Food Unwrapped (2012) s08e02 Episode Script

1 We Brits are a nation of food lovers.
Oh, my goodness! Hello.
Our supermarkets are jam-packed with products from every corner of the globe.
Konnichiwa! But how much do we really know about the journey our food makes to our plates? Wow! I've never seen anything like it in all my life.
Ohh! The Food Unwrapped team travel all over the world and beyond This is, like, stepping into the future.
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to reveal the trade secrets behind the food we eat.
Coming up, I'm in Vietnam where pepper prices are packing a punch.
- Just go like that? - Yeah.
- OK.
Whoa! I dive headlong into the weird and wonderful world of yeast.
It looks like spaghetti! And I look at how they get the flavours on to our crisps.
- Lemon meringue crisps.
- We'd do it for you.
First, pepper.
We've been cooking with it for over 2,000 years.
But how much do we know about these fiery little fellows? I'm just very inquisitive about pepper.
I've got a million pepper questions.
What is the difference, right, between your black pepper and your white pepper? Cos different recipes ask for different peppers.
Is it from a different plant or something? Would there be a black pepper tree - and a white pepper tree? - 'I'm not sure.
' 'They all come from a different pepper.
' Different pepper plant.
'Yeah, that's probably what it is.
' I presume it's the same stuff.
- 'Have you got any idea where white pepper comes from?' - No.
To find out, I'm hotfooting it to the world's biggest producer of the stuff, Vietnam.
I'm hitching a ride to the Binh Thuan Rok province in the south of the country.
And look, my driver, Kenny - Say hi, Kenny.
- Hi! It's 75 miles from Ho Chi Minh City and evidence of their top crop is everywhere.
Ah, two? Look at this.
Pepper, drying on the roadside.
Smells very peppery.
We are definitely in the right spot.
'Back on the road, Kenny's taking me 'to a pepper farm in the village of Loc Dien.
' - Kate.
- Tieng.
- Tieng! Doan Van Tieng used to be a coffee farmer, then he realised he could make more money from pepper and hasn't looked back.
Wow! Fresh peppercorns.
Can I try it? Ooh! Hot.
Boy! 'I'm after the difference between black and white pepper 'but these are all green.
' Are these peppercorns black pepper or white pepper? So, if the green berries make black pepper, then where does white pepper come from? Look at those.
So, this is white pepper.
So, white pepper and black pepper grow on the same vine.
So they're actually the same plant.
But you can only make white pepper from the ripest red berries.
So it is about how ripe the pepper is.
To make white pepper, Tieng would need to separate the red berries from the green after harvest and soak them to remove their skins, leaving behind the white peppery centre.
Xin chao! Can I help? Instead, it's on with black pepper.
I mean, it would take a day to clear this vine alone, wouldn't it? No! You could help us.
Really? Only girls do this job? You just stand there and hold the ladder.
And Tieng is on to a good thing.
Wholesale black pepper prices are rocketing.
In the last five years, the price has gone up by a whopping 160%.
Here you go, Tieng.
I got you a sackful.
Once Tieng's team have picked the perfect pepper, the stalks and leaves are removed with this clever contraption.
What did you do before you had this machine? Like making wine, stamping on grapes, you guys used to stamp on your peppercorns.
The berries are dried in the sun for two days until the skins shrivel up and peppercorns are created.
'In today's thriving market, 'the precious pepper then has to be safely squirreled away.
' So, is this where you keep your pepper? Is somebody sleeping in there? That pretend sleeping person there is protecting this pepper.
What would you get for one sack of peppercorns? 11 million dong.
Roughly that's about £400.
What would 11 million dong buy you in Vietnam? Really? Do you always get the same price for it or does the price fluctuate? Good businessman.
Later, I have a stab at peppercorn quality control in this boom industry.
Whoa! Good? Next, yeast.
With home baking and home brewing all the rage, it's got me thinking.
I've been making bread, and I've got a lot of yeast left over.
- Can I use that yeast to make beer? - 'Honestly wouldn't have a clue.
'Really not sure.
I don't even think the store would know.
' Isn't yeast just yeast? Can you put the same yeast into bread that you do into - 'Wouldn't have a clue.
' - Do you know what it is, actually? 'I don't, actually.
It's like a I don't know.
' Whoops! 'So, what is yeast? Time for me to go on a wild yeast chase.
' Somewhere in here is my yeast expert.
'I'm looking for a man 'who has one of the strangest jobs in the food industry.
' There he is.
The natural habitat of the yeast expert.
'Dr Steve James is from the Institute of Food Research.
'He and his team spend their days foraging for wild yeast, 'everywhere from the Galapagos to the Antarctic.
' In a woodland, where would you find yeast? On this tree, for starters.
In the soil, on the ferns over there.
We can't see it, so we'll need a microscope to help us do that, but it's literally everywhere.
We are surrounded by yeast at this moment in time.
Wow, so, can we go on an adventure and find some? 'Steve has over 4,000 different strains of yeast in his collection, 'which is sold to everyone from winemakers to cake manufacturers.
'And he finds it in the most surprising places.
' That will be an excellent source of yeast, Jimmy.
We've got a rotten stump.
Is this good for yeast? Yes, because the tree is breaking down, so as it rots, you're getting all the nutrients of the tree are leeching out and this is perfect food for the yeast.
'I want to know what these microscopic fungi look like.
' This is a yeast that is used to make ale beer.
- OK, so that's a brewer's yeast, then? - Brewer's yeast, absolutely.
And this one was in fact isolated from the British oak.
So there's yeast on oak, including the yeast that is used to make beer and bread.
Really? So the yeast we use to make our bread and our beer originally came from an oak tree? It's believed to be, absolutely.
You can find that yeast on oaks across the globe.
Wow, that's incredible, isn't it? - So this species of yeast could be on the tree right now.
- Indeed.
- I thought I just saw it run up this little hole.
- Absolutely.
It did.
Although baker's and brewer's yeast both originally came from the oak, Steve tells me they produce gas and tolerate heat in very different ways.
In fact, they do quite different jobs.
But what does that mean in practice? Only one way to find out.
Hi, there, I'm Jim.
'I'm going to make some beer, 'but to see what happens, I'm going to use baker's yeast.
' - Enjoy your brewing.
- Cheers, will do, bye.
Right, here we go.
Some malt.
Some sugar.
My hot water.
And last but not least, the baker's yeast.
This is the stuff we make bread with.
'We all know what it does to bread.
'It creates the bubbles to help it rise.
' They hit the water, they'll wake up, they'll be like, where are we? We were meant to make bread.
Not make beer.
They're going to be all confused.
'In two weeks, we should have beer.
But will it taste like bread?' Commercial yeast can't be foraged each morning from the forest, so I've come to Felixstowe, home to the UK's largest yeast factory, - to see how it's mass-produced.
- Hello, Jimmy.
- How are you doing? - I'm fine, you? - I'm good.
Plant manager Ricard Roig is going to show me how yeast can be grown on an industrial scale.
Here they produce yeast for most of the major supermarket breads and for some of the country's top distilleries.
'And for this, they use molasses, 'a syrupy by-product of sugar production.
' Urrrgh! Put simply, these yeast cells eat the sugar and this makes them grow and divide like crazy, until all the sugar's gone.
'All the yeast they produce here 'is grown from a bank of specially selected starter cultures.
' Wow, look at all these, then! Baker's yeast for making bread.
We also have some for beer, wine, and also some for distilleries.
They are different strains, with genetic profiles, and they are good for different things.
So Ricard, if I was a customer and I phoned you up and said, "I want to make a beer and I want it nice and fruity?" - I would choose this one here.
- This one here.
So why would you choose that yeast over, say, a baker's yeast or a distiller's yeast? Because you want to make beer that tastes like beer.
- So the yeast can influence the flavour? - Of course.
- OK.
- So you've got to choose your yeast carefully.
- The right one, yes.
Later, I get to the bottom of what's so special about distiller's yeast.
This is one of the best filming days.
And I find out how my yeasty home-brew goes down.
It's quite gassy.
Next, crisps.
Cheese and onion, balsamic vinegar, sweet chilli.
How do they create these flavours? You know where you get crease and onion crisps, is it real cheese and onion or is a chemical they use? Do you think it's actual real cheese and onion? Cos there's no way you can get a block of cheese on to a crisp.
That's just daft.
'It'd be easy, my love, but then it would be classed 'a bit like nachos, wouldn't it?' 'So, what are they sprinkling on our snacks? 'To find out, I've come to a posh crisp factory in Norwich.
' - Hello, Chris.
- Hi, Matt, lovely to meet you.
- Chris Bernard is executive flavour chef, no less.
- Here we are.
This is where the seasonings go on to the hand-cooked potato chips.
'These crisps are coated in 'a powdered Wensleydale and chutney flavouring.
'But is it the real thing or something artificial 'Chris has cooked up in a lab?' And this is where all the flavours are? This is where all the flavours are born.
How do you put flavour into crisps? - Right, let's get the raw materials.
- Right.
We've got the Wensleydale cheese with an apple chutney.
'So, they do use real ingredients.
' But of course, I can't use it in that way.
So I then have to get that into a powdered form.
Now, I then find some very clever people who spray dry this.
'And there was me thinking it would be some kind of 'made-up chemical flavouring.
'I've come to Ebbw Vale in Wales to meet this clever flavour maker, 'Nick Ball.
' - Now, Nick, you can turn cheese into powder.
- That's correct.
- That's quite a trick, do you want to show me? - Come on.
- Come on then.
So, how do you put that on to crisps? The cheese originally arrives to us in crumbed form.
- OK, and what else goes with it? - Just skimmed milk powder.
'They use skimmed milk powder as a base and unfortunately for me, 'there's quite a lot of it.
'The milk powder is loaded into a big vat of water.
CAERPHILLY now! So, the milk powder is fully mixed into emulsion.
We're ready to put some cheese in.
OK.
How much goes in? - 250kg in this batch.
- 250kg? Go on, then.
I CAMEMBERT all this hard work! - Is that enough? - I think so.
- Really? 'After about an hour, it looks like we've made a cheese milkshake.
' So, good cheesy aroma.
How do you get that liquid into a powder? We transfer it into the next tank and we start spray drying.
The drying happens in these enormous tanks which are heated to 200 degrees to evaporate any liquids.
But because this is a closed system, Nick's got a baby version to show me.
So, liquid emulsion, pumped, high pressure through the nozzle, that's the hot air, evaporates the water away, that you put in originally.
By the time it hits halfway down, it's dry.
Then it gets sucked through here, comes down the cyclone and into the bottle.
- So all that liquid over there will end up as dry powder here? - Yes.
It's very clever.
'And back on the factory floor, 'the industrial spray dryer has worked its magic.
Wow.
Can I eat it? Yeah? Very strong.
Really strong.
- It's well laden with cheese.
- Good, though.
Really nice.
Coming up, I meet a man who can chemically create a kaleidoscope of flavours.
Oh! It's strangely moreish! 'I'm on the trail of crisp flavours.
'Now, I've discovered that some posh crisp companies use real 'ingredients, but I want to know how artificial flavours are created.
' - Hello, Danny.
Matt.
- Nice to meet you.
'Danny Kite is Britain's top flavour maker.
'He's created over 20,000 synthetic flavours in his career.
' OK, Matt, well, here you are, welcome to my world.
'His chemicals are used to flavour anything 'from chewing gum to yoghurt.
' When you can get natural flavours, why would anyone ever reach for the bottles on the shelves? Let's take strawberry as an example.
You'd have to take a whole field of strawberries, smash it all up, just probably to get a few mils of the sort of liquid at the sort of strength we are talking about.
- Why waste all of that food - Right.
.
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when we, with a few chemicals, can produce something else? I think the thing that people struggle with is the chemical element.
Don't forget, all those things are actually made of chemicals themselves.
So, natural foods are just a series of chemicals, and Danny is able to copy the chemical profile of any given flavour.
Time to see if I can guess what he's cooking up today.
Have a smell of that.
Oh! Cut grass.
- Does that smell sort of floral to you? - Yeah, it does.
Rosy.
Oh, Jesus! - That's That smells like - BLEEP! .
.
stroke, Parmesan cheese -- strangely moreish! - It's vanilla.
- Absolutely.
- Orange.
- Absolutely.
As one, waft it under your nose, so that you get all the smells together.
Oh, my God! - Smelling strawberry.
- Smelling strawberry.
- That's really clever.
'Using this clever alchemy, 'Danny and his team can recreate just about any favour in the world.
' Don't breathe too heavily, it'll overpower you! Today, it's good old strawberry that's being used to make a protein shake.
But tomorrow, the sky is the limit.
As wacky as you would want, we will have a go at it.
Lemon meringue crisps! If you really thought there was a market for lemon meringue crisps and you came to us and said that you would buy it, we'd do it for you.
I think there might be! I'm in Vietnam, where earlier, I found out that profits from peppercorn production are soaring.
11 million dong! I've come to Ho China Minh City.
Time for a spot of lunch.
That is the beginnings of a bird! 'I'm going to pass on this one.
'But soundman Phil will try anything once.
' It tastes more like mussel than anything.
There's not really much sense of chicken in it.
You are a brave boy.
After our 'memorable' lunch, it's up the road to a pepper processing factory.
- Ang! - Hello, madam.
- Kate.
Welcome to the factory.
'Van Tan Ang is the general manager here.
' - OK? - Yeah! - How do I look? Good? - OK! 'Ang and his crew process over ten tonnes of pepper a day 'and it is exported all over the world.
' I can smell pepper already.
Spicy! - Is this all pepper? - Yes, all pepper.
- How heavy are these sacks? - 70 kilos.
- 70? - Yes, these workers are very strong men! Ha-ha! - So, what's happening here? Is this quality control? - Yes.
Whoa, watch his head! Every single sack, you get your spear out, give it a jab and then have a look at the pepper? Can I have a go, can I do a bit of quality control? - Go! - Just go, like that? - Yeah.
- OK.
- Oh! - Whoa! - Good? - Oh! 'All the peppercorns have to be checked by sight 'and smell to ensure a maximum peppery punch.
' You are Mr Pepper! - Mr Pepper! - Mr Pepper! - Yes! Wholesale prices have risen as global demand for the spice is at an all-time high, and Vietnam, with its ideal climate for pepper, is perfectly placed to cash in.
This is your finished product.
And how much do you produce? Five million units? Boy! In fact, this factory has seen sales increase fivefold in the last three years.
Why are your sales growing so much and so rapidly? Gosh! So, is this stuff going into processed food globally that has spiked demand for it.
'Pepper is changing lives in Vietnam.
'Farmers all over the country are ditching things like coffee 'and cashews in favour of this lucrative crop.
' Xin chao! 'I've been invited back to see Tuan and his family.
' So, how many houses have you got? Two houses? You've got two houses, you've got five motorbikes It's all that pepper! Can you see the price of pepper going down any time soon? Rolling high! 'Earlier, I learned that yeasts react in different ways 'and they all produce particular flavours.
' It looks like spaghetti! 'And I started a home-brewing experiment 'using the wrong kind of yeast.
' This is the stuff you make bread with.
'While I wait for my beer to brew, 'I'm off to a traditional whisky distillery 'in Norfolk?!' - Hi, David.
- Hi, Jim, how are you? 'Master distiller David Fitt is going to show me 'how the whisky yeast I saw in the factory is put to work.
' What are you cooking up in here? We're just going to actually start the mashing process.
'David starts his whisky with grain and water, but before any yeast 'goes into the mix, the starchy grains have to be mashed.
' Yeast can't eat starch.
What we are going to do is break that starch down into fermentable sugar.
The yeast will eat those and that's when the magic happens.
Got you.
So, basically, what you are doing, - you're making a porridge breakfast for the yeast.
- Yes.
- And in return, you get rewarded by whisky! - Yeah -- or you will, later! 'To get things going, cue the special distiller's yeast.
' Is there a big difference between the yeast you use for bread-making and the yeast you use for distilling or beer making? Yes, this kind of distilling yeast is tolerant to work in high temperature, a little bit higher than a brewer would be using, and also, it's a bit more tolerant - to working in slightly higher levels of alcohol.
- Right.
- It takes high temperature and can take a lot of alcohol.
- Yeah.
And it's going to go in and do a specific job for us.
'So, unlike baker's yeast, distiller's yeast will perform 'perfectly in the hot and boozy conditions 'of the fermentation vats.
' This is going to release a massive amount of energy.
Its alcohol, carbon dioxide is released, as well as flavour and aroma compounds.
'This porridgey mix is left in vats to ferment, 'where the yeast reproduces rapidly.
'It sits burping out alcohol for three days, 'which is then distilled and left in barrels to age.
' This is one of the best filming days! Oh, that is incredible.
- But really, the whole thing hangs on the humble yeast.
- It does.
I mean, if we didn't have yeast, I would be out of a job.
Oh, my Lord! 'So, if every yeast has a particular job, 'what's my baker's yeast beer going to taste like?' If someone poured that out for me in a pub, I'd be a bit disappointed.
'I seem to have created a brew with far too much gas 'and not much flavour.
' 'But what will the critics back at HQ make of it?' It's got a bit of a lingering aftertaste.
'Well, that's a lesson learned.
'Perhaps next time, I'll stick to the right yeast for the job.
' 'Next time, 'I find the future of fish farming on a London industrial estate.
' Look at those! 'I discover what gives marmalade its bitter tang.
' 'And I get to grips with what happens to the billy goats 'the dairy industry doesn't want.
' Hello!