Health Supermarket Shopping Secrets

Britain's supermarket landscape has been turned on its head.

Over the last few years,

how and where we shop has changed beyond recognition.

The discounters, Lidl and Aldi, are the rising stars,

and the traditional supermarkets

have had to raise their game to compete.

We have more choice than ever before,

and the days of loyalty to one store are gone.

But what does this intense competition actually mean

for the food in our trolleys?

'We're going behind the scenes with the country's leading supermarkets...'

Yeah!

'..to find out how they're using the latest technology and science

'to stay ahead of the competition...'

Shop!

'..and keep up with our rapidly changing demands.'

I'm Gregg Wallace.

I've worked in the food industry all my life.

I want to investigate the hidden ways supermarkets

produce our everyday foods.

And I'm Babita Sharma,

a news journalist who grew up behind the counter of a corner shop.

I want to know the tricks of the trade being used to win our cash.

We're looking at the latest tactics in the supermarket wars.

This time, it's the biggest battlefield of all...

health.

'From taking on our taste buds...'

I can't believe that, it's almost unpleasant.

'..to bending the rules on food labels.'

So we're being duped, we're being fooled, are we?

Well, we're being manipulated.

'Delivering on the latest health trends...

You've got an army of courgette stabbers.

'..and even creating a hi-tech healthy booze.'

Now, that is straight out of Willy Wonka, mate!

We're going to get the inside track on how the supermarkets bring us

the food we buy.

And what we find may change the way you shop.

As a nation, we're becoming far more conscious of our health.

In fact, a third of all the food purchases

we make are driven by health.

And our health is big business.

Studies show almost three quarters of us will pay more for food

if we think it will be better for us.

So it's no surprise that the supermarkets are getting on board.

I want to know what lengths our supermarkets will go to to give us

healthier versions of our favourite foods, and more importantly,

do they taste any good?

When it comes to eating healthily,

we all know the foods we SHOULD be putting in our trolleys.

Walk around any supermarket

and you'll see the shelves are packed with healthy food options

vying for your attention.

What won't jump out at you, though, are these - burgers.

They're one of our favourite foods -

we eat more than 800 million burgers a year.

So, if a supermarket could make this junk food more of a health food,

there's a big prize at stake.

Frozen food gurus Iceland

already have 30% of the frozen burger market.

But they're hoping to grab even more, with a healthier burger.

Well, it's a very bold move to mess with a formula

that up until now has proved really successful for Iceland,

and I'm fascinated to see what it is they're up to.

Like all the supermarkets, Iceland have an experimental kitchen,

where, behind closed doors, they develop new products.

Here in Flintshire,

Head Development Chef Neil Nugent has spent four months working on

a secret recipe to tackle one of a burger's most unhealthy ingredients.

Kind of looking at a healthier burger.

You know, it's all about salt, to be honest with you.

We're trying to keep the really low salt

but have a massive flavoured burger.

-Healthier?

-Yeah.

-Not necessarily healthy,

because you've got to put fat in there, right?

Yeah, we're focused on the salt here,

trying to keep the salt really low.

Too much salt is known to increase the risk of heart disease,

and yet many premium burgers contain almost 30%

of our total recommended daily amount.

Mate, you and I cook.

If you take the salt out, it won't taste of anything.

That's right, because all the burgers that win the taste tests

tend to have a bit more salt in,

and they don't hit the FSA salt target.

'In 2017,

'the strictest ever salt targets set by the Food Standards Agency,

'or FSA, came into force.

'But Neil thinks he's found a way to hit the target and still deliver

'the salty flavour we're used to.'

So, what is it that you know

that every other burger manufacturer doesn't?

We've found a magic ingredient, and it's called miso powder.

Miso that you get... The Japanese condiment?

Yeah, it's from the soya bean,

-which you'll be kind of familiar with.

-Right, OK.

Miso powder is made from fermented soya beans,

and is often used to give Japanese cooking a rich, savoury taste.

That flavour...

gives a salty flavour, without actually being salt.

Yes, yeah.

It has some salt content, but not a huge amount.

'The secret to miso's salty taste is a chemical called glutamate,

'that stimulates the tongue's salt receptors,

'fooling our brains into thinking there's far more salt

'in something than there actually is.

'His burger mix still needs a small amount of normal salt

'to balance the taste.'

That tiny bit of salt...

..is going to go in all of that.

'Neil may have hit upon what has long been

'food manufacturers' Holy Grail -

'a substitute for salt.'

Not cheap, though? Not as cheap as salt?

No, it's not, it's not.

And that's an issue,

but we don't need a huge amount of it.

What's in it for you, why bother?

It's worth millions.

'The British burger market is worth £3 billion a year,

'but to grab a bigger slice of it,

'Neil's low-salt burger has to deliver on flavour,

'not just health.'

Out of this kitchen, no-one else has tasted it,

so you're my guinea pig,

so I'm hoping you'll like it!

It's meaty too, right?

Oh, yeah, it's meaty.

And if you asked me and I didn't know,

I would say there's a generous helping of salt in there.

A few weeks later, Neil thinks he's perfected the recipe,

and his miso burger is having its first factory trial run,

in Yorkshire.

Neil's challenge now is to see if he can take his prototype burger

and turn that into a mass-produced product that everybody can buy.

-This is burger-land.

-This is where you make millions of burgers?

Absolutely, yeah.

'The responsibility of trying to recreate Neil's burger

'on an industrial scale falls to the factory's innovation manager,

'Pippa Hawkins.'

This is the first time ever off a production line, right?

Absolutely. So we've made this on the bench, we made it in development,

but this is the first time it's going on the big kit.

-Follow me this way.

-It is a big day, isn't it?

-PIPPA CHUCKLES

-It really is a big day.

'Scaling up Neil's burger recipe

'requires hundreds of kilos of frozen beef

'and an eye-watering number of onions.'

Anybody can put onions, salt, miso and pepper in a burger.

But not to the Iceland recipe,

cos only I know that, Pippa knows that.

Right, right, OK, it's the ratio of those ingredients?

-Yes, it certainly is.

-And that's the three months,

four months of effort we put in to get to this stage.

You're kidding me. It took you four months to get the right mix?

Yeah.

'It still looks like a lot of salt to me,

'but because of all the miso going in,

'it's a fraction of the salt they'd usually use.'

There it goes.

There it goes.

'So, will Neil's secret recipe pay off?

'And will Iceland's customers really want to buy a burger

'full of miso powder?

'I'll be back later to find out.'

The health food market is growing at four times the rate

of the general food market.

So in the battle to win our business,

the supermarkets are quick to pounce on new health trends.

And there's one mega trend

that's already worth more than half a billion a year,

and is growing fast.

If your supermarket is anything like this,

the shelves will be full of what they call free-from foods.

It's ice cream without cream, or breads without wheat flour.

Thousands of us are ditching dairy and gluten because we think

it's better for us.

But is it? Free-from started as food for people with allergies and intolerances.

Now, almost a third of us are buying it,

even though only one in seven of us have a medical reason.

Whether it's really any healthier is up for debate.

But with sales jumping 20% in the last year,

all the supermarkets want in.

Sainsbury's latest move is to try and be

the first supermarket in Britain to make a free-from version

of our bestselling ready meal.

Lasagne. It's a firm favourite with us Brits,

with its gluten-based pasta, ragu and cheesy bechamel sauce.

So how on earth do you make one

entirely free from gluten and dairy

and ensure that its textures are the same, the flavours,

and, of course, the taste?

It all starts in Gravina in Puglia, south-east Italy.

Sainsbury's product developer Alexa Masterson-Jones

is here to check on the most important ingredient

of her free-from lasagne.

-Nice to meet you.

-Good to see you.

I'm here today to look at the production

of our gluten-free pasta sheets,

really to monitor the quality

and check that we're really happy with it

before it goes into our meals.

This is one of just a few factories in the world

to make pasta without wheat.

And manager Michele Andriani is the gluten-free pasta master.

Why is it so difficult to make gluten-free pasta?

The most important thing is to substitute the power of the gluten.

'Gluten is the long stretchy protein

'that gives traditional wheat pasta its structure.'

-It's the thing that sticks everything together.

-It's a glue.

'So how do you make pasta that still holds together without gluten?

'Michele's solution is a special recipe of cornflour,

'brown rice and quinoa.'

It does feel very different from, you know, your typical plain flour.

It does, doesn't it? But how does this become dough?

'This mix doesn't naturally become a dough like wheat-based flour.

'So they use a machine that can force it,

'using extreme pressure and heat.'

So this machine is almost like giant hands,

doing that process of grounding down,

mixing with boiling water,

the steam, and then creating the dough?

Exactly.

'They have just two minutes to roll it out into pasta sheets

'before the sticky dough will harden again.'

And that's what you see -

huge lasagne sheets.

So, here it is.

And it's really stretchy, isn't it?

Would you give it to your mum?

You know what, I gave once, but I didn't tell her it was gluten-free.

-She did not recognise.

-She didn't know?

-No.

-She was like, "Mamma mia, this is perfect."

It's a pasta, yeah.

Do you know, I love the fact

that food producers will go to great lengths to come up

with a solution to satisfy our demand for free-from food.

But I'm still not convinced Alexa's free-from lasagne

will ever taste like the real thing.

Later on, I'm going to put it to the test.

Delivering healthy food isn't always easy for the supermarkets.

On the one hand, we say we want to be healthier,

but on the other, we hate it

when they mess with our favourite staples

because we worry the healthy versions won't taste any good.

So, the supermarkets have come up with a really sneaky way

of making our food healthier without us even noticing.

I'm at Tesco's private food academy

to meet head product developer Kate Ewart.

She wants to see if I can spot the difference

between two bowls of cornflakes.

We've got two different products -

one from 1998, and then one from today -

to look at the different kind of taste in recipes

and how it's changed over time.

-Can I taste?

-Yes.

-Today's cornflake.

-Yep.

-1998 cornflake.

Cornflake. And from 1998?

Yep.

That is full of salt. That's quite remarkable.

I can't believe that. It's almost unpleasant.

So this one here shows us what we did used to have

in our 500g of cereal...

'Almost 14g of salt per box.'

..and this one now shows us what we've got today.

'Just 4g of salt per box.'

Oh, my word.

Absolutely. I mean, I'm surprised by this.

'That's more than a 70% reduction in the last 20 years.'

Why did we have so much salt in there in the first place?

People use salt for flavour.

They had a lot of salt in a lot of products that they ate.

It would have been the flavour that everybody thought that they wanted,

but when you taste it now, that tastes of cornflakes

and that tastes of salt.

'By the late 1990s, with clear evidence of the health risks

'of too much salt,

'supermarkets were feeling Government pressure to act.

'But taking salt out of our food presented its own challenges.'

I think when you start to say that something's healthier for you,

the immediate thing people think, and the customer thinks is,

they've got to compromise on taste in order to have that.

So they think that because we've taken something out

and we've made it better for you,

that actually, it's not going to taste quite as nice.

'Their solution was what the supermarkets call reformulation -

'gradually changing the ingredients of many everyday foods

'without us even noticing.'

If we took it out all at once, then you'd clearly notice the difference,

and customers wouldn't buy it. I mean, we've gone down the route

of making sure that we do health by stealth,

so we've taken it out gradually without people noticing

and without people thinking they've got to compromise on taste.

We want to make this healthier,

we want you to know we're making it healthier,

we don't want you to know we're making it healthier,

cos you might not buy it.

-Is that right?

-Yep, absolutely.

-GREGG LAUGHS

-It's a dilemma.

Well, it's one thing me trying it out,

but what I really want to know is,

what does the Tesco customer of 2017

make of the cornflakes from 1998?

Am I going to need a time machine?

-Do you eat cornflakes?

-Sometimes.

Open your palm, I'll put some in your palm.

It's all right, I've got some.

Tell me the difference in flavour with these.

Something is different.

Those ones taste like they've got less sugar or something.

They're a bit earthier.

I don't know. A bit saltier. Yeah.

These don't taste right at all, do they?

-No.

-These have got a load more salt in.

Oh!

And it's not just Tesco who have been targeting salt.

In the last ten years,

Sainsbury's have cut the salt in their bolognese sauce by 19%,

Morrisons have lowered it in their bread by 25%,

and Asda have cut 40% out of their tomato soup.

Well, it is a clever thing to do,

to change a whole nation's taste buds

and reduce the salt so slowly that we didn't even notice it happening.

Now, the supermarkets may well take credit for this,

but I've got a feeling,

if it wasn't for strict Government guidelines,

we may all still be eating salty breakfast cereal.

In our efforts to be healthy,

we fill our trolleys with all the usual suspects.

Fruit and veg,

low-fat, sugar free.

But one of the biggest things we could do for our health

is cut down on the booze.

It's been linked to everything from liver disease to heart problems.

You know, us Brits have got a bit of a reputation

when it comes to liking a drink.

But actually, we're now drinking almost 20% less

than we were ten years ago.

And one in five us is completely teetotal.

So, from mocktails to booze-free beer,

sales of alcohol-free drinks are booming.

I don't mind alcohol-free beer.

I think it's always been quite passable.

But there's one drink that nobody seems to have cracked,

and that is alcohol-free wine.

And there's a good reason for that -

it's really difficult.

With the market for alcohol-free wine expected to grow by 50%

in the next five years, everybody wants in.

And Tesco's Master of Wine, James Davis, thinks his suppliers

have something that could put them ahead of the game.

So, alcohol consumption generally on the decline as customers just become

more health-conscious.

Nonetheless, they want that sort of aspirational,

celebratory feel within a drink.

Why is it difficult to make alcohol-free wine?

It's all about the sort of balance and the sort of harmony of all

the different components - the acid, the fruit, the alcohol.

So you take the alcohol out of wine

and it becomes a very different product.

To find out if you can make an alcohol-free wine

that still tastes like wine,

I'm joining James on a trip to see his suppliers in Germany.

This factory is one of the biggest producers of alcohol-free wine in Europe.

Head of operations is Stefan Marx.

Oh, my word.

How high is that?

More than 20 metres.

How much liquid is in here?

-What do you think?

-No, I can't even guess.

I can't get bigger than a bottle.

OK. It's about 250,000 litres for each.

'That's over 65 million bottles worth of wine in this room.

'But, surprisingly, the alcohol-free wine starts life as alcoholic wine.'

It's a normal Chardonnay.

'The Chardonnay is fed through a network of pipes

'and into Stefan's secret weapon.'

Now, that is straight out of Willy Wonka, mate.

'This 18-metre high glass super-still

'was developed with the help of a local university,

'and it's the key to their alcohol-free wine.'

This is the secret to take the alcohol out of the blend

that we did before.

We are going to cook it, so that the alcohol can go out.

So, these little tubes, they've got the wine in,

but the bigger tube here,

that's got hot water in?

Yeah, exactly.

Ah!

Yeah, it's toasty!

So we are cooking wine, really, to burn off the alcohol.

Yep.

'But heating up wine can cause a big problem with the taste -

'one reason why many alcohol-free wines have such a bad reputation.'

The cooking of the alcohol,

even the aromas and the flavours went out,

and we destroyed the whole structure of the wine,

and we don't want that.

'Stefan thinks he's overcome this problem

'with one major innovation.'

We've got a vacuum inside.

-A vacuum?

-A vacuum.

A tube with the air taken out?

Exactly. With the vacuum,

we can lower the cooking temperature of the alcohol

from 78 to 32 degrees.

Everything we want to keep inside the wine stays inside the wine.

So you reckon you're keeping a lot of the flavour

because you're not heating the wine up as much?

-Is that right?

-That is spot on.

'By the time it travels all the way down the 18-metre still,

'the alcohol content has dropped from 11.5%

'to just 0.05%.

'So, where has all the alcohol gone?'

The alcoholic wine is floating down

and the vapour, which goes up,

is taking the alcohol out of the wine.

The liquid without alcohol drops down?

-Yeah.

-And the alcohol goes up there as steam?

Yep.

'But what I want to know is, can I have some?'

-This is it, Gregg.

-This is our alcohol?

This is our alcohol. It's more than 82% by volume.

-Can we taste that?

-Are you sure you want?

-Will we give it a go?

-It's very intense.

Oh! It's coming down here.

-That's warm.

-Yeah.

'The extracted alcohol doesn't go to waste -

'it's turned into brandy and sold locally.

'The alcohol-free wine costs £3.50 a bottle.

'So how does the taste compare with the original blend?'

Ready.

-Cheers.

-L'chaim.

Not bad.

Bit more aroma in it.

Bit of that sweetness there.

-Not a bad effort.

-No, I agree.

The aroma, the smell, is very, very similar.

It tastes a little bit sweeter to me.

However, the non-alcohol wine is a really, really nice drink.

It just doesn't still taste

quite like a glass of wine, but it's not bad.

It's all very well having healthier foods,

but how do you know what's good and what's bad?

The average supermarket stocks over 30,000 products,

all bombarding us with nutritional information.

So, does the packaging help us make healthier choices,

or is it just trying to get into our wallets?

Food producers are not allowed to make specific health claims

about products without evidence to back it up.

But there are ways to bend the rules

to make foods look more healthy.

To find out the tricks of the trade,

I've come to Stratford-upon-Avon to meet Richard Hyde,

an expert in packaging law from the University of Nottingham.

So, we're being duped, we're being fooled, are we?

Well, we're being manipulated.

They're using the fact that we only spend a small amount of time

thinking about what products we're going to buy in the supermarkets.

We pick up on those words and we decide to buy it

because we think it's going to be healthy.

So, this product here says "good and counted".

"Good" isn't particularly a regulated term,

but it makes you think it's going

to be really, really good for you, doesn't it?

This one, as well.

This one says it's "nature",

it brings in the idea of naturalness.

And the packaging, as well, because all the images that they're using...

-Oh, look at it.

-It shows that you are in the wilderness here.

Absolutely. There's mountains, there's verdant meadows.

It makes you think, "Well, this is going to be great for me, isn't it?"

"No added nonsense" on this one here.

Now, of course, that's absolutely not a regulated term.

That's incredible!

Terms like "natural" and "good" are unregulated

and don't have to be based on any evidence of health benefits.

But there are other terms that are regulated by the Government

and have to be scientifically backed up.

So, do any of us know what those regulated terms mean,

or can we still be fooled?

We're putting it to the test with some fish.

We've got two types of salmon here.

Some say they're high in omega-3...

..and some say they're a source of omega-3.

'"High in" and "source of" are both regulated terms that sound similar,

'but mean very different things.'

The source of omega-3 or high in omega-3?

They're all the same.

Um... I hadn't really thought about it, to be honest.

-It's all the same.

-All the same?

-Yeah. Salmon's salmon.

'Clearly, lots of us just don't know the difference.

'But actually, one of these choices is far healthier.'

"High in omega-3" has at least twice as much omega-3 in as

"a source of omega-3" salmon.

So if you're really interested in buying things with omega-3 in it

you go for the "high in omega-3".

So, the "high in" is the winner, not the "source of".

-Did you know that?

-No.

-Had you ever thought about it before?

-No.

Does it make a difference to you?

No, cos I don't like salmon.

If you want to be sure of what you're getting,

here's some other regulated terms that you can trust.

Low-fat foods must have less than 3% fat.

Low-sugar must be less than 5% sugar.

And anything that says it's high in fibre

has to have at least 6g of fibre per 100g.

It's more than six months since Neil from Iceland started to develop

a healthy burger, using miso powder to reduce the salt.

He thinks he's cracked it,

but his burger can't launch until he knows if it can hold its own

on the supermarket shelves.

What they do now is a direct comparison

between their new product and the bestselling burgers on the market.

A tasting, tell it as it is, warts and all.

This looks like a tasting.

I know all about this.

It's either that or a kid's party.

'Neil and Pippa are joined by Ian Hughes,

'the factory's commercial manager.'

And we are going to test in terms of the texture, the flavour, the aroma.

So this is where we put our burger up against the best.

'The blind taste test pits the miso burger

'against five other premium burgers -

'four from major supermarkets and one from a celebrity chef.

'By using miso,

'Neil has created a premium burger with 25% less salt than average.

'But has he compromised on taste?'

We all nibble and we all write down our own comments, is that right?

-Absolutely. It's your opinion that counts.

-OK, let's tuck in.

Quite high on the beef taste.

-Yeah, very strong.

-Yeah.

Quite a lot of visual fat on the surface.

It's almost got a boiled veg flavour about it.

Do you know, I'm surprised there is that much difference between different burgers.

That one smells like baby food!

-Is it F?

-It certainly is.

-Yes, it is, absolutely.

-All right.

Well, I don't know how pleased you'll be, but that's my second favourite.

Cool. Second is OK.

-Is it?

-It's not the best, but it's OK.

My favourite, favourite, favourite was A.

I really, really liked it.

It was the most like eating beef.

'Burger A is more than twice as expensive as the miso burger,

'AND has more salt.

'Neil's burger scored highly, despite the lower salt.

'So it looks like his miso gamble might pay off.'

How does this compare to your artisan handmade original prototype?

Well, I think in flavour, it's there.

But will anybody buy it?

It's been nine months since Iceland started to develop

their reduced salt healthier burger.

The factory version's finally been signed off

and it's gone into full production.

And today, the first batch of burgers hits the store.

There we go.

Just come into store now.

-Hey.

-Here we are.

There she is.

-Great picture.

-Yep.

-Good-looking burger. Mate, that's a luxury item, isn't it?

-Yep.

Yeah, it's still good value. They're a pound a burger.

'Iceland's standard burgers are just 38p each.

'So the miso burger is their most expensive yet.'

This is a healthier item.

-Yep.

-Is this risky?

Very risky, yeah. I mean,

we did some independent taste tests against Waitrose and Marks & Spencer

and we won hands down.

But will it sell? I don't know. That's the risk.

Neil is cautiously confident,

but I want to know what the average Iceland customer

makes of his miso burger.

Listen, they've got a healthy one

-with miso in it.

-What's miso?

-Mushroom, innit?

-You don't know what that is?

-No.

-Miso?

-Yeah.

-No.

It's like a Japanese condiment. They're using that instead of salt.

Oh.

-Do you know what miso is?

-No.

Nobody does.

-Is it a sauce, dipping sauce?

-Yeah!

Would you buy a burger with less salt?

Yeah. That's what we look for.

Oh, yeah, if it had less salt in, I'd probably pay a pound for it,

instead of getting the cheaper burgers with higher salt in them.

I think it's a really interesting burger.

And a tonne of work has gone into it.

I mean, whether it works in the long-term, I don't know,

but the fact that Iceland think it's a goer just shows

how health-conscious we've all become.

It's 12 months since Alexa from Sainsbury's set out

to create the UK's first lasagne that is free from wheat and dairy.

Today, she's in Somerset to check on the very first factory run

with supplier Clive Woolley.

To make sure the lasagne is truly free-from,

Clive's team have had to build a dedicated production line.

The guys are ready,

they're just starting to kit it out now with the various ingredients

and components.

And after two weeks of travel,

a familiar ingredient has finally arrived.

-That's come all the way from Italy.

-That's really good.

But lasagne is about more than just pasta,

and recreating a creamy bechamel sauce without dairy

was an uphill struggle.

We looked at loads of different milks.

There was rice and oat. I've lost track of how many we looked at.

They can be quite dark in colour, which then isn't anywhere near

as appealing to eat.

They came up with a surprising answer.

The coconut milk not only worked the best,

but also didn't deliver any

of that coconut flavour I was so worried about.

They even managed to use coconut milk to create a cheesy topping.

The issue with some substitutes for cheese

is that they don't melt properly.

They can be quite plasticky.

Whereas the one we've developed actually melts really beautifully

into the sauce.

Finally, they're ready to go.

Do you want to put the first pack down the line?

Of course.

That would be fantastic. OK.

The UK's first gluten-free, wheat-free,

milk-free ready meal, going down the line.

After months of development and trials,

the free-from lasagne has finally hit the shelves.

Which means we're now at the moment of truth.

Ah-ha! Here it is.

Beef lasagne, using our pasta sheets from Molino Andriani

and made in the heart of Somerset.

I really want to try it.

-Yep.

-Let's give it the taste test.

'So, how will it stand up against a normal Sainsbury's lasagne?'

I don't know which is which.

No. So, yeah, you can make a guess

and tell me if you find them equally delicious.

OK. I'm going to go for this one first.

Do you know which one is which?

I can make an educated guess.

-I've seen these a lot over the last year.

-OK.

Here goes the first one.

Mm.

Yup, that is good, that is good.

That's like a lasagne that I know.

It tastes like a lasagne that I know.

And here's number two.

This is good too.

This one has more of a richer taste.

It's got a lot more filling in it.

I have to say, that's the one for me, that's the one...

-OK.

-..that's, for me, got the best taste.

But would you say, from trying one of these, you would have immediately

guessed one was free from gluten and milk?

-Yes.

-OK!

That's the gluten-free one, right?

Yep. I'm a little bit disappointed.

It does taste like lasagne, and I enjoyed it.

-It's just that with this one, I'm like, ah! That's what I'm used to.

-It's the cheese.

I think it is the cheese, but also the look of it, as well.

But that is a really good effort.

Even though I could tell which lasagne was free-from,

I'm still impressed by the taste, given it had no wheat or dairy.

But if you don't have a medical condition,

is free-from really any better for you?

Well, it can vary between products.

But of the two lasagnes that I tried,

the free-from one did have less sugar,

but per 100g, it had more salt, more calories,

and 27% more fat.

If you genuinely have a gluten or dairy allergy,

it's great to know that there's something like that on offer.

For the rest of us, though, well, the jury's still out, for me,

about whether or not we have to abandon those foods.

Some healthy eating trends are firmly entrenched...

..while others seem to come out of nowhere,

becoming huge sensations almost overnight.

This year's big hitter is this stuff -

vegetables pretending to be carbohydrates.

There's this, which is courgetti,

which is courgettes pretending to be spaghetti.

Boodles - butternut squash pretending to be noodles.

And cauliflower rice, which pretty much is what it is.

I mean, this is a serious food trend

and I didn't see this coming. But people must be buying them.

Sainsbury's alone are selling 30,000 bags a week.

The courgetti boom started online.

When studies suggested that refined carbohydrates

could be damaging our health,

the blogosphere exploded with ideas for cutting out carbs...

..and the supermarkets spotted a big opportunity.

Hello. Could you run these through for me?

-I can.

-Well, I don't know how many people

have got veg spiralers at home

or even got the time to spiral all their own veg.

So the supermarkets want to make it as easy as possible for us

to join in with this trend.

But it's not just out of the goodness of their hearts.

There's big bucks to be made from adding value to veg.

A bag of courgetti costs almost twice as much

as the same weight of loose courgettes.

Turning a new health trend into food on shelves is no easy feat.

For Sainsbury's, it's the job of produce developer Georgina Lunn.

She's in rural Sussex to check that this year's harvest

will keep up with our courgetti craze.

So we're here to see the courgettes going into our spiralizer plant.

'Every courgette has to be carefully picked by hand.'

Is it a delicate thing, the courgette?

It is. It is.

It's almost as delicate as an egg.

-Really?

-If you imagine, it bruises quite easily,

fingernail marks.

So we try to handle them as little as possible.

These guys harvest fast.

They do.

'Two tonnes of courgettes a day are sent through

'to a dedicated spiralizing plant,

'where technical director Keston Williams

'is responsible for turning all of it into courgetti.'

Who is it that came up with the idea of spiralling?

You, as the store, or you with the courgette?

Both of us had recognised that it was a trend

that needed to be watched.

And we both came together at the same time.

'But when the craze for courgetti first hit,

'no machinery existed that could spiralize at scale,

'so Keston had to get some specially built.'

OK. And so this is where we spiralize.

Is that it?

That is the spiralizer, absolutely.

'It looks like a scaled-up version of the ones we use at home.

'Because it is!

'Each courgette is placed on a spike and spun across a blade,

'creating ribbons of courgetti.'

You do every single courgette individually?

Yeah. Afraid so.

It must take for ever!

It's a slow process.

That's why we've got so many of them, Gregg, all the way round here

and all the way over there.

'To deliver Sainsbury's 30,000 bags of courgetti a week,

'they have ten machines working 12 hours a day.'

This is the fastest machine on the market right now.

You've got an army of courgette stabbers.

Absolutely.

'The courgetti is then weighed and bagged.

'Not as easy as it looks.'

We just need to make sure that we've got long enough strands going into the bag.

Some of them are up to eight metres long.

So if you can imagine you want to be able to twizzle it on your fork.

We don't want a bag of too many of the little bits.

I'm not sorting out the little courgetti from the big courgetti.

Come on, that's what you need to do to keep up on the line.

Don't be ridiculous. Really?

-Really.

-So what we're looking for is a 300g bag.

-Get out of it. Right, come out.

-Go on, then, give it a go.

-Come out.

All right, love, I'm the new boss.

Show me. Do it, do it.

You've got to keep up with this speed, Gregg.

And what you're looking for is it to hit the green.

Right, get out the way.

Go back over there, go back over there.

-Big handful.

-Big handful.

-Rip off the end.

-Yep.

-Too heavy.

-Oh!

-Too light.

-Argh!

Whoa! Back of the net!

Yes!

Lucky fluke.

'Georgina's low-carb courgetti has been a huge hit.

'It's a good source of vitamin C and low in fat.

'In fat, 100g of courgetti has less than 10% of the calories

'of the same amount of pasta.'

How important is this little beastie now to your veg sales?

Really important.

We're selling as much courgetti as fresh spaghetti.

-You've created a monster.

-We have.

The courgetti market has gone from nothing

to an industry worth millions.

But what I want to know is,

what's going to be the next big health trend to hit our shelves?

Hi.

'I'm joining Georgina,

'as the factory's development team pitch her their new ideas.'

So, because of the success of the courgetti,

you're now looking for other veg?

-Exactly.

-Is that right?

So what have you come up with?

So this is a sweet potato tagliatelle.

Swap the pasta for the sweet potato?

-Yeah.

-What's this one?

This is butternut squash, but we've actually turned it into a waffle.

We've been trying to think of names to call it,

and I think the best one we've got so far is squaffles.

-I like squaffle.

-Yep.

Personally, I'm really happy if more and more people are eating

more and more fruit and veg.

They feel like healthy.

Yeah, you feel virtuous afterwards.

Right. Now let's have a pint of beer.

THEY LAUGH

Since I met with Georgina, her new squaffles have gone on sale,

and they already out-selling courgetti.

It just shows you how fickle our food fads really are.

The foods we buy fall in and out of favour as scientists discover more

about what's good for us...

..and what's not.

'In recent years, processed meats have had a very bad rap,

'being linked to everything from heart disease to cancer.

'And our sausages are suffering.'

Sir, can I have your set breakfast?

'This year they saw a £50 million drop in sales.'

-Enjoy.

-Thank you very much.

-No problem.

-One of the reasons some of us have been put off sausages

is the average banger contains more than 15% fat.

But it's that fat which gives the sausage its flavour and succulence.

So, despite many attempts,

a low-fat sausage that still tastes good has remained elusive.

But one food producer claims to have developed a 3% fat sausage

that still keeps its moisture.

And apparently, it involves some very clever chemistry.

I'm heading to Northern Ireland, where meat innovators Finnebrogue

and Marks & Spencer are developing their skinniest ever sausage.

To prove how difficult that is,

product developer Emma Curistan

has prepared a low-fat sausage without using their new technique.

This is what happens if you just take the fat out of the sausages - it leaks out the ends.

So, you see all the sausage meat coming at the end of the sausage?

The sausage is a lot smaller than it was to begin with,

so it's shrinking.

All the moisture is leaking out into the frying pan.

'Sausages are over 60% water,

'and in standard sausages,

'the fat plays a vital role in keeping that water in the mix.

'So, reducing fat and having a moist sausage is tricky.'

It's grainy and it's bitty.

-Yeah.

-Do I have to taste it?

-Yeah.

-I do?

-Yeah.

The texture is really dry.

It's like having a flannel in your mouth.

All right, I've learnt that you can't just take the fat out

of a standard sausage. Well done.

You're the only person I've ever seen happy

to have fed me something disgusting.

Well, I'm trying to prove my point.

To try and get a sausage with less than 3% fat is really difficult.

'But after months of trial and error,

'Emma think she's cracked the perfect skinny sausage.

'And Jemma Davis from M&S has come to see it rolling off

'the production line for the first time.'

Jemma, excited?

Yeah, to develop and launch a low-fat sausage,

it's the holy grail.

Removing the fat from the sausage mix is fairly straightforward.

This is lean cuts of leg meat, so, chump.

It's less than 3% fat.

What would you normally use in a sausage, then?

We normally use cuts of shoulder and belly.

Shoulder is 15% fat.

-And belly?

-30%.

Wow.

'Their problem now is keeping in the moisture

'with such low fat levels.

'And every ingredient has a part to play.'

This is gluten-free crumb.

I would have thought that if you put breadcrumbs into a sausage,

it would have made it drier.

No, quite the opposite, in fact.

Actually, in their sausage it's got a really important function,

and that's about locking the moisture into the sausage.

Even the seasoning has a role.

The salt helps to extract the protein from the meat,

so helps us create the structure and the texture of the sausage.

So it acts like a glue.

This is free-range egg white.

It helps to bind all the ingredients together,

-to give the right structure.

-Right.

OK, breadcrumb is there to catch moisture as you cook.

-Yes.

-Trap it.

Seasoning is there to extract protein, make it sticky.

-Yes.

-And the egg white is to stick it all together.

'All these ingredients are helping to lock in the moisture,

'but the real innovation here is the mixing.

'Most sausages are mixed using a mincer.'

But they use this bad boy - a bowl chopper.

All the ingredients for the skinny sausage go in here.

But the order they put them in

is crucial to the chemistry of holding the water

and the protein together.

But we're not allowed to see it, because it's top secret.

This is the secret process of how we make our skinny sausage.

And this is where the sausage magic happens.

Sausage magic!

Now, everybody should see that, right?

-But we're not allowed?

-No.

Emma hopes this unique method of chopping the meat

will bind the water into the mixture so it won't leak out during cooking.

After a little more secret mixing,

our sausages are ready to be stuffed.

So, slide the skin on...

..and pull it off. Sorry, you're in my way there.

Start the machine.

What?!

It's the fastest sausage in the world!

-Will you let me have a go at this?

-Yeah, go ahead. That's it.

Yeah? Hold on to that, son!

Uh-oh! Uh-oh! Uh-oh!

I guess I shouldn't give up my day job, then.

For these to be truly skinny sausages,

Emma's got to be absolutely sure of their fat content.

This is a very special machine that we use.

-A fat-ometer?

-Pretty much, yeah.

I better not get in it.

'Using the infra-red light,

'the scanner analyses the fat content of the mix.

'At 2.5% fat, it's well below the 3% threshold she needs.'

Does it say on there whether it's going to taste any good?

Right, well, now is the moment of truth.

What does this sausage actually taste like?

You look nervous.

What you have done

is reproduced the flavour brilliantly well,

because it tastes like a good fat pork sausage.

What you don't get, though, is the same texture,

because you simply don't have fat coating your tongue.

You don't have that slipperiness.

The texture is different.

The flavour is very, very good.

Will you accept that?

I think it's just as juicy though.

I don't think it is as juicy.

It doesn't feel exactly the same as a fatty pork sausage,

but it tastes OK and, actually,

it's a lot, lot healthier.

But what really impresses me is all the technology and the science

that's gone into it.

I mean, proper molecular gastronomy for the humble banger!

Supermarkets know that foods with big health claims

generate big sales.

So in the battle to stay ahead, they're worth investing in.

And there's one tiny fruit with a massive health pedigree

that's flying off the shelves.

We get through a remarkable 200 million of them every week -

the humble blueberry.

Hailed as a superfood,

sales of these have quadrupled in the last five years.

And it has even given the strawberry a run for its money.

The attraction of blueberries' health benefits

have driven up sales by more than 20% in the last year alone.

But for the supermarkets, this surge in sales creates a big challenge.

How do you source the volume and quality

to keep up with our insatiable demand for them?

Well, there is one solution - to grow them here in the UK.

But do you know what? It's not that simple.

90% of these blueberries that we eat are actually imported.

'Andy Mitchell is the soft fruit technologist for Marks & Spencer.

'Today, he's checking on his latest shipment from Peru.

'He can't be measuring every single one, can he?'

I have never seen so many blueberries, Andy.

It's a lot. But we source from South Africa,

we're in Argentina, we're in Peru.

We follow blueberries around the world.

Imported blueberries can be held in storage for months.

Andy knows that if he could source more fresh British blueberries,

they'd be a hit with his customers,

but there's a good reason why he can't.

If you look at where the UK is, very northern in the world,

doesn't get the weather

that the likes of South Africa and Argentina get.

So there are no native blueberry varieties here.

No. All bushes actually come from

places like Canada and America originally.

So in the battle to bring us blueberries,

the industry have invested £3 million

in the hope it will pay off later.

M&S have teamed up with the James Hutton Institute in Scotland

to try and create a truly British blueberry.

Dr Susan McCallum thinks one very special plant could hold the answer.

There are cousins of blueberries,

which are called the bilberries, which I have here.

So these are native to Europe and to the UK.

They're really pretty, but they're tiny, aren't they?

They're grown wild in the moorlands and in the woodlands

and they thrive there.

'And the bilberry has another big advantage.

'All purple fruits contain a chemical compound called anthocyanin

'which helps to reduce cardiovascular disease,

'and the British bilberry has far more of this compound.'

The beauty with the bilberry is

the purple colouring is not just on the skin,

it's also in the flesh inside.

-But the taste?

-It's a little bit tart.

The anthocyanins give it that bite.

Real sharp taste to it.

'They thrive in our climate and pack a powerful health punch,

'and yet the bilberry is worthless.'

They just produce so little fruit

that it's just not worth investing that much time and money

to try and commercialise it.

'So Susan's doing some hi-tech match making.

'She's using DNA profiling to pinpoint the best traits

'of each fruit and crossbreed them.'

What we're trying to do is find a blueberry plant

from America that will have the yield and have the size

and the fruit that we're after,

and then introduce some of the markers that we've found

for the bilberry to then get the colour

and some of that tart flavour in there as well.

'But there is no guarantee Susan will get everything she needs in one plant.

'So, she's making thousands of attempts.'

6,000 seedlings, all in.

-6,000?

-6,000.

Would some look better than others?

Oh, absolutely. And that's what we want.

Anything that doesn't perform very well in our UK environment,

we want rid of it.

If Susan and M&S succeed, they'll have created a blueberry

that's not just perfect for our climate,

but also could be better for us.

But it won't reach your shelves for a while.

It could be eight years

before they see the fruits of all their hard work.

If you grow a British blueberry, the freshness in the flavour,

it far exceeds anything that we can import in.

So put in the leg work now and get the long-term benefits later on?

Absolutely, yes.

The amount of work and research that's gone into this is huge,

to create the local, fresh, British blueberry.

And if they're successful, the pay-off could be phenomenal.

'Next time, the supermarkets fight to make our lives more convenient.

'From bringing us our food faster...'

That looks like something out of Star Trek.

'..making complicated cooking easy...'

All of these are for one dish?

-Absolutely.

-That looks ridiculous to me.

'..and even looking into our minds to make shopping simpler.'

Why do you need to read my subconscious?

That's quite alarming.