Episode 2 Rip Off Britain: Food

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.

I think they encourage you to buy more than you need.

And that causes a lot of waste.

Whether you're staying in or going out,

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

for what you eat - and what you pay for it.

It makes my blood boil,

because I feel like they are tricking people.

From claims that just 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'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,

investigating today some very meaty problems to do with our food.

It's not too long ago, of course, that the news was dominated

by the horsemeat scandal, which we all remember,

which revealed that the meat in some of our bestselling products

just was not what we thought it was.

I think that's really what people objected to most.

Because we paid for one thing and got another.

And it's reckoned that since then, up to a quarter of us

have cut back on the amount of meat we eat.

And there's no doubt that, rightly or wrongly, many of us

remain wary of cheaper meats

that perhaps we consider poorer quality,

or we're not sure where it's come from.

Exactly. So we'll be taking a closer look at meat content,

and revealing some of the unexpected problems

that might be lurking inside.

Because whilst the issue with horsemeat

essentially boiled down to labelling,

it's clear that all too often the meat we buy

leads to consequences

that are a lot more serious than just that.

Coming up, the nasty food poisoning bug

striking half a million people a year.

So why is there still so much of it in our supermarket chicken?

I just can't believe that these products are being

put on our shelves and putting people's lives in danger.

A year after horsemeat, a test to prove

if your meat's what it's supposed to be.

And that will allow us to be able to show whether the beef was beef

or if it was something else.

And TB in beef and hepatitis in sausages.

We've the truth behind the latest scare stories,

and advice to make sure your meat is safe.

Do you use the thermometer every time?

I do actually for meats, yes.

-Do you? Oh, my goodness!

-How else do you know?

When we buy our food,

if there's one thing we take for granted it's that it should be safe.

But is that always the case?

One million of us are struck down by food poisoning every year,

and it's a problem that's getting worse.

For most, the result of that is a nasty tummy bug,

but for hundreds of others, it can be fatal.

We know that most cases come from meat,

but there's one particular type of food poisoning which,

according to some, is reaching epidemic proportions.

What kind of food poisoning have you ever heard of?

-Um...

-Like what bugs have you ever heard of?

Well, E. coli...

-Salmonella...

-Yeah.

I don't know!

Erm, probably Staphylococcus I think is one of them?

Yeah - anything else?

I know there's three others but I can't really remember them.

There's one food poisoning bug that affects more of us

in this country than any other.

In fact, in any one year some half a million of us

are likely to be affected by it, and it's generally accepted that we'll

probably pick it up from chicken, which is Britain's favourite meat.

The question is, do you know the name of the bug?

Have you ever heard of this? Could you say that for me?

Campylobacter.

Not bad!

-Have you ever heard of that?

-No, I haven't.

-It will give you a nasty case of food poisoning.

-Oh, my goodness.

Campylobacter is a bug naturally found in the guts of chickens.

Although it doesn't make the animal ill, it's highly infectious,

so a whole flock of chickens can easily be affected.

Cooking meat thoroughly usually kills the bacteria.

But one person who knows just how nasty it can be

when that doesn't happen is Sue Ballantyne.

She fell ill in the run-up to Christmas 2012 -

but at first had no idea what was wrong with her.

I was sick initially.

I then started with diarrhoea and I was shaking uncontrollably,

very high temperature, and just generally very unwell.

My husband was very concerned about me -

he actually rang the emergency doctor

because the symptoms were so severe.

And as the days progressed, it didn't get any better.

I continued to have stomach cramps, I was aching from head to toe.

Spiking high temperatures.

We realised that it couldn't be just a sickness bug,

and it was at this point I consulted the doctor.

It was very worrying because I felt extremely unwell.

And I really didn't know what was causing my symptoms.

If it had been a sickness bug I would have been over it in 24 hours

but the symptoms just continued to be really bad.

It was only when Sue's doctor sent off samples to the lab

that campylobacter was identified as the cause.

I had never heard of it before.

We hear about food poisoning like salmonella but I had never heard

of campylobacter before so I was really unsure of what it involved.

Er...

I was told it would have to be reported to the Public Health Agency

because it is a public health risk.

Sue's campylobacter was traced back

to a chicken liver parfait she'd eaten

at a restaurant where several other customers had also been infected.

She was treated with antibiotics, but as many of those

hit by campylobacter know, recovery can be slow.

I was two weeks before I could tolerate food going into my body

and I lost over a stone in weight in those two weeks.

Sarah O'Brien is a Professor of Public Health who dismisses

any idea that food poisoning is in any way a mild or trivial illness.

Anybody who has actually had campylobacter infection,

they can have really, really bad stomach pain.

For some people the consequences can be even more severe.

And in my practising lifetime I have seen a patient

who became paralysed after having campylobacter infection.

Like many of her fellow doctors,

Sarah is worried about just how prevalent campylobacter has become.

We have seen a relentless increase in the cases of campylobacter

since it was first discovered in 1977.

It means there is more campylobacter in the environment around us.

Now, it might be on any kind of farm holding.

It might be in your own kitchen

if you are not very good at cleaning surfaces.

And one of the things we are learning about campylobacter

is that it is a much more robust organism

than we had previously believed it to be.

We do know that the most common cause

is related to eating contaminated poultry.

And we eat a lot of chicken in this country.

The last time the Food Standards Agency checked,

they discovered that some two-thirds of the raw chicken

that's sold in the UK is infected by campylobacter.

And at the same time, more and more of us are falling ill

as a result of these bugs.

The fact that the bacteria is present in so many of our chickens

is something that makes people who've had the illness livid.

It makes me feel very upset and angry, that food is being

put on our supermarket shelves that contains this bacteria.

I was severely ill from campylobacter poisoning

but I know people can have even worse effects than what I did.

And especially in the old and the young, symptoms can be really bad,

so I just can't believe that these products are being

put on our shelves and putting people's lives in danger.

With so many people falling ill, should the poultry industry

that supplies the nation's chickens

be doing much more to tackle campylobacter?

Later in the programme, we'll be asking them just that.

So it's to worrying proportions now with very little concrete evidence

coming through in terms of stopping it or controlling it,

so what are you doing?

And we'll reveal what you can do at home

to keep Britain's nastiest food poisoning bug at bay.

I'm at a top-class butcher's,

but scandals about the type of meat we may inadvertently be eating

pale into insignificance when compared to the dire consequences

of eating more familiar meats

that some recent headlines have warned us about.

Hepatitis in sausages, cows infected with TB.

In fact, if you were to believe all the reports of the deadly diseases

infecting our steaks and burgers,

you might say you'd never so much as sniff a sausage again.

So how worried should we be?

And should we be saying bye to our bangers

or just being a bit more careful

about how we treat and cook our meat?

Headlines predicting infection, illness or even possible death

from the meat that we buy are hard to miss.

Whether it's deadly sausages, toxic steaks or killer beef burgers,

it would seem from the papers that most of our favourite meals

come with a terrifying risk.

So how worried do scare stories like these make you feel

about what's in the meat you put on your plate?

One in ten sausages may carry the hepatitis virus.

Cows with TB have entered the human food chain.

TB beef ends up on our tables.

Now, does that bother you about meat?

It does shock me, to think that people are selling it, basically,

and that we don't really know as a customer that it's in it.

How do you react to headlines like these?

Alarmingly! Really badly.

I'm not being snobbish, but I wouldn't buy the cheaper end of meat

because I am worried, especially burgers.

I make my own beef burgers.

So if it's good quality meat, then surely it doesn't matter

if it's a little bit pink in the middle.

But if it's bought things, I do tend to cook them.

What's your reaction to those headlines?

Er...I wish all of them were untrue.

It's very hard to know whether to believe

everything you read in the papers these days.

The question is, what's the truth?

Should we avoid meat altogether, or should we just be more careful?

Sometimes it can be very difficult to pick your way through information

that appears to be conflicting.

On the one hand, for example,

the Government department responsible for vetting such things,

the Food Standards Agency, does allow beef from cows

that they know have been infected with TB

onto the supermarket shelves.

But on the other hand, although it would be perfectly legal

to sell it, some of the supermarkets we spoke to

said that they won't accept this meat

even if the FSA has deemed it safe.

It may not be clear who to believe,

but one thing everyone does seem to agree on is how to destroy

whatever nasties might be nestling within our meats.

In other words, cooking them properly. Which sounds easy.

But unfortunately, as microbiologist Dr Lisa Ackerley explains,

it's not something we always get right.

So we've got some beef burgers, some steak and some sausages.

Lisa's going to show me

how thoroughly everything needs to be cooked.

And first on the menu, beef burgers.

In 2012, more than 1,000 people contracted E. coli in the UK.

So how can you avoid becoming one of the statistics?

What we're trying to do here is cook it all the way through.

We are keeping this flicking all the time

to make sure it is cooked through correctly.

That's right - it keeps it juicy as well, apparently.

Obviously I don't just want it to be safe, I want it to be tasty!

-So you tell me when you think this burger might be cooked.

-OK.

'But it turns out that just looking at the burger

'and guessing when it might be ready to eat

'doesn't mean it's safe to do so.

'This one may look done, but it's not.'

So I think my hamburger is done now.

Well, we only know by checking the temperature.

Do you use the thermometer every time?

I do, actually, for meats, yes.

-Do you? Oh, my goodness.

-How else do you know?

-So what are we looking for here?

-We're looking for 75.

75. Is that the average cooking temperature?

75 is the temperature that would actually kill the bacteria

in the centre of the burger.

So that is 68 at the moment.

-So that wouldn't be enough.

-So not enough.

-No.

'Another couple of minutes in the frying pan

'and the beef burger is at 75 degrees -

'enough to kill any harmful bacteria that might be lurking around.'

-It's now cooked.

-It's now cooked.

'Next, it's the good old British banger.

'With recent reports suggesting that one in ten

'could be carrying Hepatitis E,

'should we now be avoiding those as well?'

With sausages I do think they are hard to cook all the way through

-unless you are doing them very, very slowly.

-Yeah.

I think slow is the key because if you brown them very quickly

on the outside they may not be cooked in the middle.

'Recent advice is that sausages need to be cooked

'to at least 70 degrees throughout, for at least two minutes.'

-It's cooked.

-It's cooked.

And finally - beef.

The headlines would have us believe that TB has infected our meat,

but nonetheless, we're still buying it and taking it home.

But here again cooking it right should do the trick.

The thing with the steak is that it doesn't really matter what

the temperature is of that, because as long as it's seared all over...

Any bacteria that might be on the outside will be killed it,

-is that the theory?

-Yeah, that's right.

Basically, you're looking at using the temperature of the oil

-to kill any bacteria on the outside.

-Yeah.

Well, I suppose it is reassuring to know that any bacteria on the meat

can be so effectively dealt with, although I must admit

I hadn't realised quite how thoroughly some meats

need to be cooked to make sure that they don't do us any harm.

How do you react to the accusation that meat that's likely to have TB

or E. coli or something in it,

gets as far as the home, or hospitals or schools or anywhere?

In an ideal world it wouldn't.

At the moment we haven't been able to control it further down

the food chain. We're sort of accepting that it's going to get

mucky in the abattoir and that the end product is dirty.

But I do know that an awful lot of work is being done

by the Food Standards Agency to try to investigate ways of reducing

the risk of contamination further down the chain,

so that we end up with a cleaner product at this end.

Of course all of this does beg the question - why is meat that carries

any potential health risk whatsoever making it through to schools,

restaurants, hospitals, and indeed our own homes?

Well, that's exactly the question we put to the Food Standards Agency.

We are confident that health risks from bovine TB in meat

in the UK are low. Our inspectors are there on hand and they

inspect all animals before they're slaughtered and inspect carcasses

at the end of the process to make sure that they have been produced

in a hygienic way, that they're fit for human consumption,

and only then do they apply the health mark which says

that carcass is fit for consumption.

But should we be concerned that some supermarkets don't sell

certain meats cleared for the food chain?

It's a commercial decision for any of the supermarkets

or other retailers to decide what they will and won't carry.

That might be about things like whether the meat

is from TB reactors, whether it's sourced from Britain or Ireland

or from other countries, and those are just essentially

commercial decisions.

What we're very clear about is that there's a very low health risk

from bovine TB from meat in the UK.

However low, the risk of catching serious bugs from our meat

remains a very real one, so the Food standards agency has

some clear advice on how to treat your meat when you get it home.

We're very active in reminding people about the four C's of hygiene

in the home, so around not just cooking things properly

but chilling and keeping food cool where it's meant to be cool,

cleaning, washing your hands before and after preparing food,

and making sure you clean knives and chopping boards and other utensils

in very hot water. And also avoiding cross contamination

by simple methods like not washing your poultry before you cook it.

There always will be bugs on and in meat,

and that's why it's important to treat food with some respect,

and enjoy it when you've cooked it.

Still to come on Rip Off Britain...

With the horsemeat scandal a thing of the past,

how has it changed the way we shop?

I changed whether I was buying processed meat,

I tend to buy fresh meat now.

Now earlier in the programme we investigated the UK's biggest cause

of food poisoning - campylobacter.

The number of infections is at an all-time high

with 22,000 people ending up in hospital every year,

and it does seem that in almost all of those cases the bug

has come from the raw chicken that we get in the shops.

So why is it there? And shouldn't there be a way of getting rid of it

before we buy it?

When it comes to food, there are plenty of people who've

handled it even before it hits the shop shelves.

But when the majority of chicken for sale is likely to be infected

with a nasty food poisoning bug, then that's a bit more unsettling.

So who - in the chain from farm to fork - is to blame?

Campylobacter in chicken starts on the farm,

which makes the poultry industry the first place to come for answers.

Are they doing enough to get rid of it?

We spend millions of pounds on different initiatives

to reduce the level of campylobacter.

It's something that our members are absolutely committed to

dealing with and we are looking forward to making some good progress

in the near future on the reduction of those campylobacter levels.

The problem is that progress is not being made.

I mean nearly half a million people had the infection last year,

so it's to worrying proportions now with very little concrete evidence

coming through in terms of stopping it or controlling it,

so what are you doing?

Well, there's a lot of initiatives taking place right the way

across the whole food supply chain, from the farm transport networks,

food processing sites, retailers and packaging,

and ultimately, also, that involves the consumer,

because everybody has a responsibility for safe food.

And there are clear consumer instructions on all

poultry products, like safe handling about making sure the product

is cooked thoroughly.

But then it's the cart and the horse, isn't it?

You're shoving that onto the consumer and saying,

"Well, the consumer can deal with that."

I mean, surely you should be dealing with this at source,

at poultry farms to try and eliminate it.

Absolutely. And we're absolutely committed to doing that.

We're looking at on farm biosecurity.

Campylobacter is a naturally occurring bacteria,

it is everywhere in the environment.

But we're doing everything we can on-farm with bio security,

we're looking at how poultry is transported, we're looking at how

it is processed, and at every stage we're exploring initiatives

to reduce the level of campylobacter before it reaches the retailer.

But are you frustrated by it that you're not making any headway?

I think we're all frustrated about it.

I think, unlike other bacteria,

campylobacter is a very complex organism.

It's extremely successful in mutating and changing

and working in the natural environment.

There's not going to be a silver bullet that sorts this problem out.

And that silver bullet has proved elusive for the scientists

who are battling with the bug in the lab.

Campylobacter is a big challenge in public health terms.

One of the ways of controlling campylobacter is trying to keep it

out of chicken sheds in the first place, but that's no mean feat.

It's a difficult thing to do.

I think industry is trying very hard. Nobody wants to be selling

a product that might make people ill.

I think they're trying very hard to control it.

I think what they're looking for is the scientist to be able to

tell them what to do.

So the scientists are scratching their heads,

and the poultry industry say that

they're doing everything they possibly can.

And yet still there seems to be no change in the numbers

of people that are affected by campylobacter.

Now, the Food Standards Agency,

which is funded by the taxpayer, is responsible for food safety

and hygiene right across the UK.

And so you'd assume that they would have the power

to be able to bang a few heads together.

But even they seem stuck on where to go.

In the year 2000 when the Food Standards Agency was set up,

it made a specific pledge to tackle campylobacter.

Then in 2003 they published a strategy to deal with it.

And two years later there was yet another target

aiming for a 50% reduction.

But then, in 2010, the FSA found campylobacter was present

in around 65% of raw shop-bought chicken.

So none of the FSA's strategies have worked.

I would say you're not doing enough,

that you've actually failed to control this or even to

help control it.

We've been trying very hard, but we haven't found the solution yet

and we're continuing, we're renewing our strategy for controlling

campylobacter, but it's something which people around the world

have been working very hard on,

and our own industry is working on it with us.

But it's proving to be very difficult.

You see, to me it all sounds like talk, talk, talk, talk, talk,

you know? You're admitting in your reports that half a million people

have it every year almost.

I mean, surely there has to be more clamping down,

faster and stronger on the industry?

The industry is a very cost sensitive one,

and so there are many things that we could do that would make them change

and do certain things.

But that would add cost to the cost of the chicken,

which would add to the cost for consumers.

But should the poultry industry not be sharing some of the cost?

I mean, why should the cost either be at your end or my end?

Why don't they bear the cost?

Well, our chief executive's been very clear

that the responsibility for fixing this is with the industry.

They are the people that are producing it,

they're marketing it, they're selling it,

and so we're looking for them to take the initiative

to make this happen.

Is there any suggestion at all that you might force the industry,

or indeed the retailer,

to actually declare that this is prevalent in chicken?

It's something we're constantly thinking about,

but there's a very fine line between asking people to put information on

their packaging and the impact that will have on consumers.

We don't want to dent people's confidence in food

or in the retail system.

No-one that we spoke to could put their finger on a solution

to the levels of infection.

But they were all agreed on one thing, and that is

that it's down to us as consumers to tackle it ourselves.

Observe scrupulous kitchen hygiene.

Clean as you go along.

Wash our hands after we've handled raw poultry.

Make sure you cook your chicken properly,

because cooking your chicken thoroughly

kills campylobacter completely.

So in the absence of a solution further up the food chain,

here are some golden rules on how to handle that potentially dangerous

chicken when it hits your kitchen counter.

Practising good hygiene in the kitchen is absolutely essential

when you're preparing any kind of food, but particularly with chicken

if you really do want to avoid any kind of food poisoning.

When you're unpacking chicken,

you don't actually have to wash it, because if you do that

you're likely to spread any possible germs around.

So once you have actually prepared it and put it in a pot,

or in a pan or wherever,

then what is essential if that you wash your hands

with hot soapy water, you wash the chopping board.

And finally treat your chicken with respect.

Cook it really well. You don't want any pink meat in the middle.

When you skewer the flesh, the juices should run absolutely clear.

And make sure you serve it piping hot.

So for now, proper cooking

and good food hygiene are the only way to beat campylobacter.

But let's hope that it isn't too long before someone finds a way

to stop it being in our meat in the first place.

When you're out shopping

and you see the packaging on your favourite brand declares that

it's bigger and better than ever,

should you immediately reach for your wallet?

Well, not necessarily so according to PR expert Jonathan Gabay,

because it could be nothing more than a very clever marketing ploy

to ensure that that particular product grabs your attention.

There's more to the design than may first meet the eye.

Copywriters, art directors, marketers spend a lot of time,

money and imagination getting it just right

so that packaging is going to be just enough to tip you over the edge

and actually buy the product.

They go so far with this that they also look at stuff like

tactile packaging. How does the product feel?

If it's going to be something for a fresh food

or maybe even a frozen food,

you get a tantalising glimpse into the food within the cardboard.

It's all there to help them ensure that you are not just willing,

but you are absolutely chomping on the bits to actually

part with your cash.

Jonathan says the carefully chosen words on the packaging

may not mean what you think.

Let's take the word "bigger."

Now, if I was to trying to sell you a packet of my cornflakes

and I put on it "bigger," what would you think?

Take this particular cornflake.

Is it bigger? Is it more dense? Is it thicker?

And so on and so forth.

Or am I referring to the packaging alone,

that you're going to get more cornflakes within the packaging?

When it comes to food, things aren't always as straightforward

as they seem. But if you've bought a product

and you feel short-changed by a promise that turns out not to be

what you think, there are no fixed rules on all this,

so it isn't easy to argue that you've been misled.

It boils down to this - you, the consumer have got to substantiate

why you feel that you would have been misled,

and myself as the brand, I've got to show how I did substantiate

what I meant by the word "bigger."

After all, the devil is always in the small details.

You can find more savvy shopping tips on our website...

A year's now gone by since we all woke up to headlines alerting us

to the fact that horsemeat had made its way into a number of products

on the shelves of some of the big supermarkets,

including a Tesco beef burger

which turned out to be nearly a third horse.

So, 12 months on, what's changed,

and has enough REALLY been done to stop the same thing happening again?

-GEORGE ALAGIAH:

-Horsemeat found in burgers sold in British and Irish supermarkets,

Tesco, Iceland and several others are taking products off the shelves.

It was the scandal that rocked Europe...

-NEWSREADER:

-16 countries including Britain have been warned...

..disgraced some of the biggest names in the food business...

We want to apologise to our customers,

we are as sorry as they are.

..and changed how some of us shopped.

We look twice now, and we are avoiding places

which we think will have it.

The Food Standards Agency has ordered all companies

to test their beef products...

..after horsemeat was found in its beef burgers in Britain and Ireland.

In January 2013, the Food Safety Authority of Ireland

discovered horsemeat in beef burgers supplied to supermarkets including

Tesco, Iceland, ALDI, Dunnes Stores and Lidl.

Within days, ten million beef burgers

had been taken off supermarket shelves around the UK.

And over the coming weeks,

the scandal spread, as horse DNA was found in ready meals too.

Some Findus lasagnes are found to contain 100% horsemeat.

-Traces of horsemeat...

-They contained horsemeat...

Scandal over horsemeat being passed off as beef...

We'll have all the very latest developments

on this from our correspondents.

The horsemeat scandal had an immediate impact,

making many people reassess where and how they bought their meat.

And more and more of us are turning back

to our local, small independent butcher.

Definitely got some rabbits, yeah.

Danny Lidgate is the fifth generation of Lidgates

to run his family's butcher shop.

So, Danny, what difference did the horsemeat scandal

have on your trade?

Initially we noticed a big boom in sales,

but we did find a lot of new customers coming to the shop

and expressing how horrified and angry they were at supermarkets,

and they felt like they had been let down.

When they came to you, they were reacting against the horsemeat thing

in supermarkets, but have they stayed with you as customers?

Yes, we think they have, we seem to see a lot of, our pie sales

are still very strong, all through the summertime we were selling

a lot of burgers and sausages, so we think they have stayed with us.

A lot of the horsemeat problems were budget problems, where people

wouldn't be able to have a budget to buy the best possible products

they could afford, so we've done some cheaper cuts of meat,

we've also changed our sausages and done some supplying for schools

and other outlets who want a really good product but maybe not

quite as high specification as our standard products.

Obviously everyone's got different budgets,

but we want to serve everybody.

It wasn't just high-end butchers like Danny whose businesses

were boosted by the horsemeat scandal. In the first month

after the discovery was made, butchers right across the board

saw a 20% boost in business and a 30% increase in sales of burgers.

This change in shopping habits was tracked by consumer group Which.

The horsemeat saga had a huge impact on consumer confidence.

We found that confidence in the food industry dropped by a quarter

immediately after the scare. People expect

to be able to rely on the labels,

but two-thirds of people said that they didn't feel that the government

was doing enough to ensure that the information on food labels is true.

60% of people Which surveyed in the month

after the scandal said they had changed the meat they buy.

We found that people were generally trying

to buy higher quality products.

Three in ten said they were no longer eating processed meat.

Some people were buying more meat from butchers,

or eating more food that didn't contain meat.

So overall it highlighted that people had lost confidence

in the industry's ability to make sure that they could

trust food labels and be sure they knew exactly what they were getting.

In the aftermath of the scandal,

the government summoned retailers and meat distributors to

explain how horsemeat had got into products that were labelled as beef.

They also ordered widespread testing of meat products

from across Europe, and launched two enquiries into what had gone wrong.

The biggest enquiry won't report until the summer,

and for the meantime at least, horsemeat is out of the news.

So now the dust has settled, have we gone back to our old ways?

To find out, we asked some Manchester shoppers

if they've changed how and where they buy their meat.

Bit cautious with my meat, so I changed.

It didn't really bother me too much, to be honest.

Most of the time we buy meat from a butchers anyway, that we trust.

Our team stopped 65 people in the centre of Manchester

and asked them firstly if they'd changed the types of meat

they bought immediately after the horsemeat affair, and secondly,

if they had stuck with that change for good.

Of the 65 people we asked, only a third - 21 people -

said that they changed

how they shopped last year.

That's quite a contrast to the higher figures

sometimes bandied about, although ours aren't in any way scientific,

and are just what you told us on the streets.

14 people - 1 in 5 of our shoppers -

said they had started buying less processed food.

Ten people said they bought more

fresh meat from butchers.

And five people said they stopped shopping in supermarkets

linked to the scandal altogether.

But a year on from the horsemeat scare, have the shoppers

we surveyed continued to buy from their butcher?

Yeah. I do buy my meat from the supermarket as well,

but obviously I'm cautious where I buy it from.

I changed whether I was buying processed meat,

I tend to buy fresh meat now.

When we asked the 21 people who'd changed their shopping habits

whether they'd kept it up, ten of them - almost half -

said that, one year on, they still buy less processed food.

Which probably isn't good news for the supermarkets

and meat processors affected by the scandal,

who've invested millions in auditing their suppliers and testing meat

so that the food chain can't be affected like this again.

Testing meat can be an expensive and drawn-out business.

But this company reckons it's found a way to get results quicker

AND slash the cost of the tests, so that manufacturers

and supermarkets can spot the difference

between horse and beef in seconds.

So what we're trying to do this morning is make sure that the

beef we bought today is actually beef.

After the horsemeat scandal broke, technology firm Oxford Instruments

joined forces with the Institute of Food Research

to find a more effective and efficient way to test meat.

The technique used is the same as used in an MRI scan,

only compact and on the bench.

This system will allow us to be able to

identify different types of meat very quickly.

In up to two minutes.

Instead of testing the DNA in meat,

this instrument analyses the fat inside it.

Each individual meat has a different fat content and this will

therefore allow us to identify which meat we are looking at.

It's effectively a fingerprint, and that will allow us

to be able to show whether the beef was beef or something else.

The technique is still in development,

so it can't yet identify rogue meats in processed foods,

but the team here believe it's just a matter of time before they can.

And you'll see on this screen that the system has

very quickly picked up that that sample was indeed beef.

Currently, DNA testing costs hundreds of pounds a time,

but this technique could cost a fraction of that.

And if it means more meat can easily be tested more quickly,

it's hoped that will lessen the chances of something that we

don't expect making it onto our plates.

We believe the Pulsar will allow the consumers to have

more confidence in the food that they purchase,

and also allow the users in the food industry to be able to verify

the meat content and therefore allow them to increase their confidence.

That should be music to the ears of the shoppers

we spoke to in Manchester.

When we asked which was more important to them -

the price of their meat or knowing where it came from,

two-thirds chose provenance over price.

The product is more important than the price.

Yeah, I'd prefer to buy from in this country.

Definitely, I'd pay a premium to know where it's come from.

Price is definitely more important.

Well, I think I would pay a premium

if I knew where it was coming from and that.

There is an attempt at European level to help consumers

know just that.

France and a handful of other EU countries want tough regulations

which would force manufacturers of ready meals to state on the packet

EXACTLY what meat was inside, and crucially, where it came from.

But French ministers have accused the Brits of dragging their feet,

reportedly saying the UK is "being difficult, as always."

The UK government insists it does want to give consumers

more information, but is worried about the burden on

food businesses of additional labelling laws.

But maybe there is another lesson from the French we should be taking.

On the other side of the Channel, horsemeat clearly sold as such

is a regular buy for many shoppers like these.

Over here, one of Britain's most prominent horse lovers has suggested

maybe we too should think again.

Should we be considering a real market for horsemeat

and would that reduce the number of welfare cases?

If there was a real value in the horsemeat sector.

I chuck that out for what it's worth,

because I think it needs a debate.

Farmers here on Dartmoor despair what to do with horses that

nobody will buy at auction. Selling them for meat would provide,

they say, a humane solution.

General public won't buy the meat which is the

healthiest in the country because the supermarkets

won't put it on the shelves. There is a market out there.

Even the RSPCA doesn't object.

The RSPCA is not against in principle the eating of horses,

however, it has to be done according to good welfare principles.

But is there any chance we might give horsemeat a go

if - unlike those lasagnes last year - we knew exactly what

we were getting and it might actually help care for horses?

No, but if I didn't know I'd probably enjoy it,

but I wouldn't consider eating it, no.

I would consider eating horsemeat, yeah.

There's less fat in it, as far as I can remember,

cos it's a long time since I've had it!

They're pets. I don't consider them a food source.

We've been to France many times,

we spend quite a lot of time there, it's common culture there,

so, yeah, I think you've got to

look at how the animals are cared for

and what the provenance of them is,

but if you treat it as we treat beef, I don't see a problem.

We've just been to Australia and eaten kangaroo,

so why not horsemeat?

Whilst some still feel eating horse is a step too far, it does seem

last year's headlines have caused all of us

to think about our meat more carefully, especially when

it comes to what it is and where it has come from.

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

more of your stories, and not just about food.

Are you confused over your bills,

or just trying to wade your way through never-ending small print?

When they sit you down to sign up for things they don't really give

you the chance or the time to read through all of that small print.

Maybe you're unsure what to do when you discover that you've

lost out, and that great deal has ended up costing you money.

These people have ripped me off well and truly.

Or you might have a cautionary tale of your own,

and want to share the mistakes you made with us.

You can always write to us at...

Or you can send us an e-mail to...

The Rip Off team is ready,

willing and waiting to investigate your stories.

We eat an serious amount of meat in the UK,

which is probably why scare stories

about what's in it or where it's from

continue to pop up in the news so often,

and why it's really important that we know as much as we possibly can

about the quality of what we're eating.

And not just the quality, but also the safety!

But for all the controversies about meat

that fill the papers and airwaves,

there are also a lot of misconceptions.

And with all the scrutiny and regulation around today,

it's probably fair to say that, provided no-one cuts corners,

the overall standard of what we're eating

is generally a lot higher than ever.

I'd go along with that actually. And that positive note

feels like a good spot to leave the programme for today.

We hope we've given you food for thought

when it comes to making choices about what you buy and eat.

And we'll be back to investigate more of your stories very soon.

-So until then, may I just say - good shopping.

-And enjoy your cooking.

-From all of us on the team, bye-bye.

-Bye-bye.