Food Inspectors - Episode Guide

Matt Allwright investigates the countrywide problem of bootleg booze. Would you be able to spot a fake bottle of plonk, or vodka with dangerously high levels of industrial alcohol? And did you know the majority of food poisoning happens at home?

Chris Hollins teams up with food inspector Ben Milligan and drops in on an unsuspecting family at mealtime. Are they cooking clean or risking their health with bad food hygiene?

Also, the team take on the owner of an Indian restaurant who thinks he knows best, and Chris dishes the dirt on one of the most evil types of bacteria around.

Matt is down on the farm where the animal health team are checking that the cows are free from tuberculousis, a disease that can be transmitted to humans in both milk and meat. Meanwhile, Chris and our own food inspector Ben Milligan are surprise guests at a Hollywood party in High Wycombe, where the preparations come under the spotlight. Matt and Chris also visit a roadside cafe in Wolverhampton where the owner doesn't have a good word to say about the inspectors - but it turns out they have a good reason for concern.

Fast food is a massive problem for the food inspectors, and in this episode, takeaways in Southend come under the scrutiny of veteran food inspector Steve Ramm. Are the kebabs and burgers being cooked correctly, and do the people cooking know the food hygiene rules?

In the country, Sara Procter tackles a Suffolk pub landlord whose standards have been slipping. Meanwhile in London, Chris Hollins and food inspector Ben Milligan go to City University, where the students learn some shocking lessons about food hygiene.

Matt Allwright and Chris Hollins present a series following the work of food inspectors as they check standards in professional kitchens and food outlets across Britain.

They tackle cockroaches in a kitchen in Brent, north London and a hotel in Northamptonshire which needs to make serious improvements to avoid poisoning the guests.

There's also a surprise food inspection to a busy working office to see what dangers we face eating lunch at our desks.

Enfield Council's food inspectors Mary and Claire visit a Chinese takeaway, where they discover a rabbit which belongs to the owner's daughter and is being kept in a food preparation area. They also find an area awash with mouse droppings and urine, and in an outside storage shed there are the remains of a dead rat or mouse.

Matt investigates a countryside crimewave which sounds like something out of the 18th century - animal rustling. Pigs, sheep and cows are being stolen, loaded into lorries and driven away to be illegally slaughtered. If it ends up in the catering industry we could be eating illegal, unsafe, stolen meat without even knowing it.

While food inspectors concentrate on businesses, most cases of food poisoning happen in people's homes or workplaces. Chris Hollins visits a fire station in Lincolnshire - the firefighters cook a tasty fry-up at the station, but there are dangers lurking in their kitchen. Our resident expert Ben gives the kitchen a once over and uses a gadget to test for bacteria.

Chris Hollins meets Darren, from Lancashire, who ate one mouthful of undercooked pork chop and ended up in hospital. He cooked the pork for five minutes and could tell it wasn't quite right but swallowed one piece. Three weeks later he woke with a headache and tingling in the corner of his face and within 48 hours he was in intensive care fighting for his life. He had contracted listeriosis, and the bacteria went to his brain - causing meningitis.

In the UK we devour 11.5 billion sandwiches every year. Making a sandwich may look simple but the lunchtime favourite is a potential breeding ground for lethal bacteria. Chris visits Raynor Foods in Chelmsford which prides itself on food safety and makes 32,000 sandwiches each day.

Food inspector Mandy from Gravesham Borough Council is on the trail of a Chinese takeaway.

Every food outlet in England, Wales and Northern Ireland is rated from zero to five with five being the cleanest. The takeaway Mandy inspects boasts a rating of four. But she finds fried chicken which has been left out of the fridge for six hours and a box which once contained raw, frozen food is now being used to store the cooked chicken.

In the food lab Chris meets secretary Sharon Sanderson from Halifax, who suffered from a very serious case of salmonella poisoning. Sharon ordered chicken and noodles from a noodle bar in Manchester - a decision she believes led her to be hospitalised with kidney failure.

Food inspector Russell from Reigate and Banstead Council visits a pizza delivery company where he finds fridges at the wrong temperature for food safety, a staff member washing his hands in the food preparation area and a box of chicken wings left underneath the pizza oven to defrost.

While food inspectors concentrate on businesses, most cases of food poisoning happen in people's homes or workplaces. Our resident expert Ben visits the home of pet lover Linda in Tonbridge, Kent. Linda has a horse, a pony and a cat and treats them as her family. But not everyone is keen on Linda's love of animals - her daughter Faye refuses to eat at the house when she visits, because she doesn't think the kitchen is clean and she instead brings a packed lunch with her.

And Chris visits pie factory Pooles of Wigan. Chris is given a guided tour to show him just how they make a perfect pie while also ensuring food safety and hygiene levels are maintained.

Matt Allwright visits Felixstowe, more than 40 per cent of Britain's import export trade goes through the port including five million tonnes of food. Suffolk Coastal Port Health Authority's inspectors are responsible for checking the foods which arrive including products from Japan, produced near the Fukishima nuclear disaster, which are tested for radiation, and a huge consignment of chilli powder from India.

At Gatwick Airport the UK Border Force are responsible for checking passengers' bags and ensuring that no illegal foodstuffs enter the UK. Sniffer dog Bindy is on the hunt for meat and dairy products which could have come from outside the EU. She sniffs out cheese, meat and butter, all of which are confiscated. A bag containing grasshoppers, though, is perfectly legal to bring into the UK in small quantities only.

The Food Inspectors' resident expert, Ben Milligan, visits a family home in Holmforth, near Huddersfield, which appears very clean and tidy. Colette has three small children including a one-year-old. Colette takes extra precautions with her youngest child and sterilises his bottles, dummies and spoons. Ben tests for bacteria levels and finds that the work surfaces aren't being properly cleaned - Colette uses baby wipes which don't kill the bacteria. The fridge is immaculate but Ben advises her not to overstock it. Packing a fridge to its limits means the air can't circulate to keep it cold. And the baby's bottle also contains bacteria, even though it has been sterilised, so Ben demonstrates how to wash the bottles more thoroughly.

Chris Hollins meets Carole from Exeter who went out for lunch, ate a ham, cheese and tomato panini and ended up in intensive care suffering from E. coli. Carole is convinced, but has been unable to prove, that the E. coli came from the sandwich. Ten months on Carol has lost 80 per cent of her kidney function and suffers from dizzy spells.

Newham food hygiene officer Matt investigates 'beds in restaurants' - the alarming practice of workers sleeping in kitchens. He has found 12 cases of people living in kitchens in the past few years. Jenny, from the Chartered Institute for Environmental Health, says that anyone sleeping in a kitchen presents a health risk to any customer.

It is estimated that there are more than one million cases of food poisoning every year in the UK. And almost half of these are the result of dodgy cooking by family and friends. Chris visits the Brixton home of Dave and Rich, who are cooking that Great British favourite, a roast lamb dinner, for their friends.

Our resident expert Ben casts his eye over the kitchen and offers advice on how to cook the lamb and vegetables safely. Lamb can contain E. coli on its surface but properly searing the outside of the meat will kill any bacteria on the surface.

But when Ben inspects the fridge he finds cheddar cheese which is way past its sell-by date, mouldy mushrooms and a bag of salad which is swimming in water, all of which need to be binned.

Matt visits a farmers' market in Taunton, Somerset, along with Carol, the head of training at the Chartered Institute of Environmental Health. Matt meets some of the stallholders and quizzes them on the lengths they go to in order to store and sell their produce safely.

And he visits a farm in Devon, where artisan producer Donna has been rearing her pigs for nine years. She also makes pork salamis which are dried and not cooked. Matt tries his hand at making a salami sausage and learns about the ingredients Donna uses to preserve the meat.

We've never been more interested in food. The average household spends £5,000 a year on food and drink, but how much do we really know about what ends up on our plates? The Food Inspectors are back and this time the show lifts the lid on Britain's food, revealing the real facts you have a right to know about. Joining the team of Matt Allwright and Chris Hollins is Gaby Roslin.

Matt investigates how clean our supermarkets really are by sending an undercover team to test for levels of bacteria in 10 London stores. Supermarket trolley handles, potato trays and chicken shelves are all put to a swabbing test. Chris and Gaby team up to find out what is in ice cream. They uncover the difference between dairy ice cream and soft scoop. Gaby gets a lesson in how to make home-made traditional ice cream and Chris visits Reading University to learn how to make the economy soft scoop version which contains coconut oil instead of cream, skimmed milk powder and the cheapest ingredient - air. Gaby visits a school to put the different ice creams to the taste test - but which ice cream is higher in fat?

Each week Chris and Gaby will reveal what's in the nations favourite mass produced foods, and Matt will put our billion pound food industry under the microscope.

And the team are back on the front line with the food inspectors who keep us safe by shutting down restaurants and food shops which aren't up to scratch. From rat droppings in a kitchen to cockroaches in a curry house and undercooked burgers in a gastro pub; the food inspectors have their work cut out to protect the nation from rogue restaurants and poisonous food.

After 'Horsegate', Matt Allwright looks at the impact of the scandal and asks where the next big food scandal may be coming from. Even after the crisis, the numbers of trading standards officers nationwide has been cut. Matt speaks to Professor Chris Elliott, who was commissioned by the government to investigate the horsemeat scandal. He thinks that there is potential for fraud in the fish industry as it comes from a complex supply chain.

Chris and Gaby put yoghurt drinks with added bacteria under the microscope. What is really in them? Gaby tries them out on a Zumba class. How will they feel after taking the drinks for three weeks?

Oxford inspectors Richard and Rachel visit a brand new café which is hoping for a high food safety rating. Their hopes may be dashed though as Richard only narrowly avoids treading on a pair of freshly baked cakes on the kitchen floor, where they have been left to cool.

Finally, Chris meets the couple who held their wedding reception in a four star country hotel. The couple and a large number of their guests fell violently ill a few days after the wedding.

Britain consumes almost 220,000 tonnes of bacon every year. Chris finds out how mass-produced bacon can be made, while Gaby cooks up the posh stuff. Both types can have the chemical additives sodium nitrite and sodium nitrate added - but what do they do and could they be harmful?

Matt reveals the role of slave labour in bringing food to the table. Matt meets two immigrant workers from Slovakia who were recruited in their home town to work in the UK. They say they were made to work for up to 70 hours a week and threatened with violence.

Chris visits a butcher to learn the importance of storing and preparing cooked and raw meat separately to avoid cross-contamination. He also demonstrates how washing a raw chicken under running water can result in campylobacter being splattered across work surfaces, the wall, nearby food and utensils. Campylobacter is present in 65 per cent of raw chickens in the UK and it can be really dangerous, with 110 people a year being killed by it.

In Oxford, food inspector Richard visits a hairdressing salon which is selling food and drinks outside its premises. There is no handbasin, no fridge and the wooden work surfaces are impossible to keep clean. And in Newcastle inspectors Paula and Caroline visit a kebab shop where they discover a boiler has broken down, which means the staff can't wash their hands properly.

Around half the meat we eat in Britain is chicken. But in the past decade the UK's poultry industry has experienced some fairly unpleasant bugs. Matt reports on the single biggest problem facing the industry - campylobacter. It's a form of food poisoning which is carried in two in every three chickens and can be deadly.

Chris and Gaby find out exactly what's in chicken nuggets. While Gaby gets a lesson on how to make homemade chicken nuggets Chris investigates what's in the shop-bought version. Gaby also looks at takeaway nuggets and reveals what's in them to a group of school children.

In Oxford environmental health officer Richard visits a Chinese restaurant where he finds seaweed being stored in boxes which were previously used for chicken, and fat dripping from a ceiling fan. The seaweed has to be binned and the restaurant owner is asked to tighten up procedures ahead of a return visit.

In Coventry food safety officer Nicki inspects a takeaway where she finds cockroaches and closes the business. It's one of the worst infestations she has ever seen. Pest control are called in by the owner and the place is given a major clean. After several return visits the food safety officers give the go-ahead for the premises to re-open.

Chris looks at an outbreak of food poisoning from a food festival which was traced back to raw curry leaves used in a chutney. He gets a lesson on the best way to clean and cook herbs, including curry leaves, from Michelin-starred chef Atul Kochhar.