Food File - Series 4

Record ID: 120128
  • Title: Food File - Series 4
  • Date: 20th April 1995
  • Summary: This week Food File looks at tricks of the restaurant trade, which can make eating out a disappointing and expensive pastime and reveals why a new form of salmonella may become a killer. In Dishing It Up, Dee McQuillan presents an insider's guide to restaurants. She visits a restaurant that has no fixed prices and only charges customers want they to pay. Such a customer-friendly approach is rare in Britain, where eating out is a minefield of over-charging, over-tipping and mark-ups often accompanying bad food. Pierre Victoire, the French bistro chain, offers a good value lunch at £4.99 for three courses. If they can do it why can't the hundreds of restaurants that charge over the odds? Part of the problem is lazy negotiation with suppliers. Pierre Victoire cliam claim they keep prices down by doing good deals when buying their ingredients. Another issue are the extras, that first aperitif or last cappuccino. Most profit comes from these additional items, so the final bill includes far more than the food on the plate. The most controversial cost is for wine, which may have a 350% mark up. Some restaurateurs deliberately choose obscure but cheap labels so the consumer cannot compare prices with supermarket shelves. Trade Secrets presents a disturbing investigation on the overuse of antibiotics in the intensive rearing of farm animals. This has direct implications for human health. A new strain of Salmonella called DT104 has become resistant to the five most common antibiotics and two rarer ones. Serious cases of this kind of DT104 food poisoning cannot be treated by normal antibiotic prescriptions and if not treated can kill. The number of cases this kind of food poisoning in humans have increased in recent years and there have been several deaths. This resistance has come about because antibiotics are not just used to treat acute infection in farm animals, but to enable the animals to endure intensive rearing. Vets and organic farmers claim that many farmers in Britain are dependent on antibiotics to maintain their intensive systems but the only people really benefiting are the drugs companies, who make large profits from the overuse of their products. Food File emphasises that while antibiotic resistance is a worrying addition to the list of problems associated with modern farming methods, careful storage, preparation and cooking of meat by the consumer can eliminate the salmonella risk. World in a Stew this week features Sri Lankan cuisine. Udeni Nissanka manages a Burger King in Middlesex, but out of working hours she prefers more exotic cooking. Coconut is the key ingredient in Sri Lankan cookery, and features in all this week's recipes. She prepares Pol Sambol, a coconut chutney and a Sri Lankan chicken curry also flavoured with lemon grass. Hoppers are mild pancakes, traditionally cooked in special pans to obtain a characteristic hollow shape which accompany the other dishes. One of the best things about Sri Lankan food is it is not kept at a fork's length - eating with fingers gets you more involved with the food.
  • 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 6
  • Transmission Date:20/04/1995
  • Rights:On Request
  • Decade: 1990s
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