Episode 9 Rip Off Britain

There's a lot we don't know about the food on our plates,

and the shops and the labels don't always tell you the whole story.

Sometimes, when you have these offers on in the supermarket,

you think you're getting a good deal, but

if you're actually throwing it away, it's not a good deal.

Whether you're staying in or going out,

you've told us you can feel ripped off by the promises made for what

you eat and what you pay for it.

What really winds me up, I suppose,

is the price of so-called healthy food when compared with the unhealthy stuff.

The unhealthy stuff seems to be so much cheaper.

From claims that don't stack up, to the secrets behind the packaging,

we'll uncover the truth about Britain's food so you can be sure

you're getting what you expect at the right price.

Your food, your money - this is Rip-off Britain.

Hello, and welcome once again to Rip-off Britain,

and our very special series about food.

Now, I must tell you that today's programme is absolutely packed with

nuggets of advice that are not only likely to make your life easier,

but, at the same time,

will mean that the food you've bought stays fresh and

tasty for as long as possible.

It all adds up to plenty of savings in time as well as money,

and it's a direct result of a big issue that you've asked us to look into

on your behalf, and that is how long fresh food should last

and what's the best way to store it?

And the answers to those questions are not always what you'd expect.

So, for instance, if you've got long-forgotten items buried underneath

inches of ice at the back of the freezer - and who hasn't?

You've been looking in my fridge.

-Sounds very familiar.

-And yours.

I tell you, whatever it says on the label, do not throw them out just yet.

Wait until you've heard what the experts say is the best thing to do

with them.

Coming up, with most of us probably storing the wrong foods in there,

we settle the debate on what really does need to keep its cool

in your fridge.

Fridges are great. The trouble is is that people think of them as a

kind of stasis chamber where time doesn't happen and everything can

live for ever, and that's not true.

Things in your fridge will deteriorate.

And why this woman is convinced that fresh fruit from the supermarket

goes off a lot quicker than it used to.

And this is grapes from two days ago,

and they've gone brown already and they're mushy and they're falling off the stalks.

These days, the idea of living without a fridge in our home has become,

for most of us, I should think, unimaginable.

In fact, so central is it to our home that, very often,

we just might bung in any old food without necessarily

pausing to think whether or not the fridge is actually the best place

for it. So, if you've ever wondered whether you should keep your eggs in

or out, your butter warm or chilled - to fridge or not to fridge?

That is the question!

And we're going to be answering it with, I think,

some pretty surprising results.

The raiders strike at 3.31.

These days, kids of all ages make a beeline for the fridge as soon as

they get home. But back in the '50s and '60s,

when the appliance first became widely available,

both here and across the pond, they were very much a novelty.

And this Westinghouse 1955 refrigerator is frost-free, too.

And that means no defrosting in the freezer and no defrosting

-in the refrigerator.

-Now, of course, almost every kitchen has a fridge.

But opinion continues to be divided on some of the things that we should

keep in them. I'm going to ask you where you would store these things

-for freshness.

-OK.

-Eggs?

-Fridge.

-In the fridge.

-Fridge.

Where would you keep eggs?

-Fridge.

-Erm, in a cupboard, not in the fridge.

Well, if where to store eggs caused confusion,

jam proved a sticky one, too.

Jam? Actually, when it's open, in the fridge.

-Jam?

-Yeah, that's in the fridge.

Jam? No, in a cupboard.

It's in a cold cupboard, really.

Well, I hope when you go home today, your wife will let you put all the food away.

No, no, no, I don't want that job!

It was an e-mail from Celia Kay on the Isle of Man that first got our

team in the office fiercely debating what should be refrigerated and what

should not. She remembers a time when most foods didn't need to be

chilled at all, so she asked us why things have changed so much.

When I was a little girl in the 1950s,

most of our food was stored in a cupboard or a cool place.

And yet, now, on the packaging, everything says "store in a refrigerator".

I'd really like to know why that is.

To trace how our kitchens have changed since Celia was a girl,

she's stepping back in time...

..and into a 1950s prefab near Bromsgrove.

Oh, a Bush television!

Yes, we had one of those

in black-and-white only and nine-inch screen.

And we had similar crockery to the green.

And we had a clock on the mantelpiece that used to be wound up.

This is a unique museum called Avoncroft,

made up of almost 30 historical buildings and structures,

all rebuilt and restored to their former glory.

It's all bringing back memories.

Although it's not quite the same, it's very similar.

But there's one appliance here that Celia didn't grow up with - a fridge.

In fact, by the end of the 1950s, only 16% of British homes had one.

The rest, like Celia's, had other solutions.

We had a larder and that was the main area to store food.

But I did have an aunt who had a fridge,

and I can remember eating home-made ice cream and thinking it was the

most wonderful thing ever invented.

So I think it must have been quite a posh family

to have had a fridge that early on.

1950s housewives often shopped every day for fresh food

because keeping such produce at its best wasn't always easy.

But when refrigerators became more affordable, all of that changed.

It wasn't until I was in my early teens that we actually had a fridge.

It delighted my mum because she could shop a little bit less frequently.

I think Dad was quite delighted because Mum was happy,

so it worked for everybody.

The type of fridge that Celia's parents would have bought is almost

unrecognisable next to today's modern fridges.

Thanks to the consumer boom in the 1970s and '80s,

they're now found in just about every kitchen across the country,

and they've transformed the way we shop.

Food historian Andrew Webb has traced the rise of the refrigerator.

How have refrigerators changed over the years,

since they were first introduced?

Well, if we look at this one here, it's not much bigger than a cupboard.

And unlike pretty much everything else in the modern world,

which has got smaller, fridges have got massive.

They are much, much bigger.

In effect, they've become the new pantry.

We don't have a pantry any more and so everything goes in this huge,

-chilled wardrobe.

-But Celia wants to know whether that's really necessary.

Many of us bung all sorts of things in the fridge,

regardless of whether or not that's the best place for them.

And they're often the type of foods that Celia's mum would have kept in

-the pantry.

-Can I ask you why so many things have to be stored in

a fridge now, whereas they didn't in years gone by?

I think there are a number of factors involved in this.

Some of it's kind of health and safety

and a kind of belt-and-braces approach and not wanting to take risks.

And storing foods at low temperatures is vital for products that have

fewer preservatives than they used to.

A lot of sauces and condiments, for example,

have lower salt levels than they, traditionally, used to have.

Now, that salt inhibits bacterial growth.

Manufacturers lower the salt in their products -

they've got to store them in other ways.

But are there some things we put in the fridge that don't necessarily

have to be kept there at all?

Where do you find eggs in the supermarket?

They're not in the chiller cabinet with the cheese and the milk,

are they? And yet, you get them home, straight in the fridge.

Eggs are pretty robust things.

They can survive in a cool, even-temperatured space,

away from other strong smells.

Current official advice says store eggs at a constant temperature below

20 degrees Celsius.

So whilst, for many of us, that might be in a fridge,

as long as they're kept cool, then out of the fridge is absolutely fine.

Keeping them in the fridge won't damage them,

but Andrew says the same can't be said for some fruit and veg.

Tomatoes, for example, shouldn't go in the fridge.

They're a fruit. If you put them in the fridge,

the cold starts to break down the membranes inside the tomato -

you get a mealy tomato.

Potatoes - they shouldn't be kept in the fridge.

They'll start to turn sugary and give you a sort of weird texture.

All sorts of soft fruits.

I think fridges are great pieces of technology.

The trouble is is that people think of them as a kind of stasis chamber

where time doesn't happen and everything can live for ever!

And that's not true. Things in your fridge will deteriorate.

Celia reckons that, like a lot of us,

she's guilty of sometimes getting this wrong.

So she's asked Andrew to tell her whether she's committing any other

fridge faux pas.

You've been kind enough to photograph your fridge and send us

some examples here. And, on the whole, it's pretty good.

There's a few things I'd like to point out, though.

Cheese here, depending on the type of cheese -

I presume this is a sort of Cheddar-style cheese -

that's OK outside of the fridge as well, just somewhere cool.

Most fridges are too dry for cheese.

If you put a piece of Stilton in a fridge, you'll see it start to kind of

almost shrink and crack, and that creaminess is lost.

OK, hands up those of you who do keep your Stilton in the fridge.

And there's plenty more where that came from.

We've even invented products, like spreadable butter,

to get around the problems that are caused by storing the traditional

kind in a place where it doesn't even need to be.

It's interesting that you've got spreadable butters.

Traditional butter is fine in a butter dish and just a cool place,

if you get through a fair amount of butter like I know I do in my house.

-Like these two here...

-Next,

Celia always keeps her mayonnaise in the fridge so, this time,

is she doing the right thing?

And then, mayonnaise, as well,

that's definitely something that should be kept in the fridge with...

Although it's pasteurised, it's still something you want to be wary of.

I would like to ask you about jam.

-OK.

-When I was a child, we made our own jam.

-Yep.

-It was properly sealed, it was kept in the cupboard,

and even when opened, it was still kept in the cupboard.

But now we're told that any jars of open jam must go into

a refrigerator. Is this right or wrong?

Ooh, it's a tricky one.

The manufacturers would say it helps keep the product safer and last

longer. I think, again, common sense is a good one here.

I keep mine in the cupboard and if, by chance,

it does go off, you'll see a tiny little bit of mould.

It sort of tells you when it's gone past.

So, fridges are great.

They're great for things like meat. They're great for things like fish.

Obviously, you want to keep all these things very cold.

Milk - that should be kept cold.

But there's loads of things that you can keep out of the fridge.

Well, you can pretty much guarantee that among all that lot,

there's going to be something that, just like Celia,

you're not keeping in the best place, either.

And as well as compromising the quality of some foods,

if you overfill your fridge, it'll work less efficiently.

But how much of all this has Celia taken in?

After a pretty exhaustive crash course...

..it's time to test her new-found knowledge.

My name is Celia Kay and my specialist subject is refrigeration of food.

Where should sauces and condiments be kept?

Brown sauce and ketchup can be stored in a cupboard.

They don't necessarily have to go in a refrigerator.

Brown sauce can be kept in a cupboard,

but ketchup should go in the fridge.

Where can you store eggs?

Eggs should be stored outside a fridge in a cool place.

Correct. Where would you store tomatoes?

Tomatoes should be stored in a fruit bowl in a cool room.

Correct. Where should you store cheese?

Hard cheese can be stored outside a refrigerator.

Soft cheese should always be stored inside a refrigerator.

Correct. Where would you store...

BEEPING

I've started, so I'll finish. Where would you store mayonnaise?

Once a jar of mayonnaise is opened, it must be stored in a refrigerator.

Celia, you've scored four out of a possible five.

But, in case your fridge is still clogged with things that needn't be

there, other foods that you'd be better storing in a cupboard include

processed lemon juice -

which is mainly citric acid and takes ages to go off ,

oils - which go cloudy when chilled, and honey, that never really goes off.

Plus, keeping it in the fridge makes it harder to spread.

But that big white box is the place to be for hummus, salad dressings and,

believe it or not, whole-wheat flour,

which doesn't go stale so quickly when it's chilled.

And while, from now on, Celia will be using her fridge more efficiently,

her reminder of life before refrigeration has underlined that it

is one mod con she could not manage without.

Could I live without a refrigerator?

In theory and in practice, probably I could.

Do I want to? Absolutely not.

I would have to go back to daily shopping.

I would have to go back to daily cooking.

There would be no way of storing leftovers unless I used a deep freeze.

No, the convenience is definitely here to stay.

Now, here's a question for you -

how long should the fresh fruit you buy from your supermarket last?

Well, quite a few of you have been in touch with us to ask exactly that.

And, of course, those of you who've written in about this have done so not

just out of idle curiosity, but because the fruit that you've bought from

big-name stores has, apparently,

gone off much faster than it should have done.

So, to get the answer, we sent one unhappy customer shopping,

and she has her own theory as to what's going on.

The choice on the supermarket fresh-fruit aisles has never been better.

Home-grown and exotic favourites are on the shelves all year round.

And while it's a wonderful thing to have a fruit bowl full of fresh

produce, it can leave a bitter taste if some of the contents spoil before

you even get a chance to eat them.

But that's exactly what's prompted several of you to get in touch,

including Janet McPherson from Bath,

who has a particular reason for wanting her fruit to create

the right impression.

We have a small B&B, we have one room in the garden.

It's unique in that it's a cabin.

And, as part of what we give our guests,

we supply them with fresh fruit daily.

Now, Janet buys most of her fruit from one of her local supermarkets,

but she's become convinced that, once she gets it home,

her fruit doesn't stay fresh for quite as long as perhaps it used to.

And what's more, she says it's putting her off giving it to her guests.

We give them two apples, two satsumas and two bananas every day,

and mostly, they do eat the fruit.

But we're finding it increasingly difficult now

because the fruit is going off very quickly.

In a typical week, Janet says that if she's bought the fruit on a Monday,

even by Tuesday, some of it has started to spoil and go mushy,

which means numerous further trips to the supermarket to buy replacements.

I'm having to go out midweek now to buy more fruit

because what we've bought has gone so ripe so quickly that it's not fit

to give the guests any more. A lot of people don't like bananas that

look black. They need to look yellow.

Me too. Janet's come up with a theory as to why her fruit goes downhill

so quickly once it's left the shop.

I think, possibly, it's because of over-refrigeration,

because when you pick the fruit up in the supermarket aisle, it's already

wet, it's cold to touch, and sometimes, it's wet where it's condensating.

After a particularly bad experience with a bunch of grapes

that Janet says went furry within two days of buying them,

she complained to the supermarket.

And, although the store quickly responded,

Janet just wasn't satisfied she really got an explanation for what

had caused the problem.

The store did send me a gift voucher,

and it went towards the weekly shop the following week,

but it's not the solution, and just sending out the odd gift voucher to

keep people quiet really isn't the answer.

The supermarket assured Janet that its refrigeration system had been

checked and it would continue to monitor its supplier's systems.

But Janet remains very frustrated

and it was at that point she got in touch with us.

This is grapes from two days ago,

and they've gone brown already and they're mushy and they're falling off the stalks. So...

you've been given a bunch of grapes in hospital,

you're maybe a little bit short-sighted,

you pick this up and you put it in your mouth...

Eugh! It's really not very nice.

And e-mails we've found in our Rip-off Britain inbox indicated that

a number of you, just like Janet,

find that supermarket fresh fruit often seems to go off more quickly

than it should. Now, of course,

just because fruit may not look as appealing as it did on the

supermarket shelves, it doesn't mean that it's inedible.

Far from it. Sometimes, fruit can be better for you once it's started to

ripen. And, of course,

there can be all sorts of factors as to why fruit might go off faster

than you'd expect, including storing it at the wrong temperature,

if the skin has been damaged, or if it's put in direct sunlight.

But Janet is adamant that it's only the fruit she buys from the

supermarket that goes off so fast.

And, a few miles from Janet's house, this greengrocer who, admittedly,

you wouldn't expect to be the supermarkets' biggest fan,

again has her own views on why that might be.

It's things like the fact that the supermarkets have imported the fruit,

it's then been trunked to a distribution centre,

it's then gone on the road again to a warehouse.

If it's going to be packaged,

it's then gone to another place and been packaged.

So what I find interesting as well

is that your fruit doesn't have such a thing as a sell-by-date or

-a use-before.

-I don't need sell-by-dates because I buy every day.

I have a delivery from the market every day,

I have a delivery from the farmer every day.

What I need to do is manage my stock so that I don't have to waste stuff.

So, presumably, when your stock comes in on your deliveries,

it doesn't go anywhere near any kind of refrigeration.

Have you even got a chiller room out the back?

Not the fruit. Fruit, in my opinion, shouldn't go near a fridge.

Now, not everyone takes such a hard line,

including some leading dieticians,

and it's usually accepted that refrigeration can extend the life of

some soft fruits, like grapes or peaches.

But, in any case, supermarkets can't avoid some refrigeration of fruit,

even if they wanted to.

Year-round demand for the huge variety of fruits on offer,

no matter what the season,

means that much of it has to be shipped from all over the world.

But, as far as food storage expert James Woodward is concerned,

the way that's done actually keeps fruit fresh for longer.

So the majority of our fruit comes from overseas,

and the time delay between harvesting and reaching the store

can be several weeks, in some circumstances.

When we transport product and store transport prior to arriving at the

stores, by holding it in temperature-controlled environments,

it stops the ripening process and, therefore,

when it hits the store, it's in optimal condition.

It starts ripening at the store and then carries on ripening

when it gets to the household.

So, James doesn't believe Janet's concerns are correct.

There's no evidence to state that storing it at temperature-controlled

environments speeds up the ripening process.

It does quite the opposite.

It maintains the fruit in a state of flux and, therefore,

when it gets to the store, it then starts ripening.

But whatever the reason as to why it happens,

Janet remains resolute in her view that supermarket fruit ripens faster

than it used to, and she wants to demonstrate exactly what she means,

so she's going to do her own little experiment,

buying fruit from three of the big stores in her area and comparing how

fast it ripens to fruit bought from the greengrocer's.

-Thank you.

-Thanks.

-Bye.

-Bye.

In quick succession, Janet visited Lidl, Waitrose and, finally,

Sainsbury's, buying a bunch of bananas,

some satsumas and green apples from each store.

In order to try and prove what might be happening with all this fruit,

I've been out shopping.

I'm going to put them all in bowls,

and we're going to see how they react over the next week and

which ones ripen up quicker.

Janet is storing her fruit in exactly the way she normally does

and she'll carefully observe and record any changes over the course

of the next few days.

I'm kind of expecting that some of the supermarket fruit will ripen up

a lot quicker and go mushy quickly

because, when I picked it up in the shop, it felt hard and it feels like

it has been in quite a deep refrigeration,

so it'll be interesting to see how it reacts.

It's not long before some of the fruit starts to show its new colours.

A couple of the oranges aren't looking too nice on the outside.

Sure enough, just as Janet had suspected,

even by day two, some of the fruit seems to be ripening faster than others.

The Waitrose ones are feeling quite mushy at the tip now.

The Lidl apples, a couple of them,

have come out in some quite nasty bruises since they went in the bowl.

Sainsbury's don't seem to be doing too badly.

And, after four days...

Waitrose, and the apples are starting to lose their colour -

they're yellowing slightly.

The Lidl bananas...

..have mushed significantly in patches up their length.

Sainsbury's - a couple of the oranges don't look too appetising.

The bananas seem to be ripening at the moment

without too much mushiness.

And seven days after Janet bought all the fruit...

Day seven finds these Waitrose bananas in an absolutely terrible state.

The oranges have really gone over now.

That one's not looking nice.

The Lidl oranges are discoloured.

The apples are not looking very special.

In the Sainsbury's bowl, the bananas have all gone at the tips now.

Now, to be fair, after a week, you'd expect any fruit you haven't eaten

to be showing signs of deterioration,

especially if you've stored it with bananas - known to speed up ripening.

Nonetheless, because she stored them all in this way,

Janet says it's clear to compare how all the different fruits have ripened.

As for the greengrocer's fruit, as far as Janet is concerned and,

probably, as she had expected, it's not done too badly at all.

The bananas - although they're black,

they're still very firm.

The good old-fashioned greengrocer's bowl was the best of all the fruit

at the end of it. The bananas, although they blackened on the outside,

they ripened like bananas always used to.

Just like old-fashioned bananas, they peel properly, and they're perfect.

The oranges were still absolutely perfect at the end of the week.

They were beautiful.

And the apples, although they changed colour slightly,

were still lovely and crisp and really tasty when we cut them open, so...

..the greengrocer's bowl did come out on top.

Now, unsurprisingly,

the supermarkets weren't hugely impressed with Janet's findings,

particularly Lidl, which said that,

although it was regrettable that its fruit was not to her liking,

no firm conclusions could be drawn from such a small sample of products.

It went on to say there's no scientific evidence to support

Janet's theories about the longevity of supermarket fruit, adding that,

with much of its fresh fruit sourced from British suppliers,

it very often goes from farm to shelves within 24 hours of being

harvested.

Lidl also pointed out that fruit from overseas is stored and transported

in much the same way, whether it ends up on the shelf of a supermarket or

a greengrocer's, and it said the stage at which people enjoy eating

their fruit is entirely subjective

and customers can judge the appearance of fresh fruit for themselves.

Meanwhile, Waitrose told us that it does its own independent shelf-life

testing to ensure that it offers the best balance of shelf life and

ripeness.

And Sainsbury's said that it works hard to ensure freshness in close

partnership with growers and suppliers

and uses the best possible methods.

There's no standard answer for exactly how long fresh fruit should last.

And, despite her concerns, it's still the supermarket,

with the convenience of its parking, that'll be where Janet buys hers.

But in any case, however fast her fruit goes off, she's got plenty of

ideas of what to do with it.

We have enough chutney to keep us going for a while,

and that will keep for ever, so it'll never go to waste,

some tangerine curd, nice change from lemon,

and some lemon apple jelly that we made from the apple peelings,

so nothing at all went to waste of all that fruit.

Good stuff. But Janet knows not everyone who sees fruit starting to

turn will necessarily put it to such good use.

I think, when people are time-poor and money-rich, maybe,

they would simply just look at it and toss it away.

And it's just such a waste when people have gone to all that trouble

to grow it and ship it around the world and then it ends up in the bin.

Still to come on Rip-off Britain,

is it still safe to eat those long-forgotten meats lurking at the back of

the freezer? Why these friends can't agree on what you should do with them.

These are about six months out of date

and I don't think we will eat them now.

They'll either go in the bin or they go in the dog.

Whereas I would probably eat those sausages.

Britain has the dubious honour of topping the charts for the amount of

food every household throws away - 7 million tonnes of it between us.

In fact, astonishingly, we now chuck out more food than packaging,

and food-waste expert Helen White says that means we might as well be

putting our money straight into the bin.

Wasting good food costs the average household £470 a year,

rising to £700 for a family with children.

That's the equivalent of around £60 a month.

Making things worse is the fact that half of the food thrown away could

still have been eaten. And often,

whether it's bread that's gone mouldy or vegetables that have started to

rot, it's the way we store the things we buy that makes them go bad faster

-than we'd like.

-One of the simplest things that you can do is learn to

store food correctly,

so I've got some simple tips and tricks to help you to save money,

save food waste and save time.

One of the most common things we throw away is half-eaten bags with salad,

so Helen's kicking off with some basic advice on how to make those leaves

last longer once they've been opened.

A neat trick for saving salad -

tip any leftover leaves into a storage container and fold a piece of

kitchen paper into the bottom, click on the lid and store in the fridge.

I'm not promising it'll keep for days on end,

but it'll give you a little bit more time, just to use that up.

We've already seen what a minefield it can be deciding what to put in

the fridge, but if you haven't got enough cupboard space for some of

the essentials that don't need to go there,

chances are you have some other spots that work well for storage.

Most of us use potatoes and onions every day and we buy them in big bags.

It makes sense. It's good value.

So the best place to keep these guys is in a cool, dark and dry place,

like a store cupboard. If there's not enough room in the store cupboard,

a garage will do, or even a shed in a storage box.

If you're struggling for space,

how about popping them in the boot of the car for a wee while?

Well, that's a bit different.

And here's another everyday food that's best kept well away from your fridge.

Don't keep bread in the fridge -

it'll actually go stale quicker in there.

The best place for it is in a bread bin or a store cupboard

and use a bag clip to keep your loaf fresher for longer.

And if you think you've no room in the freezer,

you may well be wasting half the space.

You can make more room in your freezer by taking food out of bulky boxes

and packaging and wrapping it in bags.

Remember to label it well to avoid unidentified frozen objects.

Cut up a bit of the packaging and stick it in the bag

so that you've got the cooking instructions for later.

Now, one thing you may not have realised can very easily be preserved for

longer by freezing is cheese.

If you've bought a large block of Cheddar,

you can grate it and freeze it, ready for sprinkling on pizza and

cottage pie, straight from the freezer, without having to defrost.

Of course, the best way to avoid wasting food is not to buy too much of it

in the first place. And,

while generations of shoppers have controlled what they buy with a list,

Helen has a much quicker suggestion for keeping track of what you need.

Use one of these to take a "shelfie" of your fridge,

your freezer and your cupboards,

and then use it in the supermarket to remind you what to get so you

don't buy the same thing twice.

Now, where would we be without our freezers?

It's the appliance that's revolutionised our ability to store food in

the home, and it's been credited as the most useful kitchen gadget in

the fight against food waste because, of course,

the life of almost any food can be extended by putting it into deep freeze.

But how long can you leave meat in a freezer before the quality deteriorates

or it actually becomes dangerous to eat?

Well, get ready for some tips and advice that may transform the way

you store your food.

It's a cold, dark place, and in it lurk things that time forgot.

Deep down at the back of the freezer lies that pork chop that went missing

in action, and there are those poor old sausages, now frozen solid.

But now you've rediscovered that meat, are you going to eat it?

If you had meat in the freezer,

how long would you let it be there before you used it?

I have kept meat in the freezer up to three months.

If you had meat and it was in the freezer, how long would

you think it was safe to leave it there before you used it?

Probably about four weeks, a month.

I think you'd probably lose the nutrients in the meat

and the freshness the longer it's left in the freezer.

Six months, maybe, I don't know, I would guess.

So, to keep and cook or just to dump?

That's a real kitchen conundrum when it comes to old meat.

Imogen and Wilma from Cheshire have been friends for 18 years.

They share a love of food and they're both keen cooks.

But they don't agree on how long it should be kept in the freezer,

so they've agreed to let us settle the argument once and for all.

I think most of the meat in my freezer gets used within about six months,

but I've definitely come across things that are nine months old and still

used them and, occasionally, a year old, and that's when I start to think,

probably we should have had a better system in the freezer

and rotated it and used the older stuff first.

But Wilma isn't quite so gung-ho.

I would keep the meat in the freezer for about three months

because I feel that after that, it doesn't look as appetising,

and you then worry about the quality of the actual product

and if it would taste as nice.

And it's not just the two of them who disagree.

The arguments over whether long-term frozen meat is safe to eat even

extend into Imogen's family.

My husband would definitely eat meat that had been in the freezer longer

than I would.

He tends to not pay so much attention to dates, as such,

and as long as it's cooked thoroughly, he'd be happy.

We sometimes disagree. I will sort of avoid meat or, say, particular meat,

like pork, that's been in the freezer a long time.

I'll say, well, no... I'll let him eat it.

I'll say, "You can eat it, but the children and I will not participate!"

So, what exactly is lurking in Imogen's freezer drawers?

So, this is my freezer.

I've got some meatballs there.

They were bought quite recently.

Minced beef - that's quite recent.

And then, let's have a look at the back...

Quarter pounders, burgers - that date is much more than six months ago,

so they should be eaten fairly soon,

but they've gone to the back of the freezer.

And Wilma has brought along some of the meat from her kitchen's freezer.

Well, in the back of my freezer, I found these sausages, which are about

six months old, and that is really part of one of my problems -

that you buy things which are on offer

because you need a product on the day and you think "Oh,

"it's a bargain," and then they go in the freezer and you don't really

use them again. So these are about six months out of date,

and I don't think we will eat them now.

They'll either go in the bin or they go in the dog.

Whereas, I would probably eat those sausages.

And her husband certainly would.

So, who's right?

How long can meat be stored in your freezer?

Well, it might surprise you to know that,

according to the Food Standards Agency,

there's actually no time limit on how long food, including meat,

can be frozen for. But,

while it shouldn't do you any harm if you eat it after a long time,

the more time it's been there, the less likely it is to taste as nice.

The best place to look if you want to work out how long to store meat

and to retain the taste is your actual freezer.

As a general rule, each should have a star rating to indicate how long

food will keep at its best in that particular appliance.

And a quick look at the manual will tell you what the ratings on your

appliance mean.

But just to add to confusion, there's the supermarket packaging,

which often says keep food for just a month.

And Steve Kershaw,

a forensic scientist at Manchester Metropolitan University,

says there's a simple reason for that.

The supermarkets have got to err on the side of caution when they're

recommending to consumers what ought to be done with the product.

The supermarket is not going to have an awareness of what the consumer

does with their meat once they've left the shop.

They can have a bad start by leaving it in the back of the car while they

go for a meal and go to see a film on the way home.

So, it isn't easy to put a definitive time limit on how long your meat

will stay at its best in your freezer

because it's all a question of how quickly and efficiently you

put it there.

It is important to freeze meat as soon as possible

after it's been purchased, while it's fresh.

And very, very rapidly, the micro-organisms will start to grow, multiply,

they'll produce off-flavours, off-tastes and surface slime on your meat.

Freezing does kill some of the bacteria,

but the rest that survive the freezing process,

as soon as you thaw, will start to multiply and grow again.

As well as the taste of your meat,

freezing can also have a big impact on its texture.

So, once it's in your freezer,

the time it takes for the food to reach freezing point can make a big

-difference.

-Meat contains about 50-75% water and ice crystals form.

If meat is frozen rapidly, as it should be,

then the ice crystals that form are quite small,

and that means that the quality will be good when it's thawed out.

If meat freezes too slowly,

then the ice crystals that form will be quite large,

and that will do more damage to the meat than a rapid freeze.

Well, that's the science,

but what are the practical ways to maximise texture and taste when

you're freezing meat at home?

We've brought Wilma and Imogen to meet chef Sarah Bridge.

Hi, ladies. Welcome to the cookery school.

-I'm Sarah.

-She's going to show them how to make sure that the meat you

freeze stays in tiptop condition

and keeps as much of the taste as the day it was bought.

So, Sarah, if you've bought fresh meat...

-Yes.

-..and you're going to freeze it,

how long should you be looking to keep it in the freezer for?

-What would your advice be?

-I would say three months.

Every now and again, I would have a look what's in the freezer before you

go shopping to just make sure that you're not doubling on buying things.

Checking your freezer for long-forgotten meats is a good start if you want

it to stay tasty.

But how you store it can also be crucial.

What would be the best way, then, to store meat in a freezer?

I would always do it in a zip-lock bag.

I always write on it exactly what it is and the date that you froze it,

so I would put today's date, and I'm going to put the date for three

-months' time...

-When it has to be used.

-..as when it has to be used by.

So the first thing I'm going to freeze are the pork chops.

And then the first pork chop is going in.

And then the second pork chop goes in.

So, this bit's important - that you want them flat,

but away from each other. You don't want them to freeze them next to

-each other.

-So they're not supposed to be touching?

They're not supposed to be touching, no.

And keeping them flat is about much more than simply saving space.

The reason why we're going to keep them flat is because they freeze

quicker and they'll defrost quicker,

but by keeping them away from each other, the moisture between each one -

that can encourage freezer burn.

Freezer burn happens when changes in temperature cause the ice around food

to evaporate, drying it out.

It's often caused by too much opening and closing of your freezer door,

quickly raising and dropping the temperature.

While it's not harmful to eat,

it will affect your food's texture and appearance.

Next, Sarah demonstrates the most effective way to freeze mince,

which probably isn't the way you've been doing it at home.

So squeeze it out into the corners.

So then you know all of the air is out of it.

I'm going to seal it up.

And I'm going to freeze that...

flat in the freezer.

So the benefits of freezing it quite thinly -

it freezes really quickly, but when you take that out of the freezer, it

also defrosts really, really quickly.

Never seen that before.

It's a very good idea.

And it's also much better using the bag than using clingfilm

because clingfilm can become quite brittle in the freezer

and then bits fall off.

You've got the freezer burn...

issue, and especially if you've got mince with clingfilm,

a little bit of clingfilm can get left in the mince,

so you're going to cook that, as well.

Now, chances are, many of us will freeze meat in its original

supermarket packaging, but Sarah says that's not the best idea.

I'd always thought if you bought it sealed from the supermarket

that if you're going to freeze it, you should just keep it sealed.

But it doesn't matter, then, that you opened that...

-No, no.

-And then, as long as you freeze it straight away...

Yeah, it's better to take it out because if you freeze it straight

from the supermarket without decanting it into a bag,

there's a lot of water still in there,

and that water then freezes differently around the meat,

and that can cause freezer burn.

And also, the size of the packet that's going in your freezer -

you don't want to overfill your freezer

-cos it doesn't work properly when your freezer's over-full and all the space is taken up.

-Right.

So, it's a fair bet most of us have been freezing our meat all wrong

and there's stuff to keep in mind when we defrost it, too.

Take it out of the freezer, onto a tray so nothing can drip.

And I would defrost it overnight in the fridge.

So you wouldn't, sort of,

recommend using a microwave to defrost anything like that?

No. I know there is a defrost setting on the microwave,

but you are speeding it - as hot-spots - up and I wouldn't, personally,

-defrost anything in a microwave.

-So the best way would be to do it overnight

in the fridge on a tray...

-Yeah, on a tray.

-..clear from anything else?

And put it on the bottom of the fridge cos raw meat always goes on

the bottom of a fridge in a professional kitchen and, actually, that applies at home, as well.

So, plenty of food for thought for Wilma and Imogen.

They'll still be freezing their meat, but, from now on,

they'll be following Sarah's tips on how they should do it.

I'm definitely going to be buying some freezer bags

and I'm definitely going to take the meat out of

the supermarket packaging now before I freeze it

cos I can see the benefits of that and, particularly,

using the idea with the mince and flattening the mince into a bag.

I think that will be really, really useful.

Freezer bags will definitely go on the shopping list this weekend.

Definitely. And I will even, now,

look in my freezer and keep a better stock control

and organise the freezer better.

And what will Wilma do with those six-month-old bangers she found

lurking at the back of her freezer?

After all, they're perfectly safe to eat, but might not now

be to everyone's taste.

The sausages will still go to the dog...

..cos they have been in the freezer a long time so, yeah,

the dog will have a treat tonight.

Well, I hope, like me, you've picked up some really useful tips today.

And I can tell you, there are quite a few that I'll be putting into practice when I get home.

But with some foods lasting for less time than you would expect,

and others having an almost indefinite shelf life in the freezer,

I can understand why there are so many people who say that,

when it comes to how long their food should last,

they're as likely to follow their nose and a bit of common sense as

they are the instructions on the label.

On the other hand, I suppose, you can see why food manufacturers

will tend to err on the side of caution

when it comes to predicting the lifespan of their products.

However, it does seem there's a fair bit of misinformation,

to put it mildly, flying around,

which may mean an awful lot of food is chucked away when, in fact,

it's still perfectly good enough to eat.

So, if what you've heard today means you won't be throwing away something

and rushing to replace it, that's a saving in terms of time,

effort and money.

And I think that feels like a very positive place on which to leave

things for today. You know,

you can share your own food tips and advice on our Facebook page and,

of course, if you've got a question or a problem that you'd like us to

investigate on a future programme -

not just about food, but on any of the topics that we cover throughout

the year - then we really would love to hear from you.

But, for now, that's it.

We'll see you again very soon and, until then,

from all of us here on the programme, bye-bye.

-Goodbye.

-Bye-bye.