's 11th largest city

helps the residents stay safe when they eat out.

Nicki's off to inspect a takeaway.

It doesn't have a great track record,

and things didn't go smoothly the last time she paid a call.

It's due for a routine hygiene inspection.

It's one of our poorer businesses, but saying that,

improvements may have been made this time around.

Just here for your routine hygiene check.

It's not long before this visit unearths some

potential hygiene hazards.

You've got a leak.

Leaks above a cooking area could let dirty water find its way

into the food, as well as bits of ceiling paint and plaster.

Structurally, it's not good for a food business to have

a hole in the ceiling where it leaks.

But it seems that the leak isn't the only problem.

You've got cockroaches.

Cockroaches will infest the whole of the business,

and...I'm going to have to ask you to close.

I'm ever so sorry.

It's terrible news for the owner,

but Nicki can't let him keep his business open.

The whole thing needs treating,

because they are so difficult to get rid of.

I've got no choice. This needs proper pest control treatment.

There's loads.

Cockroaches carry and transmit diseases like dysentery,

gastroenteritis and typhoid - bad news for humans

and something the owner can't just sweep under the carpet.

It's probably best you don't do that,

cos if you start flicking them about,

they're just going to go everywhere.

Leave them in this area for now, OK?

Phone your pest guy and get him out,

cos he might be able to spray it.

The infestation is so serious,

it's not only the owner who needs to call for back-up.

No, I've got a bit of a problem.

Cockroaches.

I really wasn't expecting that.

It is pretty rare, to be honest,

and to see cockroaches in a business when it's operating in daylight

is very rare, cos they are nocturnal and they don't really like people.

15 minutes later, Nicki's colleague comes to witness

one of the worst infestations the pair have ever seen.

There's one under there.

-There's one under there?

-Yep.

Oh, good.

Cockroaches there again, look.

-Just come out that hole?

-I reckon.

That cavity, isn't it?

Do you think it's just in there? I reckon they must be everywhere.

-Oh, they must be everywhere.

-They must be.

It's a well established infestation,

cos we've got different ages of nymphs

and adult cockroaches as well.

I've seen pictures and I've heard officers talking about them,

but, yeah, this is the first one I've actually been to.

I feel a bit itchy.

We can't leave you open with cockroaches, all right?

They are a massive food pest.

They carry a lot of disease and bacteria.

OK?

What will have to happen is you'll have to close...

Nicki knows this is a huge blow for the owner.

It is a very big deal.

I go home and I worry, thinking, "How's he going to feed his kids?"

It's like someone saying to me, "You can't work tomorrow.

"You're not going to get paid."

So it is a big deal.

And so is the owner's big clean-up.

Nicki will be back and the business won't reopen

until she's satisfied it's squeaky clean.

Half measures won't be tolerated.

Have they cleaned or have they just painted?

You can't just paint over the muck.

According to the Food Standards Agency,

about two in three fresh chickens are infected with campylobacter,

a bug which kills over 100 people a year.

It's the biggest cause of food poisoning -

more than salmonella, E. coli and listeria put together.

I want to know what the poultry industry is doing about it.

Campylobacter lives in the guts of chickens

and is spread through faeces.

Once a bird catches it,

the bug can infect the rest of the flock within days.

It occurs naturally in the environment,

but there is no vaccine.

That means stopping campylobacter

getting onto the farm in the first place is crucial.

David Speller's been running his chicken farm for ten years.

His state-of-the-art facility even won him

a Poultry Farmer of the Year award.

Inside these four giant sheds,

there are 180,000 birds,

all destined for a dinner plate near you.

But even an award-winning farmer like David

can't guarantee his flock is campylobacter-free.

First thing we have is a very big steel door

that we've got to get through.

-Let's see what's on the other side.

-No problem.

'Anyone wanting to go inside the shed

'has to go through strict hygiene procedures.

'They call this bio-security.'

Dainty.

-Still haven't seen any chickens yet.

-No chickens yet.

Are you sure you're not running a secret missile site?

-This is just chickens?

-Yep.

Another room.

One at a time.

And then we're going to wash our hands.

'After disinfecting yet another pair of boots,

'we're finally ready to enter the chicken shed.'

Ready?

Well, David, you made me wait, you made me go through a few doors,

-but you haven't let me down. This is like a chicken city.

-Yeah.

-It is.

-How many have we got in here?

-Just over 40,000.

-Right, 40,000 chickens?

-Yep.

Does everything we've seen guarantee

that nothing here will leave with campylobacter?

Can you be that confident?

You cannot tell by looking at this batch of birds

whether they've got it or not.

At the moment, we're trying to understand, where is it coming from?

When does it establish within the flock?

What controls can we put in place

to prevent something like that happening?

When these birds are gone, what happens to this place?

OK, what'll happen when these birds go -

we'll take out all the manure, then we'll do a dry-clean

and then we'll wash every square inch

and then we'll disinfect everything as well.

Then we'll take some swabs and send them away to a laboratory,

just to make sure that everywhere is clean - the vents, the ceilings.

That will then give us

a clean environment to then get set up ready for the next batch.

Well, David certainly seems to be taking his responsibilities

very seriously to ensure that the bug doesn't spread

through the flock on his farm.

But then, campylobacter can equally spread in abattoirs

or in processing plants.

So what's the rest of the poultry industry doing

to make sure it doesn't?

'Join me later in the programme,

'when I discover how the rest of the world deals with campylobacter.'

OK, Robert, what is that particular chicken swimming in right now?

Oxford food inspector Richard Kuziara is back at the Pink Giraffe.

The Chinese restaurant has a hygiene rating of one.

Now, Richard wants to know

if new owner Chen has cleaned up his act after a disastrous first visit.

His attitude last time seemed as though

he was going to take it seriously.

I'm hoping he has taken it seriously

and what we're going to find now is a good, clean kitchen.

Hiya, Chen.

The last time Richard was here,

the hand wash basin was blocked,

fat was dripping from the ceiling fan, and the floor was so dirty,

Richard was concerned it could attract undesirables.

That, basically, is a load of cockroach and rat food.

There was a serious risk of food poisoning.

Can I ask you to throw that away?

So, is the kitchen up to scratch?

Just going to wash my hands, Chen.

Really pleased to see that they've fixed the wash hand basin.

Good hygiene starts with having a clean set of hands.

A working wash basin is a good start, but what about the cleaning?

I was hoping to see it immaculate. I was hoping to see nothing at all.

It's not immaculate. It's certainly not immaculate.

Even tiny amounts of food can be a banquet for pests.

Although it might not look particularly dirty to you,

each one of those bits of food -

it's a huge amount for flies and cockroaches.

Even mice and things will be able to feed on that.

There's still a bit of gunge and food and things in here, Chen.

What I'm bothered about is food pests.

There's a lot of tasty treats there for them,

which I hope they never get.

But dirt wasn't Richard's only concern.

During his last visit, he spotted fat dripping from the extractor fan.

Not only was it unhygienic - it was a fire risk.

OK, so you've changed the filter, that's good.

However, look at this metal grid.

We've still got a risk of contamination,

with stuff dripping down.

Yeah? So that needs to be deep-cleaned as well.

Dirt still seems to be Chen's biggest problem.

That's a lot of years of gunge.

There's been a go at cleaning.

It needs more, yeah? If you'd done nothing,

I'd have had to prosecute you and I don't want to do that.

This is pretty horrible down here, Chen.

I mean, you've got...

You've got a pest control box, ironically,

covered in gunge and rubbish.

Yeah, it's really...

You really need to do more cleaning.

It's time for Richard to deploy his secret weapon - the bug spray.

It's the only way he can be sure there are no uninvited guests

lurking behind the kitchen units.

If there is anything, they'll all come running out.

Our nightmare would be cockroaches staggering out of that.

Luckily for Chen, no creepy-crawlies appear.

With this level of cleaning, this kind of stuff...

I wanted it immaculate, yeah?

The kitchen is cleaner than on Richard's first visit,

but Chen still has a long way to go to make this food inspector happy.

I think we need to do more cleaning.

-I want to see all those edges and things cleaned out properly.

-Yeah.

I'll pop back on Thursday just to check.

If you hadn't done anything,

I would have had to have prosecuted you, yeah?

It's good, but you could do better, yeah?

So there's more work to do.

Richard gives Chen one more chance to clean up his act.

Join us later to find out if he's done enough.

That's a pretty miserable sight for a cockroach, that.

'Earlier, we saw the difference

'between a top-quality home-made chicken nugget...'

Some chicken breast, fresh breadcrumbs and a few herbs?

Plain and simple.

'..and some shop-bought chicken nuggets.'

Hmm. It looks a bit like dough. It doesn't look like chicken.

'The other place to buy nuggets is the local takeaway,

'where they're piping hot and ready to eat, but...'

There's no labelling at all on the packets

of these takeaway chicken nuggets,

so does anybody know exactly what they're eating?

I think the chicken nuggets are made out of breast pieces.

The bit no-one wants, really.

-Breasts?

-Off-cuts.

I think there's bone in there.

In my chicken nuggets, I think there's feet.

The breast of the chicken?

I believe they use the chicken butt to make chicken nuggets,

these chicken nuggets.

'It seems the public can't tell me

'what's actually in my takeaway nuggets,

'so to get the truth, I sent my batch to a lab for testing.

'And I'm going to reveal the results to a class of self-confessed

'nugget lovers at a school in north London.'

Anyone like chicken nuggets?

ALL: Yes!

What I'd like you to do is all take a chicken nugget, but don't eat it.

Just hold it, OK?

Everyone take one, and teachers too.

-Do you like chicken nuggets? TEACHER:

-Love chicken nuggets.

You love chicken nuggets? OK.

So what is it about chicken nuggets that you like? Go on, you tell me.

I just like how tender it is, I guess.

The batter is quite crunchy,

but then the inside is nice and smooth, so it's a nice combination.

Anyone really, now, desperate to bite that chicken nugget?

ALL: Yes!

OK.

So what do you think's the main ingredient in the chicken nugget?

-THEY REPEAT ONE BY ONE: Chicken.

-Chicken.

-Chicken.

-Chicken.

So you think there would be chicken in a chicken nugget?

ALL: Yes!

OK, now, I'm going to introduce you to a friend of mine,

Mr Butcher, who we can call Struan.

Struan. Give him a round of applause.

Right, what Struan's going to do is chop up the chicken

and we're going to try and work out which part of the chicken

goes into the chicken nuggets, OK? So could you talk us through?

-You're going to chop it up for us, aren't you?

-Sure, yeah.

Just going to take it from...

Split the legs off here.

So these are all the bits of meat that,

-if you've ever had a roast, these are the bits you'd be eating.

-Yep.

OK, so there goes the breast and the wing.

Yep.

So this is what you would get at a butcher's shop as a chicken breast.

You all still desperate to eat your chicken nuggets?

ALL: Yeah. GABY: Just wait a moment, OK?

So what are we left with there?

This is really the carcass of the chicken.

What would you do with the carcass?

It can be used for making stocks or soups,

and once it's served that purpose, it's discarded, so put in the bin.

But maybe not.

Oh, OK.

Would you like to give it a scrape for me, please?

I can do that, of course.

'Struan collects up all the leftover bits he wouldn't sell.

'That includes any remaining meat, excess skin,

'connective tissue and cartilage,

'and anything else that would usually end up in the bin.'

Anybody fancy eating any of this?

ALL: No!

Or any more connective tissue like...

ALL: No!

Want to have a closer look at that?

ALL: Eww!

'There's actually no legal minimum amount of chicken in a nugget.

'Ours contained as little as 40% meat.

'A portion of six nuggets can also contain over 70%

'of the recommended daily allowance of fat for five-to-ten-year-olds.'

Right, now...

ALL: Eww!

Disgusting!

OK, guys.

ALL: Eww!

ALL: Eww!

That's disgraceful!

So you saw what you put in there.

That's what's inside your chicken nugget.

ALL: Eww!

Hands up who really doesn't want their chicken nugget now.

Now some of you wouldn't eat it again. Why is that?

The fat of the chicken isn't really that nice.

That fat and salt and... Eww.

What's in it, I would never, like,

-want to eat one of those things.

-Really?

It really is, it's disgusting.

All we want to know as consumers is what's in our food,

especially when it comes to kids' favourites.

Now you know what's in some cheap chicken nuggets, the choice is yours.

What are you doing? Didn't you see how those are made?

Good enough for the kids, good enough for me.

But there's hardly any chicken in them.

But what you don't realise is

I don't really like chicken anyway.

Back in Coventry, filth-fighter Nicki is heading back

to a takeaway restaurant she shut down the day before.

You've got cockroaches.

We can't leave you open with cockroaches, all right?

They are a massive food pest.

The takeaway can't open

until Nicki is convinced all unwanted visitors have cleared out.

The owner's livelihood depends on being open for trade,

so it's a race against time to clean up his act.

I'm hoping to see that there's some changes in the business.

Maybe they've started some cleaning,

definitely got their pest contractor out

and he's actually taken on board what we've said.

Thank you for coming in.

Great progress seems to have been made just 12 hours after closure.

Pest control have been in and they're already redecorating,

but Nicki is suspicious.

-What are you doing here now, then? Have you cleaned?

-First clean.

-You cleaned first.

-Yeah. First, I clean.

-And then paint. OK.

Nicki's concerned they're taking short cuts.

I can't stress enough, we do need to make sure this has gone properly.

If we've got any doubt, we can't reopen you. OK?

But the owner is adamant he and pest control have done a thorough job.

-We've done the spray.

-Did you spray everywhere, or just in the cupboard?

-Just in the cupboard.

-OK.

As well as spraying, pest control have laid down traps to

monitor the amount of pest activity on the premises.

There's quite a few, see, already.

They're all clear. A lot of them have still got stuff on them.

They do take a long time to die as well. That one's still alive.

When we actually come back, if we see any cockroaches anywhere,

not just on the traps, but on a shelf or dead on the floor,

we'll still assume that there's a problem.

Live cockroaches in the traps means the issue hasn't yet been resolved.

-Oh, right.

-Nicki has some more unwelcome news for the takeaway.

Every scrap of food made in any kitchen

contaminated by cockroaches has to be binned.

It's such a shame, but it's food which may have been contaminated.

Can't risk it ending up on somebody's pizza.

So these are the doughs you made last night, are they?

They've got to go as well, yeah.

Just can't risk it.

Even the food in the freezer has to be chucked away.

It's the policy of the local council to dispose of any food

made on the premise.

We do need to get rid of these as well.

Before she goes, Nicki has one last corner to check,

back inside that cupboard where she first discovered those roaches.

Have you got a knife or something? Give us your scraper.

Down here, you've still got a load of crud.

All this needs to be somehow got out cos all that there is just

something they're going to live off.

Cos it's all debris and grease that they're going to eat.

There's still a long way to go before the venue is clean

enough to be reopened.

I don't think they can see the whole picture at the moment,

so they need it pointing out to them that this needs to go, that needs

to go, and this needs to be tidied and that needs to be got rid of.

The food safety officers will keep a close eye on progress

and if they're not satisfied,

this Coventry kitchen won't be serving customers any time soon.

Earlier in the programme, I discovered the lengths some

farmers are going to in an effort to stop campylobacter.

We're now changing shoes again.

But even super-tight bio-security,

the type of thing David's doing on his farm, is not always enough.

You cannot tell by looking at this batch of birds

whether they've got it or not.

Campylobacter is on the rise.

It turns out there are plenty of ways to kills campylobacter,

but I'll be honest with you, none of them sound very appealing.

-What is that particular chicken swimming in right now?

-Chlorine.

-Or sodium hypochlorite.

-And what does that do to the campylobacter?

Chlorine is a very reactive substance

and it will destroy parts of the bacteria.

Is this something that is taking place around the world right now?

It's something which is used quite often in the US.

'This chemical intervention is not allowed in the EU.

'The US says it's safe and doesn't affect taste,

'but chlorine is not the only solution.'

-Robert, this time, our chicken is swimming in lactic acid.

-Yes.

'Lactic acid might sound scary,

'but is in fact a naturally occurring substance.

'You find it in dairy products.

'The EU has looked into using it and says it's safe to use,

'but it also says there's not yet enough evidence to prove it

'works, so is there anything else the industry could do?'

There are a number of methods that other groups are trying.

For example, flash freezing,

so you very rapidly freeze the surface of the carcass

and that's supposedly able to kill bacteria on the surface

without damaging the quality of the carcass.

'So, if farmers are unable to keep campylobacter

'out of their flocks and treatments to kill the bug are still

'banned in the EU, what exactly is the poultry industry doing about it?

'I've come to meet Andrew Large of the British Poultry Council

'the body which represents chicken producers.

'And in case you're wondering, yes,

'I do have to wear the blue boiler suit.'

The poultry industry does seem to have a problem here.

It's delivering birds into people's homes that have a bug that

could kill them, but you don't seem to be doing anything.

The poultry industry takes incredibly seriously its responsibility

to provide safe food.

The industry's spending millions of pounds every year.

Lots of things being done, from on-farm bio-security,

innovations in the processing plant, and the consumer does also have a

role to play in good kitchen hygiene and cooking the poultry properly.

It does feel like the emphasis is on the consumer now,

once this bird comes into their house,

to do what they have to do to protect themselves.

Despite the bio-security measures and everything else,

there doesn't seem to be a great change.

The emphasis is not all on the consumer.

The fact is there's no silver bullet.

There's lots of little things that need to be done,

all the way along the supply chain, to make a difference,

and that includes the consumer having good kitchen hygiene and cooking the poultry properly.

When can you tell me that campylobacter won't be the problem it is right now?

Is it possible to make that guarantee or promise?

All I can say is the companies involved are investing

a lot of money and a lot of time and effort on doing lots of things right

the way through the supply process to aim to resolve the problem.

The poultry industry and the Food Standards Agency both say

they're taking campylobacter very seriously indeed

and they're doing everything they can to come up with

a concrete solution, but until they do, it's up to us

to do everything we can to protect ourselves.

You can't tell by taste or look if a chicken has campylobacter,

so it's not worth taking any chances. Don't wash raw chicken.

This can spread the bug onto other surfaces.

And make sure you cook your chicken thoroughly.

If cooked properly, campylobacter will be killed.

Wash down any surfaces and kitchen utensils after handling raw chicken.

In Oxford, Richard Kuziara is returning to the Pink Giraffe.

It's his third visit to the Chinese restaurant and he's keen to see

whether owner Chen has improved the standard of hygiene.

Today, I'd like to see it... I would like to see it immaculate.

The restaurant has a food hygiene rating of one.

During his last visit,

Richard was worried about the levels of dirt in the kitchen.

That's a lot of years of gunge.

There was muck under the kitchen counter and behind the fridge.

-Now, it's a different story.

-Ah, yeah. That's beautiful.

The floors are spotless.

That's a pretty miserable sight for a cockroach, that.

There's nothing to eat there. That's good.

The Pink Giraffe gets a clean bill of health.

Really appreciate all your hard work. As it is today, I would eat here.

Right? So let's try and keep it that way.

I'm happy with today's inspection. We'll try to keep it on every week.

Pink Giraffe keeps its "one" rating for now, but if Chen can keep

to this standard, he could improve his score next time.

Hopefully, we made a difference there, he's going

in the right direction. He's got the idea. I think...

I'm really hoping that next time we do a routine inspection that

place is going to be as it is today, pretty much, but only time will tell.

But I'm hopeful.

As many as a million of us

every single year in the UK will get food poisoning.

It happens when our ingredients get contaminated in the food chain.

From growing in the ground, grazing in the field,

to ending up on our plate. Now, each week,

we will be telling you about the worst cases of food poisoning

in the UK, and hopefully giving you a few useful tips

to make sure you're not the next victim.

These are The Poison Files.

Now, in most cases of food poisoning,

it's pretty easy to identify which food was

contaminated by bacteria, but tonight's Poison File

presented the food inspectors with something of a mystery.

This week, we focus on one of the biggest British food

poisoning outbreaks of the decade, and it all kicked off in

Newcastle after the Street Spice Festival in March of last year.

It was set up by this man, Bob Arora,

the owner of upmarket Indian restaurant Sachins.

We expected about 8,000 people over three days, but we got 12,000,

so in terms of numbers, it was amazing.

There was all different food stands, all different smells going on.

It was just really exciting.

As you walked in, it was hundreds of people milling around in there.

The atmosphere was really good, really friendly,

it was quite lively, tried quite a few different foods,

a couple of drinks and yeah, really enjoyed it.

The festival was put on in commemoration of Bob's

brother-in-law, Punjabi hip-hop producer Kuly Ral.

Tragically, he died from a brain tumour aged just 35.

We raised loads of money for charity.

We raised over 20,500 and that was the biggest amount Brain Tumour

have ever had from one event, so it was good in that sense.

But, yes, it's just amazing how things can sort of turn round

within hours.

Shortly after the festival ended,

the good vibes started to turn into strange rumblings.

It began with me feeling generally unwell.

A cold sweat, kind of sweating and feeling generally weak.

And not everybody started suffering whilst in the comfort

of their own home.

We were playing golf, we got to the tenth tee

and I realised I couldn't wait any longer.

Unfortunately, we were in the middle of the golf course and there was no toilets about.

I had to jump over the fence and go in the woods and do what the bears do.

That poor festival goer, like many others,

was suffering from a nasty bout of diarrhoea.

That can occur when harmful bacteria invade the lining of intestine

and colon.

Within two days, 65 people had got in touch with

Newcastle food safety officer Paula Davies.

By day 11, this number had jumped to over 400.

Testing started to reveal they had salmonella poisoning.

We knew without any doubt that this was the biggest outbreak

any of us had ever been involved in.

But what had been the cause of the outbreak?

Paula, now working with Public Health England,

began to investigate.

The biggest problem was there'd been 18 different food stalls,

all serving a variety of different dishes.

We basically just said - person A ate this, this, this and this,

Person B ate this, this, this and this. Eventually, there was

one stall that was being named by every single person.

The stall was known as Dosa Hut, not a trading restaurant,

but a temporary catering company with no kitchen of its own.

The food was prepared in Sachins' kitchen by a guest chef,

under Bob's supervision.

We made the decision to go down to the Sachins kitchen where the food

for the Dosa Hut had been prepared, to start an on-site investigation.

There was about 15 people came down, asking me questions.

They were taking swab tests of everything, every surface,

and it was just unbelievable. My mind wasn't there, it was...

People asking you this, that and the other.

It was like a blur, it really was. It was unbelievable.

Now, the food normally associated with food poisoning are

raw meat, chicken and eggs.

But when the safety officers went to Sachins,

they tested just about everything, including fresh ginger, raw rice,

cooked rice, the lentils and the chicken in some of their dishes,

and even the chillies.

All the samples were sent to a lab in York for analysis

and they were all sent back.

The results? Negative.

They'd hit a dead end.

That is, until the inspectors decided to analyse

an innocent-looking relish served with every Dosa Hut dish -

a coconut chutney containing raw curry leaves.

The curry leaves were sent to the lab and they tested positive for

salmonella, one of the most common causes of food poisoning worldwide.

Now, there are over 2,500 types of salmonella and in the UK,

we're used to seeing the same type time and time again.

But in this case, it was a very unusual strain -

the same unusual strain found in the stool samples of our festival goers.

Bingo!

At long last, the investigation had made a breakthrough.

The type of salmonella that was in the human samples

and on the curry leaves was a really unusual strain of salmonella.

It was called salmonella agona

and it had never been seen before in this country.

This was really strong evidence.

When we found out it was curry leaves,

you could have literally knocked me down with a feather.

I was amazed that a simple curry leaf could be so dangerous.

Although they'd found the culprit, the investigation wasn't over.

The council suspected the curry leaves had been contaminated

long before they entered Bob's kitchen,

probably in their country of origin - Pakistan.

But they still had to decide whether Bob

and the chef were ultimately responsible for the outbreak.

Selling food that makes people ill is an offence under food safety law,

there's no doubt about that, and we were taking it incredibly seriously.

So we know the curry leaf had been used raw in the chutney,

so then we really had to look at whether that was

an irresponsible thing for the chef to have done - is it reasonable for

him to have known that those curry leaves could have been contaminated?

It was a trying time for Bob.

In catering, you never want to see anyone be ill,

or even have the slightest side-effect, or whatever.

It was demoralising. I had to go in with a solicitor to be

interviewed by one of the EHO people, with various questions.

We did a lot of investigation at this stage with chefs

up and down the country who work with curries

and what we found out was that chefs do a variety of different things.

Some cook them and some don't.

After three months of investigation

the council decided not to take formal action in this case.

Their decision took into account the fact that the chef had

thoroughly washed the curry leaves

and the lack of clear official advice about the use of curry leaves,

along with the overall good standards of food hygiene at the festival.

As far as the council were concerned, we did everything by the book,

we did all the things we could do,

we had risk assessments, everything was there,

but a curry leaf just literally slipped through the net and...

Just can't believe how dangerous it could be and how dangerous it was.

Coming up, I find out how to avoid getting

food poisoning from curry leaves and herbs.

In Coventry, a takeaway's been closed for business

because it's been invaded by insects.

-Do you think it's just in there? I reckon it must be everywhere.

-Oh, they must be.

The food inspectors have returned several times

to keep an eye on developments.

A lot of them have got stuff on them. That one's still alive.

When we actually come back, if we see any cockroaches anywhere,

not just on the traps but on a shelf or dead on the floor,

we'll assume that there's a problem.

Today, ten days after the closure,

officers Carol Crowley and Kay Hemmings

will only give the all-clear if they are satisfied the people of Coventry

can eat the food here knowing that the bugs didn't get to it first.

We need to check the traps,

then look at the servery area where we found some cleaning issues,

and then take a view on where we are today.

That's what we're wanting to see, nice and clear in there.

Again, clear in there. There's no disturbance of the glue at all.

Clean traps suggest that the cockroach problem may finally

be under control.

Their pest controller sprayed the whole building,

so there's treatment been done throughout now.

And they've just informed me that they

haven't found anything on their last couple of visits.

But to keep the pests away, the takeaway needs to maintain

an extremely high level of cleanliness.

It does feel...lighter and cleaner,

so they clearly have put in so much effort.

The takeaway may be looking spick-and-span now

but the owner will have to keep on top of his hygiene regime

to ensure the pests don't come back.

-You must have sanitiser all the time.

-OK.

And every day you clean, you degrease

and you sanitise everywhere.

-But I'm a lot happier.

-OK.

Has the takeaway made enough improvements to open up today?

We feel that it's safe now for you to reopen,

and then we'll carry on from there.

Earlier, we heard how last year over 400 people came down with

food poisoning after the Street Spice Festival in Newcastle,

because of a very unlikely ingredient.

Imported curry leaves.

We like herbs in our food and we're very happy to eat them

at restaurants, but how do we know these herbs are safe?

And what's the best way of cooking and cleaning your herbs at home?

Well, to find out, I've come to visit

Michelin-star-award-winning Indian chef Atul Kochhar.

-Chris, how are you?

-Yeah, great to see you. What a lovely place.

-Oh, thank you.

-Erm, you're going to talk me through herbs today, right?

I will indeed.

'Atul cooks with fresh herbs every day and knows more than anyone

'the different ways of poison-proofing them.'

When you pick up the coriander, I always take my fingers near to

where the rubber band is, to the bunch end.

I try to put my fingers through that. Do you feel some soil?

-If you just do that.

-Oh, yes, I can.

-Absolutely.

-Ah.

This is hidden soil, hidden earth,

-which you really need to wash it off.

-Yeah.

A lot of people say, it looks good,

take it out the fridge, chop, chop, chop, you're done.

-That's exactly what I would have done.

-That's where you fall ill.

-OK, so now it's time to wash and get rid of all that dirt.

-Absolutely.

I know how I do it at home, under the tap - whoa-ho-ho! -

-but I don't think that's good enough for you, is it?

-No, it's not,

-so I will give you proper training how to do the washing up.

-OK.

-Your position here.

-I'm in the sink, OK.

-Right.

-We've got the herbs here.

-OK, so this is the coriander and mint.

So what we do, we fill the bowl first with cold water.

-Yeah, and just dump them in?

-Dump them in.

-Do I just leave it to...

Yes, just wash them with your fingers nicely.

-But gently.

-Yeah, gently. We call it gentle but vigorous action.

-Gentle but vigorous.

-So you can drain this water.

-Yep, drain it?

Drain it, please.

-OK, done?

-Done, and then two times more...

-You do it three times?

-Three times.

The first time round you wanted to wash it vigorously

and also wanted the water to pass through.

Now, next two times, you want to lift the herbs gently

so that all the earth and all the dirt can go to the bottom of the pan,

and then you can drain them after lifting the herbs.

-OK, done.

-That's it, it's done now.

'So that's how to wash coriander, but what about the herb that caused

'so much havoc at the Newcastle street festival?'

-Curry leaves...

-Curry leaves, yes.

..I've got to say are a mystery to me.

So what are you looking for here?

Absolutely fresh leaves will be really strong and hard

and they will be shiny bright green.

Now, on the face of it, they look OK.

Yeah?

But if you look closely, look at the leaves, they're slightly eaten.

-Ah, yes.

-And they've been eaten by a bug or an insect.

-Right.

-And you don't want that in your food.

-No, so you get rid of those.

You have to get rid of those.

'Once that's done, the curry leaves should be washed thoroughly,

'and to disinfect most of the bacteria, too,

'Atul has a trick up his sleeve.'

-Now what do we do?

-Right. Now, what we do for the herbs like this,

or the herbs or spices like this,

we will use one part of vinegar, ten parts of water.

It's safe and natural and it sanitises the food perfectly well.

-So, people at home, normal white vinegar, that will do the trick?

-Absolutely.

-OK.

'Vinegar contains around 5% acetic acid.

'This is strong enough to kill the majority of common bacteria and viruses

'and is safe for human consumption.'

We'll leave it there for a good one, 1½ minute, no more than that,

because otherwise vinegar will start pulling the moisture

out of the leaves and they will go... limp, which is not right.

So it's just to sanitise them and then we'll take them out.

And then you'll rinse the vinegar off?

No, you just take it off and put it on a tray lined with kitchen towel

or kitchen paper, and then another towel on top

so that you can dry the leaves away.

'As a result of the spice festival outbreak,

'the Food Standards Agency now advise that cooking provides

'further assurance that curry leaves are safe to eat.

'However, to make sure absolutely all bacteria are killed,

'chefs like Atul treat them in a similar way to meat.'

And how long should you cook those?

Er, I think within 30 seconds they have released the flavour,

they are cooked really well.

From a safety point of view,

it should be 75 degrees and you should be able to hold

that temperature for a good three, four minutes.

And that kills everything, in my opinion.

However, if you're making a sauce or a curry, you're going to boil it

for a good 15, 20 minutes, you're simmering it,

and that is 100 degrees centigrade, so you're very safe.

It smells great. What are you making?

-I'm making a fish curry for you.

-Fish curry?

I'll be on table 12 and I'll be waiting.

Right, Chris. Straightaway.

-Pick up, guys!

-Chef!

Ooh, lovely.

Now, not everybody is fortunate enough to have a beautiful dish

full of herbs cooked by an award-winning chef like Atul,

but if you're thinking of cooking with herbs and curry leaves at home

then don't panic, just remember a few useful tips.

If you're using fresh herbs,

make sure they're washed thoroughly with water before use.

If you're using curry leaves, wash them with water and vinegar,

and to take extra precaution,

make sure they're cooked properly before you eat them.

And one more thing...enjoy.

-You've done brilliantly this series.

-Thanks, mate.

No, seriously, it's been an outstanding performance.

I really appreciate that.

They're even talking about making you an honorary food inspector.

-Really?

-Yeah.

-Oh, that's great.

You are going to have to wear the hairnet. Full-time.

Good night.