Episode 1 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.

If you do read the list of ingredients, there's loads of stuff

in there, and you think, "I don't really want to be eating that.

"That just sounds like a whole load of chemicals."

Whether you're staying in or going out, you've told us you can feel

ripped off by the promises made about what you eat

AND what you pay for it.

It drives me mad when I eat out, because often, when I get home,

I think, "I could have cooked this better myself."

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

we uncover the truth about Britain's food

so that you can be sure you ARE getting what you expect,

at the right price.

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

Hello and welcome to Rip-Off Britain, the series that battles

on your behalf to make sure that however you're spending your money,

you're getting what you expect.

But when it comes to things that are food- or diet-related,

I'm afraid it's not always that simple.

But as you'll see from some of the stories that are coming up today,

very often it can be that perhaps you've made an assumption

that turns out to be wrong... Then there are other situations

that are really not that straightforward,

they're just not black-and-white.

And of course there are always those people who really ARE

-trying to pull the wool over your eyes.

-Sadly.

But whatever the reason for your expectations being dashed,

finding out the truth can not only be a surprise,

but it can occasionally leave a very nasty taste in the mouth as well.

So, as we look into quite a mixed bag of situations today,

we'll have plenty of advice to

ensure that you're buying what you think you are.

Coming up - on the road with the teams who make sure

that when a menu says something's local, it really is.

-Hi, I'm from Trading Standards. Could I speak to the...

-Oh, hello.

..manager or the owner, please?

And the special offer diet pills, where the pounds you lose

may not be the ones you'd hoped for.

So many other people are going to be falling for this every day.

They feel like they are tricking people

and being...untruthful.

Now, these days, some of the most

gripping shows on TV are cookery contests.

Chefs have become heroes.

And when we treat ourselves to a meal out, most of us

have an image of our food being prepared from scratch,

as they do here, by someone clad in chef's whites

and quite possibly throwing a tantrum in the kitchen.

But in many of the biggest names on the high street,

it certainly isn't that simple.

Britain's restaurants are booming, but with budgets tight,

many of us have turned our backs on high-price, a la carte meals

in favour of something a little more affordable.

In 2012, the average restaurant-goer spent £17 per head on a meal out.

And for many of us, that £17 was spent in one of these -

a restaurant chain.

Whether it's a birthday celebration or a romantic dinner for two,

eating out can be a real treat.

But when you decide to go out to eat, why are you doing it?

Is it for the company, is it for the ambience,

is it because you don't have to do your own washing up?

Or is it for the food?

It's mainly a social aspect because you're going to meet

friends and stuff, but the food IS important.

-Atmosphere, quality of food.

-If it's just me and my wife going out,

we're going to go out and eat

something that we wouldn't ordinarily cook at home.

Service, and, er, quality of the food.

-Wherever's got a good price, and whatever's popular, I think.

-Mmm?

So, if it's not necessarily all about the food,

how much would it matter when you're eating out if the meal HASN'T been

made on the premises from scratch?

You see people who are called chefs, wearing chef's whites

and they look really professional, and there's a kitchen

behind the scenes - we never see into what's going on there,

but we imagine that chefs are buying in raw materials,

preparing them, erm, you know,

cooking them and plating them up for us.

But that's not always the case.

And in fact, pre-cooked or ready-prepared foods

are staples of many restaurant pantries,

even some exclusive ones.

Back in 2009, the celebrity, Michelin-starred chef Gordon Ramsay

was found to be serving pre-prepared food

in some of his London gastro-pubs.

The dishes started life in a centralised kitchen

and were sent out to the restaurants partially cooked.

He was only doing what many other restaurants do,

but the news caused a storm,

and Ramsay closed the centralised kitchen a year later.

Across the Channel, a recent survey in France

revealed that 70% of restaurants there

use re-heated dishes on their menu.

Hello. Table for one, please.

So, if the notoriously foodie French are doing it,

should we really expect restaurants here to cook everything from scratch?

Thanks very much.

People will criticise chain restaurants

for not cooking from scratch,

but I think you're naive in the extreme if you expect these places

to do just that.

The practice of buying in food in chain restaurants

will be massive, absolutely massive.

It's one of the key areas that chain restaurants can cut back on cost,

and therefore drive their own profit.

There will be central processing units at work

for a lot of the large chains.

These can make anything for you from pizza dough to pastas.

They can ship in all sorts of desserts for you,

all sorts of side orders, potatoes...

Then there are the main proteins they can also sort out,

things like chicken wings.

All of the things that you commonly

see on some of the major chain restaurants

are all made at central plants, because it drives down cost.

Consistency is the name of the game

when it comes to Britain's largest restaurant chains.

The secret of their success is that you know you'll get

the same quality, and pay the same price,

in every branch, no matter where it is.

But how many of them will admit that they can't possibly cook

everything from scratch on-site?

Well, we decided to find out.

We contacted the top 25 restaurant chains in the country.

Between them, they operate more than 3,000 outlets,

serving everything from pizza to pub grub

on almost every high street across the land.

We asked them how many dishes on their menus are pre-cooked off-site

and are delivered to the restaurants ready to be reheated and served.

We also wanted to know how many dishes are made up of ingredients

that are pre-prepared off-site and put together to make the full dish.

Now of course, these are some of the

closest-guarded secrets of the restaurant business,

so getting all these big names to open up to us

was never going to be easy.

In fact, ten chains didn't even want to answer our questions.

None of THESE popular restaurants would reveal how much

pre-prepared food they use.

I think they're really more concerned

about consumers having a greater awareness

of the huge numbers of meals and dishes that are bought-in.

A lot of these places kind of trade on a happy, kind of,

home-style cooking approach, and they've got very friendly staff -

service is all-important to them.

To suddenly find out that this food is being brought in

in freezer containers from a factory somewhere in Bradford

probably isn't going to be great for their image.

But what of the 15 restaurant chains that DID spill the beans?

Well, their responses ranged from

a few simples lines from Frankie & Benny's

to Prezzo's detailed answer to everything we asked.

Their replies may have varied, but they ALL told us they used

pre-prepared ingredients, and in some cases,

pre-prepared dishes.

Cafe Rouge, Bella Italia and Strada, who are all part of the same group,

told us that a fifth of their dishes are prepared outside the restaurant.

Including things like risotto, lasagne and some desserts.

Nando's chicken may be flame-grilled to order,

but what about the extras?

Nando's told us that their breads and creamy mashed potato

are delivered frozen, and some dishes -

including rice, ratatouille and Portobello mushrooms -

are cooked off-site and delivered to the restaurants chilled.

Nando's said that it's impossible to cook every one

of their menu combinations in every restaurant.

And what about the good old pizza?

Well, the fundamental ingredient is obviously the dough,

but how many restaurants actually make their own?

Well, when we asked the big names,

Pizza Express, Zizzi, Ask and Prezzo told us that their pizza dough

arrives in each restaurant ready-made.

Pizza Hut, Bella Italia and Strada didn't tell us about THEIR dough.

You can buy it in from central plants.

The cost is obviously going to be far lower than making it up fresh

within a unit, within a branch.

So, if you go into a chain pizza restaurant in Newcastle

and order a certain style of pizza,

you can be guaranteed that you'll go 400 miles south

and eat the same pizza in a restaurant in Kent -

it will taste exactly the same.

And that's what the restaurants want,

because they know that their customers like being reassured,

they like consistency - they don't like surprises.

So, how surprised should we be that not everything served in our

favourite restaurants is freshly prepared on-site?

Yes, yeah, that definitely does surprise me. I would have assumed

that it would have been made freshly on the premises -

because that's what you're paying for, you're paying for a chef

to prepare you a fresh meal.

I'd be surprised if ALL of their food was prepared on-site,

because I don't think they get enough customers to warrant

cooking it - it might be frozen, reheated...

Even if I DID go to a chain, I would

-expect the food to be freshly prepared.

-I think that has to be

the case, in a way, these days, because it would cost too much

-probably for them to make it all fresh on the premises.

-Mmm.

Some of the chains we spoke to bucked the trend.

For example, Wagamama told us that they only served two dishes

where ingredients need to be cooked off-site, and that's because

these ingredients need to be cooked slowly.

They said everything else IS cooked

fresh to order in their restaurant kitchens.

Similarly, Carluccio's told us that 94% of all their food

is prepared freshly in each restaurant,

including their own pasta, breads and almost all their sauces.

They said they don't use centralised kitchens,

and they only go to a third party to

ensure their slow-cooked dishes are consistent -

something a few of the other chains told us, too.

Of course, with so many restaurants not wanting to share their secrets,

we've only got a flavour of what's going on in the big chains' kitchens,

not the total taste.

But there are ways to spot when

something might not be freshly cooked to order.

Tell-tale signs of restaurants pre-preparing, pre-cooking food -

quite often you can just look at the sheer scale of the dishes.

That's a giveaway. You then look at

the number of menu items on a chain restaurant,

and the figures are absolutely huge.

There's just no way that that can be done from scratch.

This might be dressed up in all sorts of flowery language -

various descriptions that suggest food is hand-prepared,

hand-cooked, home-style prepared...

But it really just can't be done.

It's unrealistic to expect chains that typically cater for

people in a rush, or families with fussy eaters,

to make everything on site.

And that MAY not be what most customers want.

The big names who told us they used ingredients or dishes cooked

outside their restaurants said they did so to ensure

the same quality for the same dish in every outlet.

And it's probably that consistency,

rather than where the food has been made,

that keeps people coming back for more.

Whether it's Welsh lamb, Cornish pasties or Melton Mowbray pies,

as you know, some foods are

synonymous with the places they come from.

And that local provenance and seal of quality

often means that these products come at a premium.

But as we're about to find out, there's a fight going on

against cheap and poor quality imitations

masquerading as the real thing

and threatening the reputations of entire industries.

Fresh, local ingredients have been

the key to this restaurant's success.

-Morning!

-Hi, how are you?

-Hey, they look fantastic!

And then we've got some good roots. There's some good beetroot there.

-Oh, they're gorgeous.

-The striped ones, and then some good purple.

And then there's some really big swede in the back of there.

And then a load of sprouts, some nice ones -

they were still growing at eight o'clock this morning, so...

-We've had some frost now, so they'll be really tasty.

-They will.

The Caffi Florence in Mold may sound Italian,

but it is very proudly Welsh,

and the owner, Jane Clough, takes great care to source

as many ingredients locally as she can.

For us, sourcing locally is at the heart of our business.

It's kind of everything that I believe in, in terms of food,

because it's short supply chains, so it's good for the environment,

it's a short time period from when it's

harvested to when we actually use it,

and it's great for local business.

The local meat from this area is fantastic.

We're sort of...we're world-renowned as a lamb-producing area,

and we also have some very good beef in this area.

We'll often put a lamb cawl on the menus,

and that's a really, really popular dish, because it's

a traditional Welsh dish, really showcasing the Welsh lamb.

But for Jane, to be able to offer her customers local produce,

first she has to be totally confident that what she's buying

from her suppliers IS in fact local.

It is important that what the label says is what the product is.

If we don't have that, then we lose all consumer confidence,

and our customers lose confidence in us.

Which means Jane is rigorous in ensuring

she knows exactly where her ingredients come from.

We walk into our butcher

and there are all the certificates of where he has purchased

his meat from and we trust him in the same way our customers trust us.

Selling local produce and prime Welsh lamb sets

businesses like Jane's apart from the competition.

But some unscrupulous businesses are trying to flog off cheaper

produce and saying it's local when it's definitely not.

The examples are pretty shocking, and not just in Wales.

One farm shop was caught offering eggs

"fresh from our own Wiltshire farm" which were

actually from Northamptonshire, on the other side of the country.

And a restaurant was selling "Hampshire spring lamb"

which was actually from New Zealand, over 10,000 miles away.

It is very difficult when you have hospitality businesses

who are labelling, identifying their products as being local or Welsh when in fact they're not.

That makes it very difficult for the rest of us

who are sourcing locally because it takes

so much more effort to engender the trust from our customers.

However, there are people on hand to enforce the rules.

And throughout Britain, Trading Standards do their best to try

and ensure that what customers are being promised is what

customers are being delivered.

And across Wales there is a big focus at the moment

on ensuring that meat labelled "Made in Wales" really is exactly that.

On the ground in Wrexham, the job falls to officers like Kevin

and Kay.

Hi, Kay, is this going out on the survey for Welsh beef and lamb?

Yeah, I've been on the Internet and had a look at some local places.

The consequences for those businesses that

label their food as something it's not can be very serious.

Ultimately,

if we find the companies are deliberately misleading the public

by applying these descriptions and there are food fraud issues

associated with this, these particular individual companies

could be prosecuted by their local Trading Standards services.

Kay is off to check out a local restaurant to make sure that

its tantalising-sounding menu of Welsh produces lives up to its name.

Hi, I'm from Trading Standards. Could I speak to the manager or

the owner, please?

-Of course, yeah, can I take your name?

-Kay Ledward.

You claim that you're making Welsh lamb and mint pakoras.

Yep.

Roast rib of mature Welsh beef.

Yes.

Roast leg of Welsh lamb, Perl Las cheese.

Yep, and we've got...

Ceiriog Valley trout... Well, where do you get your lamb and beef from?

Yeah, we're supplied by a supplier at Upper Mills Farm in Ceiriog.

Right.

And then the way we look for proof is the invoice.

Right.

Kay wants to see that proof

so she can be sure of where the restaurant's meat has come from.

And it is a painstaking task. Kay questions

The Hand's Gaynor DeLuchi about every one of the ingredients

the pub uses and makes a special claim for.

We're making sure the customer gets what they want but it's

also making sure that you're getting what you want as well.

Trading Standards have to be particularly rigorous because

unscrupulous operators will go to extreme lengths to try and pull

the wool over the eyes of not just customers, but the inspectors as well.

One butcher in South Wales ended up with a £20,000 fine after

selling what he had been claiming was local meat to top

restaurants on the Gower Peninsula.

But in fact the court was told that the butcher not only made up the

descriptions of the meat - but even the farms he pretended supplied it.

Welsh beef and lamb rank alongside such delicacies as Champagne

and Parma ham.

They all have properly regulated special status thanks to the

PGI, or "protected geographical indication" mark.

But it does mean the rules are very strict,

including dictating where the animal is slaughtered.

How PGI status for Welsh lamb and beef works is it has to be born

and reared in Wales, for obvious reasons.

It has to be slaughtered in an approved Hybu Cig Cymru

slaughterhouse.

It seems a bit silly in a way that you could have a farmer down the road

that has had his own cattle or his own lambs, he's born them and reared

them here, he's had them slaughtered in Wales but it might not be

an approved slaughterhouse but he's not allowed to call it Welsh.

I think the reason being is the traceability.

That's what you are after, so, what number are we?

-7217.

-7217, Castell Howell. So they are a stand-alone cutting plant in Wales.

There you go so you are legitimately...that is Welsh.

-It's born, reared, slaughtered in Wales.

-Cut.

Cut. It's Welsh.

So on this occasion Kay is reassured - there is a clear trail

from the farm where the livestock was reared to the chef's fridge,

a glowing report for all that local produce at The Hand.

Back at Caffi Florence...

I mean, we say groups of ten or more...

..Jane, too, is determined to stick with local produce from suppliers she can trust.

And for her, what began as an ethical decision has now paid

dividends.

We know we have more than trebled the turnover

of our business compared to the person who was here before us.

So I think if food, food businesses are really

serious about the quality of what they are doing, and they really want

to provide a good long-term service, then local is the way to go.

Still to come on Rip Off Britain:

They're a staple in millions of shopping baskets.

But are the wholemeal loaves that we buy in supermarkets

all you might expect?

We believe that if you go and find a loaf in the supermarket that says wholemeal,

that should be wholemeal.

We just say that people are being misled.

Now, whatever anyone else may try and tell you, it's only a good

diet and regular exercise that will keep your weight in check.

And while consuming fewer calories can of course help you to shed a few

pounds, there is no other quick fix or miracle cure that can do

the job for you.

That hasn't stopped all sorts of companies

peddling supplements and diet pills,

for which there's rarely even a shred of proper scientific evidence.

They'll often offer an irresistible, or even supposedly "free" deal,

but beware - like our next viewer,

the only thing you're likely to end up losing isn't weight

but your cash.

A keen runner and all-round fitness enthusiast, Jenny Brady is

already in good shape...and she's determined to keep it that way.

To keep fit I make sure that I go jogging quite regularly.

With me and my boyfriend doing the marathon last year,

I think that was really a starting point to making sure that

I keep up my fitness and make sure that I'm healthy all the time.

And though she has a sensible attitude towards her health, Jenny

is not immune to the pressures felt by many young women to stay slim.

With all the magazines, and the websites that are around at

the moment, there's quite a lot of pressure for girls to look a certain

way and to be healthy, to be fit but also to, you know, be slim.

Jenny knows, of course, there's no miracle pill to make you thin,

but she was open to the idea of a little extra help to lose weight.

There's always new developments coming out in the nutritional

world which I'm always willing to try, you know, I try

and take tablets for my joints, I try and take hair and nail tablets.

When Jenny saw two types of diet pills advertised online,

she thought it would do her no harm at all to have a look.

One was called Beyond Raspberry Ketone

and the other Nutra Green Coffee Cleanse.

I'd seen them in a magazine article the week before. Beyonce

and other pop stars had been taking them.

I'd also seen it on Facebook.

It was the new supplement that everybody wanted to try.

So Jenny went ahead and clicked the link which took her

to beyondraspberryketone.co.uk.

The website claimed that taken together, these two types

of diet pill would make you "lose twice as much fat...twice as fast."

And, even better, they were offering a 14-day trial.

When I clicked into the website, it looked like a brilliant deal.

And all you had to pay was the delivery cost,

which seemed reasonable.

The web page went on to say, "If you are unhappy with the product,

"simply call us to cancel your membership and arrange

"return of the unused portion." So, reassured by that, Jenny went

ahead and placed the order... but, because the products are sold

by separate companies, she had to make two transactions, and decided

to pay for one with her credit card and the second with her debit card.

In total she paid £11.95 for two bottles of Raspberry Ketone

and one of Nutra Green Coffee Cleanse.

I took them straightaway, kept them in my handbag, took them

religiously for, I think it was about two or three weeks.

The first week I did notice a difference but by the second

and third, I wasn't really seeing any type of results.

Jenny stopped taking the pills, chalked it all down to experience

and forgot all about it.

After all, she'd only shelled out not much more than a tenner.

Or so she thought.

But a fortnight later she received her next bank statements,

and with them, a nasty shock.

Her credit card and her debit card had both been charged almost

£85 each.

When I had seen the money go out of my account

I was a little bit hysterical,

mortified that such a lot of money had come out for nothing, really,

and for a silly little trial from a company I didn't even really know.

She quickly cancelled both her cards

and phoned her bank's fraud protection unit.

She discovered that, without realising it,

when she'd taken out the offer,

she had signed up to what's called a "continuous payment authority".

That means you've given permission for a company to repeatedly

take money from your account without them needing to keep asking.

And although Jenny says she hadn't been aware of that,

she HAD ticked the box to accept the terms and conditions

and was therefore signed up to TWO continuous payment authorities -

one for the Raspberry Ketone, and one for the Nutra Green Coffee Cleanse.

So the terms and conditions are there - they do ask you to tick

if you agree to them,

but I can't name anybody who trawls through the terms and conditions.

I'm not that type of person and naively I trust what I'm buying.

Jenny wasn't aware that

if she didn't want to carry on receiving, and paying, for the

pills, she had to cancel and return her trial packs within 14 days.

She was able to cancel the payments for the Raspberry Ketone,

but when Jenny called to cancel the Nutra Green Coffee Cleanse,

a recorded message informed her that she would be charged a further £38.

I was fuming about the cancellation fee to the point where

I was shaking with...when I get angry I cry so, I mean, I'd got upset again.

Jenny called the company back

and this time managed to speak to a human being.

But they were not prepared to waive that fee.

They said they couldn't refund that, that was my mistake,

and that's just what I had to deal with.

Jenny wasn't going to leave things there

she called the company back AGAIN, and was determined not to

take no for an answer. This time she thought she was getting

somewhere - she was given a reference number to track her pills

when she returned them -

which she assumed meant she would be getting a refund.

So you're asked to post them immediately

and they need to receive them within seven days.

I posted them back straightaway, that same day.

I posted them recorded delivery so I knew when they'd get there.

I was quite confident that I was going to get my money back,

You know, I was actually quite relieved.

I was like, "Oh, I'm going to get my £160 back."

Add on the cancellation fee,

and Jenny was more than £200 out of pocket.

But almost two weeks passed and there was no sign of any refund.

I rang them and said, "The Post Office have

"confirmed that these have been delivered to the address that

"you said, and the money still hasn't gone back in my account," to which

the customer service representative said it's out of their control,

the warehouse have to process it but it could take up to ten working days.

But the next time she followed it up she got a different story.

I rang them up to see where my returns was at, to which they

answered, "We don't know who you spoke to, the girl you say,

"she doesn't work here so we can't do anything about it."

And that they couldn't give me a refund.

I think they're being very clever.

I feel like they're actually tricking you.

So is that the case?

We tried to contact both companies Jenny had ordered

the pills from to see what

they had to say about the clarity of their terms and conditions.

So far, despite many, many e-mails and letters,

we have heard nothing back from them.

But we're not the only people asking questions.

The company behind the Raspberry Ketone pills, called Beyond Nutra Ltd,

was investigated last year by the Advertising Standards Authority.

They ruled that the website did not make its terms

and conditions sufficiently clear, and, as a result, was misleading.

The company's ads at the time were banned,

and they've now made the wording on their website clearer.

But watch out - there are plenty of other companies

and websites offering similar trials that could end up costing you

a lot more than you'd bargained for.

It makes me feel really angry and upset that I know that

so many other people are going to be falling for this every day.

It makes my blood boil because I feel like they are tricking

people and being untruthful with the way that they're advertising

what they're saying you're signing up for.

When you go to a restaurant, you may think that the waiter is

just there to get your order and take it to the kitchen,

but that's really not the case.

Restaurant critic and food writer Andy Hayler is here to reveal

some of the wily ways waiting staff will try

and get you to eat lots, but spend lots, too.

And perhaps earn themselves a better tip into the bargain.

So when you're looking at the menu, the waiter's work's already begun.

They'll want to quickly offer you some drinks

because typically the drinks in the restaurant are very, very profitable.

A good waiter won't interrupt when they're actually approaching.

If they're very good they may have taken the trouble to memorise your name.

And they may even touch your arm lightly, a friendly gesture.

These techniques can actually raise the tip

level for a waiter between 10% & 36%.

And when the waiter or waitress starts recommending dishes,

they may not have YOUR best interests at heart.

Now, a waiter may recommend a dish and say such-and-such

is particularly good tonight.

It may be that they genuinely believe that to be true

but it's just as likely that in fact that's the dish that didn't

sell at lunch very well and they've been prompted

by the management to push that particular dish.

Also, a good waiter will know the menu very, very well

and will perhaps engage

with you about something about one of the dishes and then, at the same

point, will say, "Oh, maybe you'd like some extra side dish with that."

Maybe some extra chips or something.

Because again the side dishes tend to be highly profitable.

"Still or sparkling, madam?"

When you're looking at the menu,

they may come to you and say, "Would you like some water - still or sparkling?"

You notice the waiter didn't say, "Still, sparkling or tap?"

Yet by law in the UK they have to provide free tap water.

But if the waiter's done a good job, how can you be sure

they get to keep your tip?

Tipping has changed over the years in the UK, but you're not obliged

to pay the full service charge if you're not happy with the service.

In 2009 the law changed, so at least in theory the tips should now be

reaching the waiter or waitress, but there's still a complication

with credit card tips, because the restaurateur is actually

allowed to deduct something for administration

but of course you're never actually sure how much of that is real.

So if you're in any doubt, then it's probably better to

leave your tip in cash because that way you can be pretty sure

that the waiter or waitress will actually see the tip.

Now, whether you're doing a weekly shop at the supermarket or

topping up at the corner shop, one item that most of us are almost

certain to pop into our shopping basket is this - a loaf of bread.

Over recent years, more and more of us have been

listening to the health messages and swapping white sliced for

something that we hope is going to do us a bit more good - wholemeal.

But when you start to dig down into exactly what is and isn't in the

wholemeal loaves we buy in their millions every day, you might be surprised

to discover that most of them are not necessarily quite what you think.

Unless you're shopping in a specialist shop like this one,

because even the ones with "nowt taken out"

may well have put some other things in.

New Hovis British Farmers Loaf...

Baked with Britain's best wheat.

For years, the message from the TV ads has been clear...

-I'm tasty wholemeal.

-The delicious

taste of Allinson wholemeal bread.

Wholemeal bread is better for us than the soggy white loaf

that has dominated British kitchens since the Second World War.

But just what should be in a wholemeal loaf?

There are those who say to be called wholemeal,

it should be just that, strictly made with wholemeal flour.

That is, after all, the traditional way to do it -

as still practised by bakers like Tom Molnar from Gail's Bakery

in North London - one of the new breed of so-called "artisan" bakers.

I think you have to have a real passion for the product,

because a really great bread takes time to do

and you have to care about how it comes out.

Here is where we do the mixing.

This is a white bread that you're making

but wholemeal bread - what actually goes into it?

Well, you put salt, water and wholemeal flour.

Just those three things? Nothing else?

That's what you put in.

The whole principle of a good top artisan baker is do

it yourself and do it with great ingredients.

Inside there is yeast - it's a living thing. When you slap it

down, you're creating some activity. Want to try one yourself now?

It's much more difficult than it looks.

-You open it.

-Open it a bit, yes.

You just do the first shape like this, no,

just move it around here so we have the first shape.

Yes, right, so done that, now what?

The third one is the final, you seal it off...

Easier said than done.

It's all yours!

SHE LAUGHS

I think I'll stick to the day job.

Any wholemeal loaf that's made with the amount of TLC

that went into this one ain't going to come cheap,

but that's fair enough

because most of us will buy our bread off a supermarket shelf,

pre-packed and pre-sliced, and if you're going to

go for the healthy option then you may decide to buy a wholemeal loaf.

The trouble is you may not be quite getting exactly what you expect.

You certainly won't be getting a wholemeal loaf that's made to the

standards that these are in this bakery because if you were to take a

magnifying glass and take a look at the list of ingredients on the back

of the supermarket packaging, you could be in for a bit of a surprise.

Most loaves sold in the supermarkets aren't quite the pure

wholemeal you may think you're buying.

Chris Young runs a campaign to get us all eating better bread.

And he isn't happy that most of the wholemeal bread we are sold

is made with rather more ingredients than the ones I saw at the bakery.

We believe that if you go

and find a loaf in a supermarket that says it's wholemeal,

that should be wholemeal, it should be flour, water, yeast and salt.

We just say that people are being misled - you've got a big

headline on the front saying "wholemeal" and people who want

wholesome food are then getting all these other things. Soya flour,

powered wheat, gluten and all sorts of artificial additives.

So how is it possible that you might buy a loaf of wholemeal bread,

expecting it to contain nothing but wholemeal flour, water,

yeast and salt, only to find it contains lots of other things too?

Well, it all comes down to this stuff - flour.

And, believe it or not,

flour has its own set of rules which basically say that if you want

to call a loaf a wholemeal loaf, it has to contain wholemeal flour.

But the rules don't stop manufacturers adding other

things to the flour as well.

And that's what frustrates the real bread campaign.

They reckon we should be getting traditional wholemeal made

the old-fashioned way.

I mean, we are not criticising anyone of breaking the law,

but people might be just about following the letter

of the law but I'm not sure they are following the spirit.

But the people who enforce the law say no, that's all fine,

because soya flour isn't flour. Gluten powder isn't

flour, it's an additive so that doesn't count either,

and we just think that people deserve better than that,

we think that

shoppers of Britain have a right to know exactly what they are eating.

So is he right?

What do British shoppers think about the added

extras in their wholemeal loaf?

-Do you ever buy wholemeal loaves?

-Yes.

You do? Why do you buy them?

Well, it's meant to be better for you, isn't it?

-So, healthier?

-Yeah.

So if you buy a wholemeal loaf, would you expect the flour to be

-wholemeal flour?

-Yes.

So would it surprise you if I told you that, with

the exception of a few brands, most wholemeal loaves have

lots of other things in them as well besides wholemeal, like soya flour?

Does that surprise you?

-It does surprise us, actually.

-I didn't know that.

-Do you ever buy wholemeal bread?

-Yes.

Why do you buy it?

-Because it's healthier.

-What if I told you that a lot of wholemeal loaves only have a percentage

-of wholemeal flour...

-That would surprise me.

-They have other stuff in them like soya flour?

-Oh, really?

-Does that bother you?

-Yes.

-Do you mind that?

-Yes.

-Why?

Because I don't like eating things where I don't know the ingredients.

Would it surprise you if I told you an awful lot of wholemeals

have actually soya flour in, and other kinds of stuff in them?

Yes. Does that still make it wholemeal for you?

No. It might still make it a healthy product, but it's a misnamed product.

None of the manufacturers are hiding what's in their wholemeal loaves.

It's all there on the labels.

But just how many of the wholemeal breads

we probably buy the most of, the pre-packed ones from the

supermarkets, are made using that simple, traditional, recipe?

We sent our researchers out on a shopping trip, wholemeal-style.

We called at each of the big four supermarkets, along with

M&S, Waitrose,

and the Co-op, a store initially founded to sell pure flour.

Some sold up to seven types of wholemeal loaf.

But not one store stuck solely to the centuries-old

formula of just wholemeal flour, water, yeast and salt.

They all had at least one added extra, such as soya flour,

gluten, or wheat protein.

And the stores all gave good reasons for that, telling us it's because

customers expect fresh bread to be...

So they use a very ...

to give...

Several also said that the added ingredients make the bread

faster and easier to bake, and help to...

And M&S claimed that that the better textures obtained by adding

soya flour help with...

As well as the supermarkets' own loaves,

we looked at the big brands' pre-sliced wholemeal bread as well.

And again, not one was made with that time-honoured recipe.

On their behalf, The Federation of Bakers told us that any

wholemeal bread from their members...

And those extras simply...

Warburton's added that when they do use soya flour it makes up...

..of the ingredients.

So have the sticklers for traditionalism got it wrong?

It's hard to argue against bread that lasts longer at a time

when so much food is wasted.

But back at the bakery, Tom, for one, is determined to keep

the old-fashioned ways of doing things alive.

Everybody in this building is doing something that people before them have

been doing for hundreds of years.

In exactly the same way.

Yes, it's quite amazing.

We've basically lost the bread-making craftsmanship

and now we're rebuilding it.

We're doing all that again. We're re-establishing this craft which hasn't died.

It's still alive and in this bakery.

Here at Rip Off Britain we're always ready to investigate

more of your stories - on any subject.

Confused over your bills or just trying to wade through

never-ending small print?

Why is it in small print if they want you to read it?

Maybe you're unsure what to do when you discover

you've lost out and that so-called "great deal"

has ended up costing you money.

All my money is very hard-earned, so when I go to spend it,

I expect value for money.

Or you might have a cautionary tale of your own,

and want to share the mistakes you made with us.

You can write to us at...

Or send us an e-mail to...

The Rip Off team is ready and waiting to investigate your stories.

I'm afraid that's just about all we have time for today.

Don't forget you can find out plenty more tips and advice

on our website - it really is

chock-full of useful information.

And you'll find it at...

And another little tip -

remember food is just like any of the other topics

we investigate on the programme.

You want to know as much as you can about what you're

getting for your money,

without any unexpected surprises later on.

So if you come across situations where there are things you

wish you'd known before you handed over your cash, then let us know.

There is every chance we can look at it for a future programme.

But that's it for today. Thank you very much indeed for being with us.

I hope you'll join us again very soon. But until then,

-from all of us on the team...

-And careful shopping.

BOTH: Bye-bye.