Episode 4 Rip Off Britain

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

And the shops and 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 is the price of so-called healthy food,

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 to Rip-Off Britain and our special series about

food, which today is all about making sure the things we eat

don't do us any harm.

Whether that's because we've eaten something that perhaps is past its

best or if it turns out that the store we bought it from simply

-isn't clean enough.

-Doesn't bear thinking about, does it?

Both of those situations could potentially lead to food poisoning,

which of course explains why there are swarms of people working

so hard to try and prevent any of us from getting ill -

from the Food Standards Agency to your local Trading Standards.

Well, although the work of all those people is vital,

there are still things that slip through the net and

a number of you have been in touch about your concerns.

So we've gone behind the scenes in the food industry to try and

answer some of those questions and to ask what else could be

done to keep us safe.

Coming up, with even big-name supermarkets scoring badly in

the hygiene stakes, we're on the road with the teams cracking down on

stores, making sure that every place we buy our food is up to scratch.

Your food hygiene rating certainly won't rise from your two that

you've currently got at the minute. Potentially, actually,

your food hygiene rating will go down to a one.

And a controversy that bitterly divides dog owners and, I must

say, I've wrestled with this one myself - should you or should

you not feed your dog raw meat?

It was incredible.

It was absolutely unbelievable because we'd spent hundreds of

pounds on this dog and actually, all we needed to do was change her diet.

I'm sure that many of you may remember that in our last

food series, we took a look at the hygiene ratings that you've

probably seen displayed on a green-and-black sticker in

the windows of restaurants and cafes.

It's a measure of cleanliness given by the local council,

following an inspection of any outlet that sells food.

Now, in England, a rating of five is the best rating and zero...

Well, clearly, that's far from good.

Scotland have a slightly different system, but the expected

levels of cleanliness are of course exactly the same.

But what you may not have realised is that these standards also

apply to shops and supermarkets.

And just as we found last time with eating establishments,

some of these stores, even those belonging to big-name chains,

have been given a rating of zero or one.

So we've been finding out why on earth that happens and

what's being done to clean them up.

Every day in towns and cities across the UK,

there's an army of people whose job it is to make sure that the

places where we buy food are kept in the state we'd expect.

How did we identify we had a problem? Did you see droppings?

I could see the rats outside! Yeah, yeah.

And each time when they throw the rubbish to the bins,

we can see the rats.

And with so many fast-food takeaways, restaurants and bars,

the work of the Environmental Health officer has never been busier.

Good to see all your bin lids are shut. It doesn't smell.

There's no waste or litter blowing around the floor.

But it's an equally vital part of their job to inspect

supermarkets, to ensure that these, too,

are kept pristine and pest-free.

And there's no sign of any droppings or anything like that.

And certainly,

the people we spoke to would assume that that was always the case.

I would definitely expect the highest standards of hygiene

-in supermarkets.

-That's great.

You just don't know what goes on behind the scenes there,

so you would just be expecting the best.

I would expect a supermarket to be clean.

I mean, you're looking at fresh food and you're picking it up.

You wouldn't expect, like, an infestation where you've got,

like, rat droppings and everything all over t'place.

I've been in one what I don't think's clean.

I'm not saying it's dirty-dirty.

But it's just... I don't go in it.

So, it seems that some people are indeed choosing to take their

custom elsewhere. But thankfully,

the Food Standards Agency takes the business of hygiene very seriously.

They set the guidelines for the rating scheme,

which the local authorities follow when carrying out inspections

of a shop or supermarket.

The food hygiene rating scheme actually lets you know about

the things you don't see at a premises.

That gives consumers an idea of what the actual hygiene standards

are like at the premises.

But also, it's for businesses -

they can show their customers they take food hygiene seriously

and it acts as an incentive for those that are perhaps

performing not so well to actually raise their game.

The areas that the food safety officer inspects are the

hygienic handling of food, which covers the preparation,

cooking, cooling, reheating and storage of food.

There's the management of food safety,

which looks at the processes that are in place to make sure the

business ensures that the food it serves is safe.

The training of staff and then there's how clean

a building is, layout, ventilation, and pest control.

-Walk-in chiller? Down at the back?

-Yeah.

-In the back, yeah.

-OK.

Of course, the best way to see if shops and supermarkets are

sticking to the rules,

so that we can be really confident about spending our money there,

is to join the teams carrying out their inspections.

We're not really going to find problems in here. It's too cold.

-So all your stock's in here?

-Yeah.

-You don't have any other stock off site?

-No.

First, we're in Slough, with the senior enforcement officer on

the food and safety team, Julie Snelling.

So, yeah, the business that we're going to visit this afternoon

is a Polish retailer.

The last time this small supermarket was inspected,

it was awarded a hygiene rating of two, indicating improvements

were needed, and the team has issued recommendations to help with that.

Hello. My name's Julie. I'm from Slough Borough Council.

I've come to do your routine food hygiene inspection today.

Owner Beston Omar will join Julie for the inspection.

After washing her hands,

she starts by checking the temperature of the fridges.

The guidelines say that a fridge or freezer storing food should

be checked at least once a day.

If they're not cold enough, harmful bacteria can grow.

-Do you check the temperature inside, as well?

-Yes, I think we've got...

Do you have one thermometer, or do you have two, or...?

-We have two.

-You have the two.

-Yeah.

-You can't find either of them?

-No, I don't know right now.

You don't know where they are.

-But do they use them every day?

-Yeah, they use them earlier.

If they're using them here for checking every day, do they not keep it here?

-They used to keep it here, but I don't know where they put it.

-You don't know where they've put it.

It's not a great start.

The lack of thermometers could mean that the fridges have not

been monitored as often as they should be.

So, after cleaning her own device, Julie takes the readings herself.

-Temperature looks very good.

-Yeah.

-So it's already at four.

-It is normal.

-And it's coming down.

Their fridge is working at a good temperature,

so I'm very happy with the temperature.

However, I'm a little concerned about actually the

temperature-checking regime,

simply because they've not been able to find their thermometer probe.

But while the temperature in the meat fridge is as expected, on the

other side of the shop, the fresh-cake fridge

has a higher reading.

How do you manage the temperature control in here?

-Where do you take...?

-The display there.

-OK.

-Yeah.

You read the labels, the manufacturer - the person who

made this cake - is telling you that you must store it below eight.

There's also a legal requirement because these are what we

call high risk. They've got fresh cream in them.

You have to store them at or below eight degrees.

This one is saying here store below five degrees.

Beston must lower this fridge's temperature to eliminate the

risk of bacteria growing in these high-risk fresh goods.

So, a little adjustment maybe on the fridge there,

just to make it a little bit cooler. But it's not terribly bad,

but we do need to bring it down below eight degrees.

An inspection like this covers every aspect of hygiene,

from the shop floor to the staff toilets.

Because the toilet's not ventilated.

On the last inspection, the storage at the rear wasn't considered up

to scratch and Julie's not convinced enough improvements have been made.

Better managed, yeah.

This is obviously an area where your staff are storing their uniform.

So every day, they need to take their dirty one home.

This is an area where you're storing food.

Got lots of kind of dirty clothing and stuff.

It's either a food area, or it's not a food area.

Julie would like to see a separate area for the staff to keep

their clothes, away from the food.

-This is your walk-in chiller?

-Yeah.

-What are the items down here?

-They are all for fridge.

-It's all across the floor.

We need it to come up off of the floor.

All food should be safely stored off the floor and out of the

reach of other products, to avoid cross-contamination.

So despite the efforts he's already made,

it seems that owner Beston still needs to try that bit harder.

This whole area here all needs cleaning.

Because with the inspection complete, it's not good news.

I'm going to let you know after I've written my letter what your

food hygiene rating will be.

However, I think I need to kind of inform you that your food

hygiene rating certainly won't rise from your two that you've

currently got at the minute. Potentially, actually,

your food hygiene rating will go down to a one.

The rating going down isn't what Beston had hoped for.

And though he's ready to get stuck in to turning that around,

he's got his work cut out.

It's quite difficult with a big store and I'm just by myself

working, like, hard to improve it, but I keep trying.

I try to do whatever she told me,

try to do different process then.

And he won't be on his own with that because Julie and her team

will offer advice to get that score up again next time.

What I'll be looking to now is really for the business to

kind of work with us as a local authority,

so that we can agree kind of small steps forward and then for

him to concentrate kind of in the longer term on some of the

more minor issues, as well, but I have every hope that, actually, if we can work together and

build a good working relationship that actually we can get him to improve quite substantially.

But it's not just smaller supermarkets and corner shops

that sometimes score lower ratings on these inspections.

Not every branch of the big-name stores always comes out

too well, either.

In fact, on the day we checked the Food Standards Agency database,

there were 25 branches of various well-known stores that had

a food hygiene score of either one, zero, or in Scotland,

"improvement required".

We requested copies of their inspection reports and the

ones we got back didn't make for pleasant reading.

Tesco, Coop, and Budgens -

each had several stores with hygiene problems.

Five Tesco outlets needed major improvements, including an Express

store in Colliers Wood, which had evidence of squirrels in the yard.

The Coop was responsible for eight problem stores,

including the Coop Welcome in Smallfield, Surrey,

where sandwiches were being stored in fridges that were too warm.

However, the FSA says such failings from major chains is the

exception, rather than the norm.

These are not typical, as 80% of supermarkets are rated as a five.

But people can rest assured that the food safety officer will

be taking the necessary action to ensure that these things are

addressed and that when they go to the supermarket and buy their

food, the food will be safe to eat.

And if that does mean that the business has to be closed down,

or part of the business actually closed,

then rest assured that will be done.

When we contacted the supermarkets about the stores with low

hygiene ratings, Budgens told us that while all its stores are

independently owned and operated,

it would work with the low-rated stores to help them improve.

It said that over 85% of Budgens stores have

a score of either four or five.

And the Coop told us that it insists on the highest standards of

hygiene and issues raised by the inspection in Smallfield were

quickly rectified, including replacing the refrigeration.

Tesco said the cleanliness in its stores is extremely important

and stressed that over 99% are rated good or very good condition.

They went on to say that immediate and extensive action

has been taken to address the five stores with hygiene issues,

including a deep clean and improvements to the yard at

its Colliers Wood store.

-They have the date on them.

-Yeah.

Right, fine.

But there's one issue that all food outlets face,

whatever their hygiene rating.

So for the next hygiene inspection,

we're joining senior environmental health officer Ben Thompson from

Bury Council, who works with food businesses to keep pests at bay.

Good.

The main issue with pests is if the issue is ignored by the food

business operator, it doesn't go away, it just gets worse.

So it's important that if they have a problem,

they need to attend to that and address it as soon as possible,

to prevent it escalating and becoming a major problem.

Today, Ben is inspecting a deli that's previously had

a problem with rats.

So he's catching up with the owner on what's been done to tackle it.

How did we identify we had a problem? Did you see droppings?

-We could see the rats outside.

-Oh, you saw the rats.

In the evening time when they throw the rubbish to the bins,

-you can see the rats running.

-Right, OK.

-Next to the bins.

And what did you do when you saw that problem?

They really scared, come inside the shop and we ring the pest

control straightaway and tell them we have rats outside the shop.

And they come next day, so they are doing, as well,

a really good service.

When owner Rafael moved his deli to this site three years

ago, he also inherited this pest problem.

Since then, he's worked hard to make the premises rat-proof.

We will walk around, like, three times around the shop,

so we put in, like, special things on the drains,

so they can't go through the drains, we fill up with the special

-thing on the roof, so they can't go through the roof.

-OK.

So prepare shop quite well to not get inside.

The store now has a pest control team that makes regular

visits and every potential rat hole has been filled.

It's reassuring to see that they've got down a trap.

The fact they can demonstrate it through the pest control records,

they're actively monitoring the situation with regards to rodents.

And I can tell that it's clean and tidy, there are no burrows.

Ben is happy with the improvements and, after inspecting the rest of

the store, he increases the deli's hygiene rating from three to four.

I'll give you this food hygiene rating of four, which is good.

And again, five is excellent,

and you'll easily be able to achieve that with those minor improvements.

And you'll be able to display that proudly on your wall.

Thank you very much.

So we really happy with the four. But we want to get the five.

Fingers crossed, we will get the five.

Rafael will now proudly display his four-star rating in the window,

reassuring customers that everything is clean and well-maintained.

But as we've reported before, not every establishment does this

and nor is there always an obligation for them to do so.

In Wales and Northern Ireland,

every place that's inspected must display its hygiene rating.

But in England and Scotland, it isn't a legal requirement and

many places don't bother - something that the FSA want to change.

The Food Standards Agency is committed to making it a legal

requirement to display the rating, but at the moment within the agency,

the regulatory framework that underpins food safety is currently

being reviewed by a project called Regulating Our Future.

We will then put together a case to put to ministers to look to

get legislation in place to require the display of ratings.

Generally, what we advise is if you don't see a rating,

either ask why or look around for somewhere that does proudly

display its rating, that's got a rating of three, four, or five.

You may not have realised food shops and supermarkets even have

ratings similar to those in cafes and restaurants,

but the work of hygiene inspectors like the ones we've been out

with remains key to ensuring that consumers can make an

informed decision about where to shop.

It's very important for the locality that actually our businesses

are good and have good food hygiene ratings and it's important

for their business, too, so we will always encourage them to

follow the advice we've given in inspection reports.

As a council, we also provide a self-help checklist that

enables them actually to go round and to check their own areas

of the premises and to ask themselves some questions about how well they're doing.

We'd always encourage them to do that again to make sure that

they're doing all that they should be doing.

Still to come on Rip-Off Britain,

we do our own research into out-of-date food -

that was an issue for a number of low rated stores - and are

staggered by the number of products that we find past their best.

So, this salami that you found is a month past its use by date.

I really wouldn't be comfortable eating it because any

disease-causing bacteria will have had a chance to amplify.

Now, it isn't just the food we eat that can prove controversial.

There's equally fierce debate over what we feed our pets,

as I found out when I recently got a lovely new little puppy and

found myself confronted with two very different pieces of advice.

Well, I spoke to a number of people about what I'd been told and

was really interested to see how many said that they'd been

just as confused as I was over exactly the same issue.

So for anyone with a four-legged friend,

this next story will either strike a familiar chord or make you

question some of the food you're feeding it.

As you may know,

I'm a massive dog-lover and, a few times over the years, my two

lovely ones, Roxy and Gemma, have even popped up in this programme.

However, very, very sadly, I lost Roxy earlier this year,

which was totally devastating.

But while nothing or nobody can take her place,

I didn't want Gemma to get lonely, either.

So we decided to get another King Charles Cavalier.

Well, this is Polly, my new pup.

She's only four months old and she's a handful,

but she's absolutely delightful.

Now, when we picked Polly up from the breeder, she had actually been

weaned from the mother on raw food, which I've never dealt with, really.

So I continued with that,

but then when I went for Polly's vaccinations at 12 weeks,

I asked my vet about that and he was totally against raw food,

so there I am and, as I want to do my best for our new pup,

I'm not too sure which way to go.

Now, until all this happened, I hadn't realised what

a hot potato the question of feeding dogs raw food actually is.

And I have to tell you, I was left very, very confused over what to do.

I'm usually a firm believer that the vet knows best,

but Polly seemed to be thriving on the raw meat that I was giving her.

And at this dog show in Stafford, the owners we spoke to were

very divided over what they should be feeding their precious pooches.

I used to feed raw,

but I was worried about getting all the nutrients and the balance right.

The right percentage of bone, offal and meat and muscle,

so I decided to move them on to a dried food.

It's a prepared food. Prepared dried food.

It's what the dogs were first on when we first got them from

the breeders. I've never had any problems or any issues with them,

so I've just carried on, really.

In the wild, they would have obviously gone and sourced

their food and eaten it.

Where nowadays, we source the food and we make it adaptable for them.

I've found raw, they really like it, they eat it,

I have no problems with them.

It sounds horrendous - they do wonderful poos.

An uncooked-meat diet can cost more than double the processed

equivalent, especially if you buy readymade raw food.

But just like our processed meals,

conventional dog food can contain preservatives, flavours and colours.

Many advocates of a raw diet pay the extra to get closer to

a food that they see as natural.

And one person who swears by a raw diet is Ann Ridyard.

She first came across it when her golden retriever Winnie began

losing her fur.

We took her to the vet's and he basically told us that it was

canine alopecia.

She was a healthy dog, other than that.

She could live with it. It wasn't bothering her.

But it was bothering me a lot.

Are you all right with that? Do you need a hand out?

-Oh, it's fine.

-All right, thanks again.

-Bye.

-Bye.

Well, Ann started to do some research and came across

someone on an online forum whose dog had a similar problem.

Now, this owner had changed her dog's diet from commercial dog food

to raw meat and was so sure of the benefits that Ann did the same.

I went to butchers, I cobbled together a diet,

based on what I believed to be right.

And my dog improved within a matter of weeks.

The fur started growing back. It was incredible.

It was absolutely unbelievable

because we'd spent hundreds of pounds on this dog and

actually all we needed to do was change her diet.

Ann was so taken aback that a change in diet could have made such

a dramatic effect that she wanted to make it easier for others to

do the same.

So she set up her own business, supplying and selling raw food.

And ever since, her opinion on commercial dog food

has changed completely.

It's an artificial replacement food

for real food and I think

that because of marketing hype and because of the way society

has gone over the past 75 years, we've tried to turn our

carnivores into four-legged recycling

machines for grain and they're not.

-Hello.

-Hi.

-Hi, how are you?

And there are plenty of people who share the same opinion.

Vet Dr Rahini has been an advocate of raw food since her pet cat

passed away from cancer.

I started doing some research

and then I happened to do a course

in animal healing and one of the chapters in the course was

about raw food.

-Looks like he's lost a bit of weight. Yeah?

-Yeah.

'I started looking at it as an alternative way of feeding animals,'

which seemingly was fantastic.

Dr Rahini now owns a dog and believes

a raw diet is the way forward to keep it healthy.

I personally feel that the majority of the conditions that we see

in practice can be prevented by being on the right diet.

And some of the conditions that are very frustrating to treat and

that seem to be reoccurring very often are food allergies,

aid to pee, obesity, dental problems, and ear

infections, all of which can really

be fixed, majority of the time, by feeding pets the right diet.

'Well, all of that is certainly very different

'from the advice from my own vet.

'I was told not to feed Polly raw meat,

'because raw diets have been found to contain

'a number of types of bacteria

'which are harmful to dogs, and indeed humans,

'such as salmonella and campylobacter.'

Now, advocates of the raw food diet say that any bacteria that's found

is not at levels that would be seriously harmful.

But on the other hand, I would hate to see my new puppy get ill -

or indeed any other dog get ill -

because of something that I had chosen to feed them.

'As you can see, the varieties of many of...'

'Back at the toy-dog show,

'animal nutritionist Mike Davies would take that line, as well.

'He lectures in animal nutrition, and also advises dog-food

'manufacturers on what canines need to ensure they get a balanced diet.

'And while he agrees that raw could in theory give a dog

'everything it needs, it's difficult to get the right balance.

'So it's not an approach he would recommend,

'particularly for young dogs.'

I would urge people not to feed puppies raw.

And the reason for that is,

if you get the balance between feeding the meat and the

other parts of the carcass wrong,

you can end up with really serious dietary problems, which can

lead to nutritional deficiencies, which can lead to disease.

And we see a lot of that.

If you feed too much meat in your raw food,

then that will be a calcium-deficient diet.

If you over-supplement with calcium, and you get too much calcium,

that can interfere with other minerals like copper and zinc,

which we have shown are important to developmental diseases.

'Mike believes that, overall,

'it's safer and less expensive to use a complete commercial feed.'

You should be able to rely on a good manufacturer that's

selling you a complete pet food to have ensured that that food

contains everything a growing puppy needs,

and also have conducted trials to prove it does.

And the second reason is,

you can be reassured that the bacterial infections which

could be being carried in a raw food aren't going to be present,

because the cooking process will have destroyed them.

'But with opinions of owners and vets being so clearly split,

'I want to know what the official guidance on this is

'from the veterinary profession.

'So I've come straight to the top,

'to meet the president of the British Veterinary Association,

'Gudrun Ravetz.'

So, I have my new puppy, Polly.

Obviously, I want to do my best for her.

So, where do you stand on it all?

So, we know from research that raw food can contain salmonella.

But importantly, quite a lot of raw food

is contaminated by campylobacter.

We know that's quite a significant reason for poisoning,

certainly in people.

The raw food that I feed her comes prepacked,

-and they say it's a complete thing.

-Yeah.

All the nutrients have been... Good nutrients have been added.

So it's not like it's just any old raw food from the butcher.

Even with commercially prepared foods

that have potentially been frozen,

there's still a higher risk of those contaminated pathogens,

and you can imagine those contaminating pathogens are not

killed by cooking, they're then potentially around Polly's mouth,

around Polly's paws, perhaps in the food bowl.

And then that can be a risk. So...

-Do you mean a risk to not only Polly but to humans?

-Yes, potentially.

So we need to be aware that Polly can be ingesting these

and shedding these pathogens - the salmonella, campylobacter -

so they are actually shedding it out but they're well in themselves.

'Gudrun's also keen to highlight foods that you should never feed your dog.'

And what are the absolute no-nos, as far as you're concerned?

Onions, grapes, raisins,

can all have serious problems with dogs.

Particularly grapes and raisins - they can cause kidney problems,

and that can be very serious.

In terms of onions, then, what's the problem?

Does that get stuck in their system, or something?

No, it has an effect in the body

which can make them very, very poorly.

-Really?

-So it's actually the onion itself.

And then other things like chocolate.

And can that kill a dog?

Yes, it can. It can be very, very serious.

So again, with any of those,

the minute you notice they've eaten something like that,

it really is important you speak to your local veterinary surgeon

and you get them down.

'Well, chocolate raisins and onions are all definitely

'off the menu for Polly.

'But you know, things aren't so clear-cut on the big dilemma

'of whether to feed her raw meat.

'But for me, though,

'some of Gudrun's words have rather hit home.'

Well, the end of it all, we've looked at both sides

really thoroughly, and each is as dedicated as the other.

The only thing, from my point of view, when I heard the

Veterinary Association say that salmonella or other bacteria could

actually transfer quite easily from a dog to a human being,

I personally have to be really careful

because at one point, from meat, I had a type of blood poisoning

and I was in hospital for two weeks.

So I'm a bit afraid of that and, at this precise moment,

I am veering towards moving away from raw food.

However, it is sufficient to say that the jury is out.

Earlier in the programme, we discovered that several

supermarkets and local stores have been issued with shockingly

low hygiene ratings by their local councils.

We also found that several establishments had out-of-date food

sitting on their shelves.

And that was something that one viewer had already written to us

about after spotting the same thing in several shops near to her.

Well, that set us wondering just how widespread this might be.

And the only way to find out was to go shopping.

'Many times on this series,

'we've talked about the various dates on food packaging.

'And while a number of products with a "best before" date can often

'be safely consumed after that date, anything labelled "use-by"

'really does need to be polished off by then.

'What's more, it an offence for foods to be sold after that use-by date,

'and any business caught doing it can face a hefty fine.

'As happened to Asda in November 2016.'

Asda has been fined £75,000 for selling out-of-date food

at its West Bridgford store in Nottinghamshire.

Most of the items found by inspectors were chilled meats,

including a pack of haslet five months past its use-by date.

'Not every instance of this happening will make headlines.

'But if the experience of Nadiya Amlani is anything to go by,

'other retailers, including local convenience stores,

'may be selling out-of-date foods more often than you'd think.'

I went into my local supermarket, and I picked up some fresh soup.

And I got home and I realised it had actually gone out of date

two days prior to that.

So it was a really frustrating experience,

because I had just got home, planned to have that soup for dinner,

and unfortunately couldn't eat it because it was

a fresh chicken soup and I was worried about the consequences.

'Nadiya says she has encountered the same problem

'on subsequent visits to the same store.'

Since then, I've noticed it a few times, as well.

I've been back into my local supermarket and picked up

a milk or a bread or a butter, and on those occasions

I have actually realised, in some instances,

that they are out of date.

To be perfectly honest,

I don't think I check every single product before I put it

into my basket, I think that could get quite time-consuming and

I don't exactly have an endless amount of time in the supermarket,

it's usually a really quick, five-minute shop.

I've only complained about this on two occasions.

And those occasions were when it came to high-risk items,

so I think one was a milk situation

and one was fresh chicken breast.

And in both those instances,

I went back to the supermarket and complained about it.

And the reaction, in one case, was pretty positive.

It was like, you know,

really apologetic for the situation, and they will speak to management.

In another case,

it was not apologetic at all and it was more like,

"Well, you can't prove that that particular product was purchased

"today, and that receipt is associated with this product."

'Well, luckily, on each of the occasions that caused her to complain,

'Nadiya had spotted that the food she'd bought was out of date

'before she ate it. But what would be the risks if she hadn't?

'Dietician Rick Miller has come to offer advice.'

If I bought a chicken soup today,

and it had gone off date two days ago,

can I eat that soup?

I would say, absolutely do not eat it.

Because it is now two days beyond the point where it should have been

off the shelf, and it definitely should have been flagged with the supermarket

so they can tighten up their regulatory controls,

because it is a safety risk.

How soon after food has gone past its date can you actually eat it?

When is it considered to be dangerous?

The use-by date is there for safety.

So you should not be consuming foods that have

a use-by date beyond that date.

Now, of course, some people are going to bend the rules

and they're going to try and sniff things and make sure,

but those aren't particularly reliable measures because

pathogens, or microorganisms, things like bacteria, moulds, fungi,

they start to build up on the foods and then they start to

become unsafe to eat and they could cause things like salmonella,

like food poisoning, so people could be incredibly unwell.

And is there a difference in particular types of products

and their use-by dates?

So, for example, one time it was a chicken soup,

the next time it was butter.

Like, what can I eat beyond its use-by date?

There are certain foods that don't need to have, by law,

a use-by date because they don't tend to become dangerous

after a certain point, they just degrade,

so they become untasty or not very good.

So butter is one of those foods, because those microorganisms

can't really grow on butter very easily,

or the types of microorganisms that do grow aren't particularly unsafe.

Bread's another one,

certain types of cakes - those without cream or jam -

they just become inedible, really, they become untasty.

But other foods, things like dairy products, meat, vegetables,

soups, maybe, these are actually quite a safety risk

if you start consuming them beyond the use-by date.

And unfortunately, the sniff test is not always enough

to know if something is actually going a little bit out of date.

'Luckily, it's not just down to us shoppers to make sure

'that out-of-date food doesn't end up in our baskets.

'Local authorities are keeping a watchful eye out, too.

'Jo Hamer works for West Yorkshire Trading Standards and says

'this is an issue that regularly comes up during inspections.'

Out of date food is something that we are always looking at

when we are out and about on retail premises,

and it's something that the department takes very seriously.

We would visit businesses routinely, so if they are on our radar,

we would be doing perhaps an annual check of them.

We also get information from environmental health

of new businesses that have been registered,

in which case we would visit a proportion of those.

And we also get complaints from consumers that they're selling

past the use-by date, so we would visit them in those instances.

We would inspect any retail business,

whether that be a small independent or a large multinational company.

As we saw earlier in the programme,

local authorities do prefer to work with businesses to ensure

good food practices are in place.

But when required, they'll take tough action, too.

The department's actions are proportionate.

So, if for example, if there are a few items that are a few days

past the use-by date, while that is still in itself an offence,

the business might have missed checking, it looks like they are

doing some checks but they've just missed on those particular days.

However, if a large number of items are found a large number of days

past their use-by date, that is deemed more serious.

The items are much more unsafe, the business, it seems to us,

are not doing the checks at all,

and therefore it would possibly go to court.

'And indeed, that is what's happened to one store on Jo's patch

'in a particularly shocking recent case.'

We visited the premises following information

from Environmental Health that the business had changed ownership.

So we visited to carry out an inspection,

looked in the refrigerator to check the items were all within date.

Unfortunately, we found a large number of items past their use-by date,

items such as sliced chicken, sliced turkey and yoghurts were found.

This was a very serious case, because on inspection,

we found 88 items, totalling 1,769 days past their use-by date.

The worst cases were five items found 48 days past that date.

'The case went to court and the store and one of its directors

'were ordered to pay more than £20,000 in fines and costs

'for selling unsafe food.'

'Well, that's an extreme case.

'We wanted to get a sense of how frequently stores do have foods

'past their use-by date on sale that we might buy unsuspectingly.'

'And, of course, the only way to do that was to go shopping.'

Over three days, we visited a mix of 25 convenience stores

and local corner shops in Manchester and Salford.

We thought we might find the odd one or two selling outdated food,

but in fact, it turned out to be the case in no less than eight of them.

That's nearly a third of the total.

We managed to buy a total of 14 products past their best,

including yoghurt, ham, a sausage roll and salami.

During two visits to one branch of a major convenience store,

we found five products out of date, including some Italian prosciutto

that was 65 days past its use-by date.

Yup, you heard right - over two months out of date.

Well, we took our findings to the lab of microbiologist Dr Chloe James

to find out what could be lurking beneath the packaging.

These products that you've brought in are all refrigerated.

Despite the fact of them being stored at four degrees, a number of

disease-causing bacteria can quite happily grow at that temperature.

In particular, listeria can happily amplify at four degrees, and so they

would still pose a risk, especially those that are more out of date.

'Dr James is particularly concerned as several of the processed

'products we bought will already have been exposed to bacteria

'in the various stages of their production.'

So, these are all highly processed foods, and a lot has gone on

in between the farm and the supermarket shelves.

In particular, chickens are commonly colonised by campylobacter,

which is the number one food poisoning bacteria in the UK.

In that case, the meat has been contaminated

from the guts of the chicken at slaughter.

Other ways that the meat could be contaminated is during

preparation, so the food handlers, or if the equipment is contaminated.

Listeria is an environmental organism,

and so that could contaminate food during the processing.

If that's not sterilised before packaging,

that bacteria is going to amplify where it sits on the shelf,

so if you eat food that's beyond its use-by date, you're increasing

the likelihood of being exposed to any of that bacteria, if it's there.

'And it seems each of the products we bought

'could have a different risk.'

Yoghurt past its use-by date could also be a concern.

It's a rich source of nutrients for bacteria,

and if there's any disease-causing bacteria there,

they're only going to amplify in the fridge.

'And even the cured meats, which typically have

'a long shelf life, will be of concern when out of date.'

So this salami that you found is a month past its use-by date.

I wouldn't be comfortable eating this, even though the curing process

does kill a lot of bacteria, you can't rule out the fact that

bacteria will have been transferred to it during processing.

'We sent all of our findings to the respective councils,

'who've passed the details onto the Environmental Health teams

'for further investigations.

'And if you come across similarly outdated products when you're

'out shopping, though the temptation may be to just leave them

'and move on, back in Yorkshire, trading standards officer Jo Hamer

'says you should always bring it to the store's attention.'

It's important that businesses are aware of the potential

consequences of selling food past their use-by date.

Their reputation could be damaged, but ultimately,

it comes down to the consumer.

Their health is at risk if they eat food past their use-by date.

If a customer were to find items past their use-by date on sale,

I would advise them not to buy the product and to tell the

business that they've found this item past the date.

'As for Nadiya, she's staying extra-vigilant

'and won't hesitate to make a fuss if she comes across

'any more out-of-date food in her local store.'

I'm hoping that supermarkets

can do more rigorous checks, that they can put better checks

in place for their employees, and making sure that their employees

go in and check dedicated shelves or sections of the supermarket.

But I've got to the conclusion

that it's partially customer responsibility,

it's partially me having to just check these items to make sure that

my health is not at risk because of something that someone else has done.

Well, as we've seen, making sure that the food that we eat

doesn't do us any harm can be a tough job.

But we can all do our bit to support the work of the councils

and food agencies by alerting them to any unhygienic practices we come across.

They can't take away all the risks entirely,

but they are really committed to getting it right.

And I think it was fantastic to see first-hand

the work that is being done, as well as getting an insight

into exactly what sort of improvements are needed

in places that have not met the right hygiene standards.

But, of course, don't forget that we're just as interested

as the authorities in things don't come up to scratch,

so please do tell us, as well.

And that goes for issues around anything

that you spend your money on - not just food.

Because we're seriously on the hunt right now for stories

for other Rip-Off Britain programmes coming up.

So it could be yours that we investigate next time.

But for the moment, that's it,

and from all of us here on the Rip-Off Britain team, bye-bye.

-Goodbye.

-Goodbye.