14/10/2013 Inside Out West

Hello from the centre of Bristol. Tonight, a special programme

investigating what we eat and whether it's safe. We reveal a

premises that is not as squeaky clean as it says on the door. This

place says it is a five when really it is a zero.

Also tonight, will budget cuts to those policing our food lead to

another horse meat scandal? There is a crisis, in some places throughout

the UK, we will have no Trading Standards crisis in a few years

time. And Miranda Krestovnikoff serves

roadkill to her dinner guests. It is nothing like chicken! That is all I

will say, it is nothing like chicken!

First tonight, when you are out enjoying a meal at a pub or a

restaurant, you like to think you are eating somewhere that is

hygienic and you will not end up a hill. We have discovered that even

when inspectors give the lowest possible rating for food hygiene,

most are allowed to keep quiet about it. And usually, just keep on

serving. Just how safe is eating out these days? Whether it is

restaurants, cafes, pubs, clubs chippies and take`outs, we all

expect good quality food that will not make us sick. Front of house,

everything usually looks good, but behind`the`scenes, that is where the

danger lurks. These photographs taken by food inspectors that

premises across the West of England are a small taster of some of the

things that the owners may not want you to see. Not so tasty, these wife

runs used to clean equipment. Simon Gregory is a food hygiene expert,

and he has examined businesses across Europe and the UK will stop

`` the UK. Consumers need to know what is safe and what is not safe.

They are backed up by the food rating system. If it is not at the

front of the house, they could be hiding something, you could be

putting yourself at risk. But this is not always the case, this Indian

restaurants as it gets a five when it is really a zero. How easy is it

to potentially spread life threatening germs in a kitchen,

domestic or commercial? Right, it is lunchtime. I got Simon to tell me

the dos and don'ts as I made some intentional mistakes in the kitchen.

Please to me too. What are we having? `` pleased to meet you. I

have gotten carrot, some tomato some bits of chicken, some letters.

`` some lettuce. Tell me what I m doing wrong here? You are preparing

everything on the same chopping board, meat, veg, everything. The

main issue is cross contamination, you're doing everything in a close

area, using the same knife, you are ridding yourself at risk by

contaminating different foods, so you put yourself and your family at

risk in the household. Is there a simple set of rules to follow? Yes,

we call it the foresees, cross contamination, cleaning, making sure

it is cooked, and also on top of that, chilling, making sure that

when you cook some food, you do not slam it straight into the fridge.

You need to allow it to cook, because bacteria will go crazy. Keep

it all basic and you will not end up in hospital. Roberts Derby from

Swindon almost died when he got food poisoning from a burger 38 in the

town. The doctor said it was E.coli, I could not feel my legs,

the doctor is concerned, he was very concerned, he found that I had a

stroke and I was paralysed down the left`hand side, so they put me in an

induced coma for a week to try and keep control over it. You need to

take more care. I know what can happen. You need to take more care

in the kitchen, wash hands, washed down the surfaces after using

different foods. I take a lot more care if I'm going out and eating

out. I make sure that it is they clean place and it is safe to eat

there. You cannot always tell if a place is good from first glances,

but the food hygiene rating system is the simple way to work out the

good from the bad. It rates places from zero up to five. Ratings of

four and five are good, but zero to one means urgent major improvement

is necessary. The good ones are plastered everywhere, but the bad

ones are nowhere to be seen. That is because they do not have to be.

However, in Wales, it will be made compulsory for all businesses to

display their ratings from November. In the West of England, nearly 00

businesses are rated zero or one. In Bristol, there are 177. Over in

Bath, there are 39. And Swindon has 97. But how easy is it to find out

the hygiene rating of your local restaurant or takeaway? This is the

Food Standards Agency website. I can check on an e`business that is

selling food, just input the name and up comes the rating. Just

because a business gets a zero or a zero RA one doesn't mean that it

would be shut down. Why bad as Mrs could have probably should notice is

enforced to stop them selling to the public, and even prosecutions, many

are allowed to carry on dishing out food for months. `` while many bad

as Mrs could have prohibition notices. Connie 's Chinese

restaurant was one of these businesses, it was fined after

pleading guilty to 11 food hygiene offences. Inspectors first raised

concerns in 2008 before finally charging the owners in December of

2011. Connie's was inspected in April this year and given a zero

rating. They refused a request to let us film in their restaurant or

give an interview. The restaurant appealed and was reams backed it and

told today they would get a rating of four. `` restaurant appealed and

it was inspected again. This inspector is responsible for

inspecting more than 4000 businesses. What kind of things do

the inspectors look for? They look to see how well the business

complies with all of the food hygiene regulations. Does it have

the basic correct equipment like wash hand basins, the correct food

equipment? We look at how well cross contamination is managed. What is

there to reassure the public against a business that gets a zero? There

are different things that we can do, working with the business to get

them to comply with the requirements. If it is serious

enough to get a zero, surely it is serious enough to stop the public

going in there? It usually is a range of failures with a poor track

record. If there is a risk to public health, then we take action. Would

you need somewhere with a zero rating? Probably not. It is not

difficult to find out where you can check out these ratings. We're using

the FSA at the FSA appetisers that the Rockfish Grill behind me was

last inspected in 2011 and got a hygiene rating of one. `` the FSA

application. The Rockfish Grill has made improvements in the inspection

two years ago. Food safety, food hygiene, that is paramount to us, so

is hygiene. We have a one star rating and we want the council to

come in and reassess us. The owner of Freshly Ground said they had

nothing to hide and expects a re`inspection to give them a higher

rating. The rating is one. I do not think I deserve a one star. But

worryingly, we have found out that the stickers on the Windows cannot

always be believed. We found a restaurant in Bristol that is not a

squeaky clean as it had said. It got a rating of zero by the Food

Standards Agency, not a five like it says on the door. The restaurant

claims it forgot to remove the food hygiene rating sticker. The FSA said

that if it was being used to mislead the public, it could be a criminal

offence under Trading Standards legislation. Mohammed Hassan, the

man in charge, refuse to be interviewed. He said he made a

mistake and did not realise he could be committing an offence. We have

passed on the findings to Bristol City council for them to

investigate. No matter what the pitfalls are of the food hygiene

rating system, at least it gives us the customers, the way of finding

out just how good or bad the local pubs, copy shops and restaurants

are, and that has got to be a good thing.

`` copy shops. Still to come, it might look like roadkill, but to

some people, it is dinner. This is far this. `` this is far

this. Earlier this year when we were in

the midst of the horse meat scandal you could be forgiven for asking: is

the food we eat what we think it is? Well, Inside Out asked food writer

and critic Jay Rayner to follow those policing our food and to find

out how well they're protecting us. Spaghetti Bolognese is one of the

nation's favourite dishes and unsurprisingly so. What could be

better than beef simmered in olive oil, served over pasta made with

free range eggs. What if the beef was some old pony that should be

racing. If the free range eggs were captured in a cage? Or the olive oil

is less innocent than it claims All of these items have been the subject

of food fraud over the years. How confident can we can be over our

food? How can we be sure that food does what it says on the tin?

What we have seen our failings in the system with more fraud and less

testing of our food, and a report just published by the National Audit

Office has underlined these problems. It says that the

government failed to spot problems with horse meat being passed off

this year. There is confusion about the role of the food standards

agency which is in charge of food regulation and it says that

detection of fraud is falling short of what consumers should expect It

is our local Trading Standards who are the food police on the ground

doing the checks, and drastic cuts to their budget is putting the whole

system of detecting food fraud at risk. We will take these and do some

checks on these. To understand the challenges that Trading Standards

face I am spending the day with a food enforcements officer. We are

visiting a yoghurt factory in Suffolk. Is the packaging only four

grams? I thought it was 12 grams. This is the sheet they have out

They have the wrong sheet out. That is 200 millimetres. You have noticed

something that I have not. The consumer needs to know what they are

getting and what Trading Standards are looking at is the discrepancy

with weight. It looks like an oversight but they have to get it

right so the consumer knows what they are getting. The team have had

two successful prosecutions recently. They found out that

consumers were being ripped off by vendors of jam and source. The

problem is that across England there are fewer officers on the hunt for

dodgy food. Against this, reports of fraud are rising. In the first six

months of this year, 812 incidences of food fraud have been reported.

That is an increase of a third over this time last year. Trading

Standards are also reporting an increase and yet their budgets are

down a third, and the number of samples they are sending for testing

are down a quarter. I think there is a crisis. We have lost a third by

Inspectorate. Talking to colleagues, they are expected to slash a further

50% in some cases. We are now starting to see the picture that in

some cases in the UK, we will have no Trading Standards service in

three years' time. With local authorities reporting cases of fraud

up two thirds last year, Trading Standards have to try and predict

problems. Back at the dairy, they are taking a sample of milk away for

testing. We will send that off for testing and we will retain that for

the business. Poor weather has meant milk yields are down this year.

Recession is also making fraud more attractive so officers on the ground

are very busy, and so is the Food Standards Agency. It is in overall

charge of our food safety. This branch has never been busier. The

FSA has been repeatedly criticised for being not fit for purpose and

was blamed for acting too slow in the horse meat scandal. Is the

current system tough enough? That's put it into perspective. There were

90,000 samples collected in the last two years. There were 80,000

authenticity tests. There have been several areas which we have

targeted, it just was not necessarily in the public

consciousness. I do not think it is a wake`up call. This is an area we

are working on with local authorities and have done so for

many years. This incident has raised the public awareness about

authenticity and about thinking what is in your food. A former head of

authenticity at the food standards agency has told us that we are less

equipped to uncover fraud. This Doctor spent nine years in charge

and believes budget cuts are undermining the system. The FSA rely

basically on local authority results and local authorities are under

financial pressure and therefore, the amount of sampling they are

doing has been severely reduced I think the system has been weakened.

It is clearly challenging in a current financial market for the

local authorities to do the work they do. The FSA has invested more

in the last year to boost their resources and it is clear that the

system is detecting problems but it is going to be challenging in the

future. The service will evolve as well.

Two weeks after our visit to the dairy and samples have been tested.

Everything was OK and the sample had not been watered down. I did

discover another problem in the system. The number of laboratories

has shrunk dramatically over the last decade, down from 20 to just

nine. It is another sign that less testing of our food is taking place

and food fraud has never been more attractive to criminals. A report

lists all the products that could be subject to fraud, and it is quite a

list. Hani, wine, fruit juice, olive oil. Should all testing be paid for

by the public purse? What about the supermarkets? We buy most of our

food from them. Tesco were one of those found to be using other

products. You have thousands of products in Tesco, have you work out

what to test? We take a balanced view on where the biggest risk might

be. We could be telling consumers that there was chicken in their

products. We have to be certain it was chicken and that is when we DNA

test, and we do those tests frequently. Since horse meat was

discovered in some of their products, Tesco say they carry out

eight times more testing. While Tesco are confident that they have

learned lessons, the rest of the industry is under pressure. The big

question is, can it cope? In my view, the horse meat scandal could

happen again. There is always somebody prepared to cut corners in

times of austerity. When faced with an Inspectorate that is creaking and

fragmented, that is a perfect opportunity for somebody to exploit

and take hard earned money from pockets. Whilst the majority of our

food is safe, food fraud is an established crime and it is about

money. When there is money to made `` to be made, criminals will act.

Making sure it says what it says it is, is very tough indeed.

Now, when you're out on the road and you drive past an animal that's been

killed, the last thing you might think of doing is stopping, picking

it up and then cooking it. But that's exactly what wildlife

presenter Miranda Kristovnikov does. And as you may expect this film does

contain images of dead animals. Like a lot of people in the UK, I

drive a car. There are more of us on the roads today than ever before `

driving nearly 35 million vehicles. For wildlife it's a problem.

Thousands are killed on our roads every year. Believe it or not, for

some people, they're a vital food source. You're not going to cook

that, are you? I've been eating roadkill for quite a few years now.

Up until now I've only cooked mainstream dishes like venison or

pheasant. There are far more adventurous things to cook but they

come with taboos attached. I want to plan a dinner party with a

difference. Can I overcome my prejudices and make this a meal fit

for my guests must remark And what will my guests think of it? I've

come to this lay`by on the outskirts of Salisbury to meet a man who's

lived on roadkill for 30 years. That's him now. I reckon a lot of

people would think roadkill is a weird thing to eat. I eat

everything, I eat foxes, badgers, squirrels, rats, hedgehogs. Stokes,

weasels, owls, buzzards, the list goes on. Is there anything you

wouldn't eat? I would not eat domestic pets like cats and dogs. Is

it because it is somebody's pets? It is their property and I respect

that, and I do not like the taste of cats or dogs. You have tried them? I

have tried them. Though often `` there are better animals to eat And

this is one of your regular stretches of road. Lets have a look.

Are you not worried about diseases like TB? A lot of these wild animals

rarely have diseases and since I've been eating it from the age of 4,

as far as I am aware, I have never got ill from eating any wild animal.

I wanted to surprise my dinner party guests. What can I give them? How

about Fox? It can be baked, cut up and put into stews or Currys,

stir`fried. Or there is a rats? We have just passed a rat so I. And

pick that up! It is just down here a bit. I have a feeling it is here. I

never would have spotted that rat. There is one there as well. Hang on

a second, I would not eat that. You would not touch that, would you No,

I would not, but I take it off the road because many birds of prey get

run over as they scavenge for these things. There is a fresh one down

there. That is a baby rabbit. That is not a rat! No, it is a baby

rabbit. It is still quite limp. It is. When we were driving you were

really exicted you said "Oh, it s a rat". Are you a bit disappointed

now? It really did look like a rat when I saw it, but I am a little

disappointed. Maybe the next stop will be a nice big rat. Will my

guests eat rat? What am I getting myself into? Suddenly, I'm feeling a

bit uncomfortable. Will he find me something fit to eat? It's the day

of the dinner party and Jonathan's sent me something special delivery.

Let's have a look. Badger. I do not know which bits of the badger that

is. This is what I was dreading We have got rat. Oh, no! Brace

yourself! This is my husband, Mick. I have volunteered him to help. We

have got Fox. It is lovely! Look, a little rat. I am inquisitive now.

Now we have got it, I am wondering what it will taste like. Oh, I got a

bit of a home then. Let's see what we've got and then we will make some

decisions. All right. It takes some work but we manage to prepare the

meat for cooking. All that's left to do is to lay the table and polish

the glasses. We've got about an hour until our guests arrive. It is quite

calm at the moment and I think everything is under control. We have

tried a little bit of the badger and the Fox and it tastes a bit funny

but we will see what everyone thinks, I guess. The time soon

passes before Nick's cooking skills are pushed to the limit and our

guests start to arrive. The stakes are high and the pressure is on It

is time for the first course. We're going to start the guests off with

some fox nibbles. We're going to call them fox trots. This is fox.

Fox, wow. It's nothing like chicken. What does it taste like? It's a

cross between steak and Billtong. Well, that went down surprisingly

well. Next up is rat. This time I'm not going to tell them what it is. I

don't want to influence their taste buds. It smells of pork scratchings.

It smells of the farmyard but the dung`heap side of the farmyard. Is

this badger or something? It's absolutely revolting and it's still

in my mouth and it's boney. I would like to get rid of it. It's a really

strong flavour and really gamey in a way. So I might go for rat. It is

right, that is right. I guarantee it is not urban rat. It is a country

rat hence the smell of the farmyard. Not such a good response as the fox.

Let's see what they think of Nick's badger chasseur. Again I'm not going

to tell them what it is until they've tasted it. Bon appetite

Here's to roadkill! Here's to roadkill. If you don't like it

you're under no obligation to eat it. It is an unusual texture. Bird,

mammal, reptile, marine, land? It could be deer, could be venison Ten

points to Mr C. It's badger. It s badger. I'm not a fan. The truth is

if there was a quiet place that I could just throw it in the bin and

no one knew I would do that. The fox I liked, the rat was interesting but

this is like undercooked liver. I didn't think that was bad, yeah I

quite enjoyed that. You didn't like rat? I hated the rat. But the

badger's OK? Well, I think that was a great success, actually. Everybody

tried everything. The rat did not go down well. I think most people

thought that was quite unpalatable but the badger and the fox were

really, really popular. Most people really liked them and at the end of

the day we have had a free meal and that is guilt`free meat. It's good

stuff. That is just about it for this week.

You can keep up`to`date on Twitter. You can also send us an e`mail. But

from all of us here in Bristol thanks for watching and good night.

Next week, Faith in Bristol. We go undercover to investigate religious

discrimination. The reality is