Food File - Series 4

Record ID: 120127
  • Title: Food File - Series 4
  • Date: 27th April 1995
  • Summary: This week Food File investigates the graze craze: deserting meal times for snacking, and fish fingers get the thumbs down in an item in praise of real fish. Trade Secrets reveal who is getting rich on snacking and grazing. For years children were admonished for eating in-between meals or eating in public. Recent research indicates that between a quarter and a fifth of all the food we eat is make up of snacks eaten outside mealtimes, and usually outside the home. We snack in the street, we snack on public transport and we snack in front of the TV. Author and food journalist Hugh Fearnley Whittingstall investigates the booming phenomenon of snacking. In a location report from Newcastle, Hugh asks why we do it. After all it is bad for us. However the food industry is getting rich on our bad habits. Professor David Warbuton a psychopharmacologist, suggest that moderate snacking helps to reduce stress. Controversial nutritionist Patrick Holford argues that snacking is in our nature, and provided it is healthy food, grazing is good for us. And a market analyst from Smith Newcourt in the city explains how we have been persuaded by the advertising industry to buy more and more snacks. Guardian food writer Jaonna Blythman deplores the whole business and asks what is wrong with three square meas a day? Hugo Arnold, cookery writer for the Evening Standard takes fish out of the deep fat fryer and onto the plate in some far more interesting ways. Lack of enthusiasm for fish boils down to our innate dislike of eating something our mothers told us was good for us and even worse, has lots of bones in it. Fish is also good for your brains. DHA, an essential fatty acid, is the part of fish that confirms the old wives' tale. It is crucial for the healthy growth and development of neural material, and is mostly found in oi9ly fish like mackerel and salmon. DHA is in poor supply a the top end of the food chain, i.e. in meat products. Fish is lower down the chain and high in DHA. It may be good for your brain, but is even better for your taste buds. Hugo and friends demonstrate a number of delicious fish recipes, including grey mullet, cooked with lemon accompanied by a salsa of pine kernels, parmesan, tomatoes and garlic; parrot fish with coriander and ginger, and marinated raw salmon with herbs. Modish fish cookery is a delicious alternative to, but not a replacement for, the great British ways of putting fish on the plate. As well as tasting fantastic, cod, plaice or haddock and chips are good for you and the traditional cookery fare of cockles, mussels and eels is rich in nutrients. Rabbi Jackqueline Tabick of the West London Synagogue prepares a Jewish World in a Stew of cholent with flohmen zimmes; turkey or beef traditionally flavoured with prunes. Jewish law forbids cooking on the Sabbath, so in the cold winter months stews are put in the oven on a Friday afternoon to be ready in time for Saturday lunch, when the family returns from the synagogue. The recipe can be cooked for 12 hours or more. Food File's Save Our Shops campaign concludes this week, but the message for consumers remains good advice. Buying just one item a week from a small or specialist shop will help prevent the superstores taking over and the high street closing down. Stickers have been distributed through small trader associations and have been taken up by small shops across the country. Charles Campion looks at the impact of his plea nationwide.
  • Description:FOURTH SERIES OF THIS VERY SUCCESSFUL INVESTIGATIVE AND INFORMATIVE FOOD SERIES.
  • Broadcaster:Channel 4
  • Collection: Channel 4
  • Genre:Documentary and Factual
  • Producer:Stephens Kerr Ltd.
  • Programme Episode:Episode 7
  • Transmission Date:27/04/1995
  • Rights:On Request
  • Decade: 1990s
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