FOOD TRUTHS
The horrifying supermarket secrets you need to know from ‘fresh’ apples that are really a YEAR old to nearly half of chickens being infected with a deadly bug
YOUR ‘fresh’ apples are up to a year old, nearly half your chickens are infected with a deadly bug and bagged salad might contain enough listeria, salmonella or ecoli to kill you.
These are just some of the Secrets Of Your Supermarket Food uncovered in Sian Williams’ new Channel 5 show.
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Sian finds a scary 40 per cent of supermarket chickens are still infected with deadly campylobacter but that there are no nutritional differences between cheaper intensively farmed birds and free-range chickens.
Supermarkets love to make money by charging a premium for specialist diet products.
While only 1 per cent of the population has coeliac disease, celebrities like have released gluten-free cookbooks and up to 13 per cent of people now admit to being gluten-free fuelling a global industry worth £2.5 billion.
Another hot diet trend is for foods with added protein – which come at a hugely inflated cost.
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Here, Sian Williams talks us through the secrets of our big 10 supermarkets – which supply 90 per cent of our food and reveals she’s ditched a gluten free diet because of her findings.
Sausages may be two-thirds tendon and gristle
Legally, a pork sausage only has to be 42 per cent pork and 30 per cent of that is allowed to be pork fat.
If pork fat is also listed as an ingredient it’s likely that is on top of that 30 per cent. The rest of the pork allowance is likely to be tendon and gristle.
Diphosphates and guar gum, are used to set the sausage shape and rusk bulks it out. Sian added: “If it doesn’t say pork sausage on the label it can be as low as 32 per cent pork.”
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'Fresh' apples are really a year old
Apples are harvested in September and October but in our supermarkets all year round.
The fruits are kept cold, with very low oxygen density to stop them going rotten and make them metabolise very slowly.
Boffins measure how quickly the apples breathe and how long they will last. Sian said: “It’s fascinating.
I did not know I could be biting into an apple that could be a year old.” Dr Debbie Rees, plant physiologist, added: “If we can eat UK produce it’s also good for the planet.”
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Almost half of chicken contains fatal bacteria
We eat one billion chickens a year and 90 per cent of the chicken we consume is industrially farmed with 35,000 birds to a shed.
They live a maximum of 38 days during which their weight goes from 200g to 2kg. However, while chicken is our favourite meat, it’s also one of our most dangerous.
On the show Sian tested 30 chickens for campylobacter and 40 per cent tested positive for the potentially fatal infection.
Sian said: “What you have to remember is that there is no safe level of campylobacter and you must not wash chicken because you will spread bacteria around your kitchen.”
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Bagged salad a high deadly salmonella risk
Pre-prepared bagged salads are the second most frequent cause of food poisoning according to The European Food Standards Agency.
Dr Primrose Freestone, a microbiologist explained: “Salad leaves are in contact with insects and birds that might defecate on them.
"The leaves are washed but people are still getting ill from bagged salads. The leaves themselves are cut leaves and juices start to leach out and these can accumulate.
"If you acquire a salmonella from a bagged salad it’s particularly bad news because exposure to the salad juice made them more aggressive, more dangerous.”
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Added protein products simply building profits
One in four Brits now regularly uses a sports nutrition product and protein shakes are the most popular. Globally the industry is worth £9.2 billion.
But added protein isn’t cheap. A normal Snickers chocolate bar costs 60p, but one with added protein costs £2.
A standard box of Weetabix costs £2.50, but it’s 50p more for added protein.
Sian said: “Adding protein seems to be less about building healthy products and more about building healthy products.”
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'Healthy' porridge pots contain 42g sugar
As sales of cereals have dipped, supermarkets have started stocking porridge pots, drinks and breakfast bars instead.
However, Sian discovers that traditionally sugary cereals like frosted flakes contain less sugar per serving than cereal bars or porridge pots.
Healthy-looking breakfast Wolfys coconut and lime porridge oats pots contained a huge 42g of added sugar while a bowl of traditional demonised frosted flakes only contained 11g of added sugar.
Sian said: “The NHS suggests that only 5 per cent of our calorie intake should come from added sugar.”
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MOST READ IN MONEY
Gluten-free bread contains ingredients borrowed from make-up
The gluten-free industry is worth a huge £2.5bn a year globally with up to 13 per cent of people going gluten-free for health reasons, and Sian admits, “I’m one of them.”
However, Sian is stunned to find that in order to make bread hold together without the gluten, manufacturers are forced to add up to 27 more ingredients.
They include make up ingredient glycerine and hydroxypropyl methyl cellulose, a lubricant also used in the oil drilling industry.
What’s more, a typical basket of baked products will cost £11 while gluten-free versions of the same products cost £18.
Chris Young of the Real Bread Campaign said: “History is littered with artificial additives that one day are safe and then they are either withdrawn or banned.”
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Secrets Of Your Supermarket Food starts on Thursday, March 7 at 8pm on Channel 5
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