Episode 4 Food Fighters

We're a nation of food lovers, and today there's more choice than ever.

Whether you're eating in or taking away,

there's always the chance that something can go wrong.

So it's a good job there's a whole army of people working hard

to keep us safe.

They're the food fighters.

30, 35...

From the ocean to the ovens,

we follow the food fighters looking after our fish.

People will be very concerned about the tar on the walls.

-That's 100 years of tar. We've never cleaned the walls.

-No.

Is this food fighter about to get ratty?

If you've got an open drain, old Roland will come popping out of it.

And on the front line with the combat chefs.

-Talk me through this oven, Wayne!

-The oven is a bin.

Our love affair with Oriental food is not a new one.

The country's first Chinese restaurant opened over a century ago in London.

From small beginnings there are now restaurants and takeaways near all of us.

But just who's checking our favourite meals are safe to eat?

We've been following environmental health officers around the country

and today two of them are inspecting Chinese food.

Chinatown in London's West End.

It's been the heart of the capital's Chinese community for 50 years.

Today, tourists and locals flock to the area,

sampling dishes from Mongolia to Hong Kong.

It's also food inspector Sarah Quinn's stomping ground

and today she's at Fu Zhou.

Hello, my name's Sarah. I've just come down from Environmental Health.

The customers at Fu Zhou enjoy their meal upstairs

but the kitchens here are down below.

First on Sarah's list is the food.

But knowing what's being cooked is a little tricky.

-She calls on duty manager Frances to help out.

-What are these?

-This is sweet potato paste.

-OK.

You have to steam the sweet potato first and then mash it

and mix with some noodles...

-Yeah.

-Boil the noodle and mash it with some potato and flour.

-Yeah.

-Right?

-To cook these - just in the wok?

-At the moment they are boiling it.

-OK. They boil it in the wok?

-15 to 20 minutes.

The cooking is top notch here.

In fact, a plus side of Chinese cooking is the use of very high temperatures,

perfect for killing those food poisoning nasties.

A lot of this food is imported, so their labelling is in Chinese.

Sarah needs to know they're all safe.

I've got some octopus down here.

I'm making sure it's come from a premises

and a country that we would accept.

It's imported by a British company.

It's got an EU number, which would be the approval number,

so the octopus is fine to be served.

Sarah noses around noodles from Korea and oysters from China.

We're fine, we've got EU approval number.

It's been checked and we're good.

These labels tell Sarah that a whole load of checks have already

been carried out to make sure the food is fit to eat.

Now Sarah must carry out these checks herself.

The last time I was here there was a large fish ball-making machine

and they were talking about preparing all the fish balls and selling it on to other businesses.

It's a process that would require more strict procedures in place.

I want to make sure what they're doing with the fish balls,

I want to see how they're making their fish balls and where they're selling it to.

The balls are handmade in this kitchen and then popped into a pack.

Important information like shelf life could get lost in translation,

so it's important they're labelled properly.

So, how do you do the packaging? Where's your machine for...?

The last time Sarah was here, she gave tips on how to pack up the product.

Will her advice have been taken?

So, they've put the fish balls that were made here by hand,

put them into the bag and then the bag's been sealed.

The guy has got clean gloves on his hands,

so we're not worried about any cross-contamination issues.

It gives the consumer the information that they need.

It tells them how to prepare the food, what to do with it.

There's a clear warning here saying it's not ready to eat.

The food must be cooked before consumption.

If those details weren't on the packaging,

weren't on the labelling, consumers would be misled, misguided.

All the information is there for them.

I'm really pleased with the work that they've done.

This restaurant in London's Chinatown seems to have taken on board food fighter advice.

But throughout Britain there are thousands more Chinese restaurants

and takeaways needing to be inspected.

The Dragon Bowl in suburban Oxford.

Lying in a converted house on a busy road,

it serves wok-fried Chinese classics.

How are you doing?

Checking they're making meals safely is Richard Kuziara.

The main thing that goes wrong bacteriologically,

or that can go wrong, is the rice if that's mishandled.

Bacteria loves rice, especially when it's left in the temperature danger zone,

which is between 8 and 63 degrees.

These bacteria produce poisonous toxins

and no amount of cooking will ever get rid of them.

Now there's a simple way of stopping that bacteria taking hold.

Right, OK.

A rice cooker, and Dragon Bowl has one.

The rice cookers are good because you can preset the temperature

and then once the rice is cooked you can keep it hot.

Instead of it cooling down and you having to reheat it,

you've got it sitting there at the right temperature.

Bacteria hate the cold,

so a working fridge is a must-have in any kitchen.

The temperatures are good.

It's good that everything's in containers on the whole.

It's good that things are wrapped up.

It's looking pretty good, to be honest.

Your hand contact surfaces are pretty clean.

There's still one big issue to resolve here.

This takeaway used to be home to a family of rodents

and Richard wants to see if the rats have done a runner.

We can see real evidence of rats running around this corner here.

That pipe's filthy.

What I'm seeing here is lots of smear marks.

Rodents have definitely been here at some stage.

I need to establish whether they're still here.

This Chinese check-up has suddenly become a lot more serious.

This has been a rat motorway. You see where they've chewed it all?

How the food fighters protect our forces.

If 100 people go down with diarrhoea and vomiting or food poisoning

you've wiped out quite a big location.

Now, I love cooking with fish

and sea bass like this is my absolute favourite,

but how can we be sure what we see on our fishmonger's counter is safe to eat?

From the docks to the dinner plates the food fighters

have been out in force and we've been with them.

Grimsby, the undisputed centre of the UK fish industry.

Every year, around 18,000 tonnes comes through here.

SHOUTING AND CHATTER

When you buy your haddock or hake, the chances are pretty good

that it's been through Grimsby fish market...

..and that this man has had something to do with it.

My name's Chris Melville. It's my job to make sure that food coming into the port is safe to eat.

CHATTER

It's five o'clock in the morning.

While most of us are still fast asleep, the buying and bidding

at one of Europe's largest fish markets is in full swing.

Chris is here to check it's all fit to eat.

It's frenetic and frantic and a lot of arguing and shouting.

It happens every single day so it's perfectly normal for these people.

Chris is Grimsby's Principal Port Health Officer.

And as the merchants do battle, he casts his eye over the goods.

He's checking that nothing here is going to leave people feeling green about the gills.

First up, a crate full of cod.

The fundamental purpose is to ensure it's fit for human consumption.

That's our critical reason for being here.

The first thing that strikes you is the general appearance.

They're bright, they're colourful.

If you look at the eyes, you can see they're clear and bright,

they're convex.

A nice shine to them. Nice intense colour.

Firm flesh, and then the gills...

As you can see, the gills are bright and pink and clean.

People tend to say fish don't smell. That's not strictly true. Fish smell...

of fish.

But it's whether it's a pleasant, acceptable fishy smell

or whether it's a unpleasant stale smell.

Adding all those together - good eyes, good colour, good shine,

good gills - those are nice fish.

And Chris is certainly no fish out of water when it comes to this market.

Whatever the type, he's across it.

I see we've got some very small plaice.

Again, the same principles apply.

First sight, nice and bright and colourful.

Very firm. We hold them out - it's rigid.

The older, the softer - it would be hanging down.

Again, the visible blood - it's intensely red.

So, again, a nice, fresh fish, in ice.

And there's one key thing we should all remember when it comes to fish.

It's critical that the fish are iced when they're caught, on board the vessel,

when they're transported to the market,

when they're being processed by the processor, when he's packed them,

when they're being retailed, and ideally, when they're in the home, if possible.

Kept in ice massively extends the shelf life.

At any time if they're left out of ice, they will deteriorate much more quickly.

Someone who's impressed by this morning's haul is David Atkinson.

He's bought two tonnes of haddock for his family-run smokehouse.

We've got 16 traditional smokehouses.

This fish will go back and they'll start filleting it

and then there's a set process with smoking fish.

It smokes through the night

and then it could go anywhere in the country.

But before his fish can go anywhere, Chris will be calling to see David

to make sure this kind of smoking will not damage our health.

Can these traditional methods keep up with modern-day safety?

-We've never cleaned the walls.

-No.

-Not in the 37 years I've been here.

We've just seen there are people safeguarding the fish we eat and buy.

Checks are made at every point of the journey, from our seas to our shops

and it's just as well, because every once in a while

the food fighters find companies that could be putting our health at serious risk.

2008, and these are the images that greeted environmental health officer Jo Ridell

when she visited Allan Rich Seafoods in Lincolnshire.

A warehouse stacked floor to ceiling with containers of decaying fish.

It was the worst premises I've ever inspected in the 18 years that I've been doing hygiene inspections.

The fish was covered in maggots

and some food had been eaten by rats.

Rats, when they walk about, can urinate constantly.

Therefore they had access to all areas of the food business,

so they could urinate across the whole premises.

What made this case worse was that some of the fish was being sold to the general public.

Because there was the imminent risk, I recognised I had to close that premises straightaway.

Joanna and her team gave the owner the chance to clean up

and destroy the rotten fish, but he did nothing.

It's our role to ensure that food is safe for the public to eat.

We'd prefer to work with businesses. We want a prosperous, thriving business community.

But on occasion, if we feel there's an imminent risk to public health, we have to take action.

Joanna obtained a court order,

allowing her to destroy 200 tonnes of contaminated fish.

Over the course of three days,

food that could have been sold to supermarkets and restaurants was incinerated

at an estimated value of £120,000.

It was one of the UK's largest ever food seizures.

The owner was not happy with the investigation.

He believed that the fish was fine,

that there was nothing wrong with it and it was fine for people to eat.

In October 2008, the company boss, Roland Saldanha, appeared at Lincoln Crown Court.

He was found guilty of breaches of food hygiene regulations

and given a suspended eight week sentence.

The firm was fined £10,000, plus £30,000 costs.

For the food fighters, this case showed that putting us at risk will not be tolerated.

..Using their loaf to protect this staple food.

We're not prepared to take any chances whatsoever.

They say an army marches on its stomach,

so making sure our troops are fed well and safely is a major task.

Today I'm at Perham Down in Tidworth to meet the food fighters from the front line.

There are more than 200,000 men and women currently serving in the British armed forces.

The 2,000 trained chefs among them certainly have their work cut out.

From home barracks to far flung outposts around the world,

their job is to keep our troops well-fed and healthy.

And this is the man who's in command.

I'm Major Harry Lomas and it's my job to make sure

that our troops don't go down with food poisoning.

..green Thai curry...

Major Harry Lomas is the food fighter protecting our soldiers.

Today, along with two Army chefs,

Major Lomas in the middle of a very important mission.

-Major Lomas.

-How's it going, all right?

-Nice to see you. What's going on?

This is the 24-hour ration pack, which we give to the soldiers in the front line.

'These ration packs are about to be sent out to our troops in Afghanistan.'

Our troops need a whopping 4,000 calories inside them every day

so these ration packs have been developed with military precision

and boy, these packs are certainly made to last.

This is brand new. This is the 12-hour operational patrol pack.

It's what we give to the infantry, the soldiers on the front line.

We've got some energy sachet drinks.

'Now I'm going get to road test a brand-new food with an incredible shelf life.

One of the good bits in here is a sandwich - two-year sandwich.

-This one's honey barbecued beef.

-How can a sandwich last for two years? That's incredible.

Well, the secret is all in the make-up of the sandwich itself and the retort packaging.

'Preservatives make the sandwich stay fresher for much longer

'but it's the lightweight retort pouch that is the real food fighter here.

'Developed by the US Army, it's made up of four separate layers

'that prevent any unwanted invasion by nasty bacteria.'

This is something quite unique that they've done for the forces.

-It looks like a sandwich.

-It does.

-It's everything you imagine it to be.

-It works.

-It completely works. This is such an advancement.

You know, I'm stunned by this, really, really am.

But there's not a massive amount of variety.

I suppose these are soldier-orientated rather than chef-orientated.

What really is the big area we're involved in is a ten-man ration pack.

'It's the food in these packs that the Army chefs use to make a meal.

'From canned food such as baked beans,

'dried products such as powdered egg and sauces

'to minced beef perfectly preserved in the super-hygienic retort pouches.

'But it's the conditions these military master chefs have to cook in

'that's a world away from what I'm used to.'

What's the worst-case scenario the guys would have to utilise this stuff?

On active service now out in Afghanistan,

some of our forward locations are really grotty.

They're knocked together, the walls are sort of lean-tos

and various things, and the sandstorms, the weather,

the mosquitoes, it's really grim in some of the forward locations

and that's the worst areas we're dealing with.

From a food hygiene point of view, that must pose immense problems.

Without a shadow of a doubt, the guys working their hardest to try and implement it, keep it up.

If you're dealing with a big group of people, where we're feeding 100 people,

and if 100 people go down with diarrhoea and vomiting or food poisoning,

you've wiped out quite a big location.

It amazes me that under the circumstances you often have to work

that that still has absolute, utter predominance.

Further forward we're going,

we don't have nice stainless-steel kitchens and all the facilities

but that doesn't mean to say we don't deal with and use food safety rules and regulations.

We still do temperature checking, we still do hand washing,

cleaning, sanitising, making sure the pots and the pans

and the food is served at the very best.

Just because we're in the field doesn't mean we let those standards go.

'Forget your shouty chefs getting stressed about soggy souffles.

'These guys know what cooking under pressure really means.'

A little bit of milk powder, flour, pickled onions, bacon.

-Nice. Cheese?

-Yes, cheese. Salt and pepper.

'Despite cooking in a warzone, combat chefs are always coming up with new menus.

'Private Tunnicliffe is going to give me a lesson in military meals.'

-That it?

-Yeah.

'We're going to rustle up a quiche Lorraine.'

-OK, so what are we going to do?

-We're going to make a pastry.

-The flour and the margarine first.

-'This is a first for me -

'marging a tin and flour in this special bag.

'It's all helping to keep germs out and freshness in.'

The flour's excellent for bread rolls, et cetera.

In a situation like this,

as soon as you start off working, then I assume that

because health and safety is so massively important all the time,

-that has to kick in almost before you decide what you're going to cook.

-From the get-go, basically.

Health and safety in the field's a major aspect,

from the boys washing their hands, that's a big point for us,

for us cleaning up after ourselves so we don't attract rodents.

'Like the margarine, the cheese and bacon have been processed, then stored in tins.'

-The boys like it.

-'Like our beans and soup, this means they don't need a fridge.'

This dried egg is really intriguing.

'Powdered egg is brilliant for ration packs.'

One packet of powdered egg is equivalent to 20 eggs.

'It's lighter than fresh eggs

'and has been pasteurised, so it's extremely safe.'

Add some water to it, first of all.

Knock it into like a paste.

'It can also be stored at room temperature for up to five years.'

-That's a great product, isn't it?

-Very good.

-We're just going to add this.

-Yeah.

'With the quiche made, now time to cook it.

'But of course, you don't have range cookers on the battlefield.

'So the British Army has come up with a unique invention.'

This oven, this is incredible. 'And this is it.

'It's called improvised cooking and was first used in the Falklands.'

-Talk me through this oven.

-The oven is a bin.

Dig a pit, fill it full of wood, or burning materials, light it,

which produces the heat in the oven, and away we go.

How do you know, with the bin, there isn't anything in there that would contaminate the food?

You do a visual check. Then you'd burn the bin out for a few hours

by lighting a fire underneath it, and then the heating inside of it builds up,

burns away and gets rid of all the bacteria.

So before you use it, what, a couple of hours?

-Yes, two to four hours to burn it out.

-Incredible. Let's stick it in.

-Pop it in.

-Brilliant.

-Brilliant.

-And we just leave it for half an hour to 45 minutes.

-Perfect.

Of course, as a soldier in the British Army,

you'd expect him to be prepared, so here's one he made earlier.

-I've got to taste it.

-Well done.

-Cut us a slab, fella.

Wow, that's an army-sized portion!

The texture's great.

Powdered egg's good, pastry looks good.

I am genuinely stunned by that. The texture's superb.

I'll be honest with you, I imagined it would taste very smoky,

it would be burnt in places and the texture would be very scrambled in the middle,

but that is an absolutely brilliant quiche.

Wonder what's for dessert.

Later, confusion over cleaning at the Chinatown restaurant.

It looks like antibacterial spray but it's for getting rid of limescale in your shower.

From time to time we all have to watch what we eat,

but if you suffer from coeliac's disease, intolerance to gluten,

then eating the wrong foods can have dire consequences.

Thankfully, some companies are going to extreme lengths

to ensure their safety systems are the best thing since sliced bread.

This Barnsley bakery bakes over 800,000 cakes, bread and scones every week.

Bagged and boxed, they're shipped out to shops and cafes all over the country.

And this is the man who ensures everything baked is safe for us to eat.

My name's Michael Taylor.

It's my job to ensure the highest quality food safety standards are maintained.

We're not prepared to take any chances whatsoever with production.

It's not in our job description.

But this factory has an added complication.

It supplies gluten-free too.

Gluten is found in staple foods throughout the world.

Anything made from wheat, rye or barley will contain it.

For coeliacs, this damages their gut and must be avoided at all costs.

There is a lot at stake here

because they make normal and gluten-free in the same factory.

They must keep those areas separate to avoid flour particles

contaminating the gluten-free side.

Colour-coding everything that is used is the key.

If you're not wearing a red hat, you've no business in the gluten-free area.

We must not have any gluten contamination in this department whatsoever.

And that's how seriously we take it.

In a matter of hours, the 1,500 rolls that they bake here every day will be on our shelves.

So just how do the team know that they're safe,

not just for coeliacs, but for the rest of us too?

Enter another food fighter.

Dr Sedlak is a food scientist who keeps a beady eye

on the whole process.

He marches round the factory floor to ensure everything is in shipshape.

Nothing escapes the dough doctor.

The temperature of the product should be below 27 before they start packaging.

It's incredible to see how many checks our simple loaves need.

And it is not just the food that comes under his scrutiny.

It's the staff too.

He conducts spot checks on workers every week

to ensure their hands are clean and free from bacteria.

-May I test your hand, please?

-Yes, you can.

Tickly!

Dr Sedlak also checks that the gluten-free bread is what it says it is.

He uses a pregnancy-style test on a pot full of crumbs.

If his test detects levels any higher than 20 parts per million

then the products don't qualify as gluten-free and would need to be binned.

If we got a positive test result, checking the samples,

of course we need to stop the whole production, keep it back

and check why we have got the result and investigate it.

I can see that it is quite clear, strong line

on 0 and C, which means the test was valid.

And there is not any line on the T,

which says there is not any presence of gluten in the product, so I'm quite happy with it.

The staff are trained, the systems are in place

and there are dozens of checks every day to make absolutely certain the product is safe.

But you can never be too careful

and there is always room for outside scrutiny.

My name is Catherine Riley.

It's my job to audit food safety standards at the bakery.

Catherine is at the bakery as another pair of eyes

to make sure staff here are not overlooking anything.

The consumer is demanding more now and they want to ensure that their food is safe.

More people think they might be sensitive to allergens,

so they want to be sure they're eating safe food.

So the more controls we can have in place, the better, really.

Catherine wants to know exactly what goes into the loaves...

Can I just take the names down of a couple of your gluten-free raw materials?

..see that the staff know their jobs inside out...

Why is it important to check the temperature?

Can I ask some questions about what you're doing?

-What's your maximum temperature?

-Can't go above 27.

What would you do if you had a problem, if this wasn't working or if one of your gas checks was incorrect?

Well, I would tell my manager.

..and be satisfied that everything is done by the book.

I've been very pleased with everything

I've seen in the bakery today.

They've got some great procedures in place and I've seen evidence

that they carry out all the controls that they should.

When it comes to making safe bread, it seems this bakery is rising to the challenge.

And whether you eat regular or gluten-free,

you now know exactly which way your bread is buttered.

Fried rice, chow mein, chop suey - the choice of Chinese meals is endless.

But if you're one of the millions who regularly eat this food,

how do know it's not going to give you tummy trouble?

We've been on the road with two health inspectors fighting to protect this fast food favourite.

The Dragon Bowl is a typical looking suburban takeaway.

Initially, inspector Richard Kuziara was happy.

But now he fears an old rodent problem could have returned.

One, two, three.

And if the rats are back, the outlook for this restaurant would not be good.

So...

we can see the smear marks.

You can see they have been scrambling so much here.

they've polished it clean on the top.

You can see where their little paws have been going.

This has been a rat motorway.

Let's have a look. See where they've chewed it all?

As it is, I am concerned that this needs making good.

They've obviously got in this way in the past - we need to stop them getting in this way again.

Richard is not impressed.

Rats carry diseases such as listeria,

E. coli and Weil's disease - all can prove fatal.

And even if there are no fresh droppings,

this mess really should have been cleaned.

To make matters worse,

this corner is highly vulnerable to a rodent return.

And it's not the only weak point.

That's open.

What is that?

It's got a carrier bag over it at the moment, but that's an open drain.

-Oh, OK.

-Yeah?

-I don't know where that goes to, though.

It goes to the drains.

It goes to the sewers.

So, if you've got an open drain,

old Roland will come popping out of it, potentially.

There's a carrier bag over it

and the carrier bag has a tiny hole in it

but not enough for a rat to get through.

So, nothing has been through here lately.

I think you're OK but you're really vulnerable.

It seems Dragon Bowl has never employed any pest-control experts,

essential in rat-proofing a restaurant

and vital for one that has had problems in the past.

If there's one fault with the drains anywhere,

an open drain somewhere, they could all just be piling in underneath.

This company is not doing enough to keep the rats out.

Not only are there rodent doorways, but food for them to feast on.

I'm concerned here that this could flare up again just overnight.

There's so much food here that is not protected. There's gaping holes.

They're not here, that's great, but it's a high risk premises.

Now Richard has some vital words of advice for new supervisor Wayne.

In terms of what is going on with the food, I can see it looks pretty fresh,

but it's the building - the building terrifies me.

The manager has not, as far as I can see, got a pest control contractor in.

I've not got much confidence in him because of that reason.

Richard's inspection is over

but before he goes, he must leave the restaurant with a food hygiene score of between zero and five.

A score of zero is given to places that are posing a serious risk to our health.

-Because of those there, it has come out as no stars.

-Oh, gosh.

The good news is that you haven't got any rats in here,

-therefore I'm not going to close you.

-God!

Yes, I know, it's not a great visit.

-I'm sorry.

-That's awful. Zero stars!

Yeah.

I don't enjoy taking stars off people.

It is their livelihood - the star rating thing, people take it seriously.

But at the end of the day, it is there for a purpose.

The star rating is to allow members of the public to make an informed choice.

Richard will be back in a few weeks' time

to see if his words of warning have been taken seriously.

Fu Zhou is a Chinese that's been working hard to keep these visitors out.

Sarah Quinn is going to see if they've succeeded.

It's actually quite clean, really.

There's a little bit of debris, no signs of any pests in here.

Structure wise, it could probably do with a little bit of looking at.

Got a few missing tiles at the back.

It's got quite a strong damp smell as well.

But the problem with old pavement vaults is that

you do get problems and lack of air circulation.

They are not the ideal but within central London,

the lack of space, they're left with very little option.

The upside of a lack of space is there is only a small area to clean.

The cleaning actually seems good.

It's a small space and I would hope that it would be clean

because it is quite important to keep on top of it in such a small area.

Good.

Though the cleaning regime is not without little hiccups.

What do they use this one for?

THEY SPEAK IN CHINESE

A lack of English can be a problem to even the most diligent staff.

-All here, all this.

-No!

They don't know English, I've got to and buy it for them.

OK. Let's use something other than shower shine!

I don't know why they've got this here, they've got the wrong thing.

Yes, yes. It looks like anti-bacterial spray,

but it's for getting rid of your lime scale in your shower.

But this restaurant's issues are minor ones.

They have taken on board all Sarah's advice

and brought about real change.

I'm not seeing any signs of pests, it's so much better than when I came last time.

It's made a big difference what you're doing,

blocking the holes, and you're taking the advice.

It's cleaner, it's good.

And all in all it's been a successful visit for Sarah.

There's been such an improvement since last time.

Practices have improved, the cleaning's a lot better

and to be in such a central location in Chinatown

and not have any signs of pests, it's a real credit to them.

But what about her fellow food fighter, Richard?

He's back to check if the Dragon Bowl has rat-proofed their kitchens.

First on his list is that open drain, a doorway for any hungry rodent.

Basic structural stuff to stop them coming in.

Next, the hole in the wall.

This is one of the areas you have sealed up?

Great.

One, two, three...

And what about those floorboards?

I'm happy with that, it's a good idea.

They were previously no match for the rats' razor sharp gnashers.

What he's done is got some big tin can and rolled it flat

and nailed it over the hole they chewed.

I've seen chew through doors this kind of thick in an evening.

If they know there's food, they'll keep chewing,

but metal, they're not going to get through metal.

It's a brief inspection

but immediately clear that there's certainly no rat in this kitchen.

That's good.

'He's taken it seriously which is what was really important.'

On a personal level, it's really disappointing when you turn up

and people ignore your letters.

With the legal notice thing here, quite frankly,

it's a lot of work to prosecute someone.

I've got better things to do than take people to court. So, it's great.

We've done lot of work for the past two or three months.

If they think we're not up to standard, we've got to get up to standard.

It's obviously for the benefit of the public, the people we serve and our customers.

So, yet again, the food fighters have helped a business

overcome some major issues and become a safer place to serve.

Good. Cheers, Wayne.

This is a piece of traditional smoked Grimsby haddock.

Fish like this has been smoked in the same way for over 200 years.

But just how do get the balance right between traditional cooking methods

and modern safety standards?

We've already seen the checks at the local fish market, but the scrutiny doesn't stop there.

The Old Smokehouse in Grimsby smokes fish in its 16 active chimneys.

From the moment fish comes out,

boss David Atkinson knows the clock is ticking.

Any foodstuff is deteriorating all the time.

Anything organic is deteriorating all the time.

So, subsequently, like this fish is going to be frozen.

Once it's frozen you're looking at 18 months of shelf-life.

You haven't a care in the world.

But if something is chilled, and it's got a limited shelf-life,

then temperature is everything.

You've got to get the temperature down and you've got to store it

and hold the temperature at a low temperature.

Grimsby smoked fish has recently been awarded

a Protected Geographical Indication by the EU.

The same status that champagne has.

But if he wants to keep this,

David need to stick to time-honoured methods and meet modern and rigorous safety standards.

Now, fresh from the markets...

Hello, David, how are you doing?

Food inspector Chris Melville is going to find out

whether David is getting the balance just right.

We know the quality of the fish

because we saw David on the market buying the fish.

-Right, Chris. Come on in.

-Thank you, David.

What Chris is here to check on is how the fish is smoked,

that means stepping into the huge chimneys.

The fish is hung above fires fuelled by sawdust for up to 16 hours

and that's what gives our smoked haddock its distinctive flavour.

The thing is people will be very, very concerned about

this tar on the walls.

That's 100 years of soot. We've never cleaned the walls.

-No.

-Not in the 37 years I've been here and I assume

they were never cleaned before.

The tar does help flavour the fish,

but Chris does need to be reassured that the fish doesn't touch it.

The tar's on the walls, cos obviously if there was tar on the fish you wouldn't be selling it.

No, the product never touches the walls.

-To climb the chimneys...

-One hand dirty and one hand clean.

-Right.

The chimney climbers are well trained

and the fish is being produced safely.

Time to move next door.

In this room, the fish is died the traditional colour

that we see on our fish counters.

Again, it's quite a nice room.

It's pretty good in here but there's still some room for improvement.

The ceiling is too low and you tip the product into the brine and it splashes.

Very difficult to clean. Every day, sort of thing.

But you could give it a more regular clean, couldn't you?

And the dirty door curtains could also do with replacing.

-Your door curtains look quite tired.

-Yes, they are a bit tired, I agree.

But apart from that, Chris is happy that nothing fishy is going on.

So, really, very happy with what I've seen, what I expected.

As you know, a certain amount of housekeeping, one or two repairs.

-Good to see you again.

-Thanks, David.

This company is living proof that old-fashioned methods can keep up with safety standards.

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