Food Unwrapped (2012) s08e52 Episode Script
Not To Be Missed Missions
- Let's go! - Wahoo! - Whoa! 'Britain is a nation of foodies.
' Sweet! Really peppery.
'But what do we really know about where our food comes from' I've never been cornered by an ostrich.
This is like Oxford Circus, but for cows.
'.
.
and how it's processed before it reaches our plates?' This is incredible.
The place is run by robots! 'We're going to the ends of the earth 'to find out what's really in our food.
' Whoa! I've got to change my transport.
'We're meeting the people who make it.
' Don't know where to look.
'And we're asking the questions to learn the truth.
' Let's do it! 'On tonight's show, we revisit our most exotic 'and intrepid food investigations.
' I wouldn't want to put my banana in there, would you? Er, no, thank you.
'Kate's on a mission in Malaysia, 'discovering the unappealing truth about bananas' There might be one day when I go to the supermarket, there's no bananas.
'.
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and gets to grips with the slippery truth 'about the origins of jellied eels.
' - So, there are eels in there? - Hopefully! 'Matt's off to Scotland 'to discover how whisky gets its distinctive flavour' You can smell the whisky fumes.
'.
.
and gets an explanation 'into how farmers find those elusive double yolkers.
' I've come to the Scottish Borders, where there's a massive chicken.
'I discover that, to make mature cheese, 'you need a little help from some very little friends' The cheese is alive with mites! '.
.
and visit Denmark to discover how their pigs 'keep our supermarket shelves stacked with bacon.
' How many pigs do you process a day? 20,000.
'First up, bananas.
' Now, why is it that you only sell one type of banana? You know, like, with an apple, you get, like, a Cox apple and then you get a Braeburn and, if you're lucky, you'll get a Pink Lady Those are my favourites.
'I mean, you do get a choice.
I mean, you get, like, '"Eat Me bananas", you get Everyday Value bananas.
' - 'With bananas, it is just a banana.
' - Yeah.
I'm sitting here looking at my bananas and I thought, "They're all the same, they're just all" 'They are all boring, they're all yellow.
' Yeah, all yellow, sitting there like they own the place and you think, "Well, there should be at least "a couple of different varieties.
" 'Bananas are just like strawberries.
' I'm on a quest to get the bottom of why there is only one type of banana for sale in the supermarket.
Oh, dear! 'I think bananas, they all taste the same.
'I'll will pass your comments on to our Buying Department.
' Pass it on to the top banana.
Kate's headed to one of the countries where the world's first edible bananas were discovered -- Malaysia.
Wow! It is hot! Kate's en route to a plantation just north of the capital, Kuala Lumpur.
Here they grow the Cavendish banana.
It's pretty special, as the Cavendish is the only one available in most British supermarkets.
These don't look very healthy.
Look at the state of them! Kate's arranged to meet agricultural expert Dr Ting Su Yien.
Your banana plants all look pretty ropey.
So what is wrong with them? Cavendish here is very susceptible to Panama Wilt Disease.
What happens to the plant itself is the yellowing of the leaves.
- The trunk of the tree - The trunk, yes.
.
.
is just splitting.
Yeah.
And eventually, it will just collapse, yeah.
And how does this tree contract this disease? This is in the soil and it enters into the feeder roots and it gets into the plant.
And is there anything you can do about it? Unfortunately, no.
Because Panama Disease is a fungus, it thrives in Malaysia's warm, wet climate and has decimated plantations all across South East Asia.
There might be one day when I go to the supermarket, there's no bananas.
And they're not coming back.
- Probably, yeah.
- Probably?! Probably, yes.
- That's pretty serious, isn't it? - Yes.
I mean, can you imagine a whole fruit wiped out? Wiped out, yes.
The extinction of banana, yeah.
Could it really be the end of this banana and are there any other varieties? Kate's off to the capital's main market to see what's on offer.
- I'm looking for banana.
- Banana! You want banana, this side.
Ah.
Look at these, hey.
Just like apples, they've got over a dozen different varieties on this stall alone.
Come on, darling, this one.
This one small one.
This one gold banana.
Mm.
It's much sweeter, you know.
Very sweet, yes.
Really sweet.
Amazingly, there are over 1,000 varieties of banana in the world.
But all of them are susceptible to this banana blight.
Does this disease really have the potential to kill off the world's bananas? We'll find out later.
Next up, cheese! I love my cheese and I'm not alone.
We eat a staggering 700,000 tonnes of it every year and the more mature, the better.
But what makes mature cheese mature? So, what's the difference between sort of the extra-mature and the vintage and the sort of traditional, then? 'Oh, that I wouldn't know, I'm afraid.
' I don't mind waiting, I'm just here having some cheese and biscuits.
Maybe it's really old? Mouldy? So, the difference, say, like, from an extra-mature and a traditional - is just the taste? - 'Just the taste, yeah.
' - Right.
'The only thing I could say is give the makers a call.
' So, none the wiser! I'm off to Devon to meet cheese-maker Mary Quick.
- Hey, Mary.
- Hi, how you doing? - Nice to see you.
I'm Jim.
- Great to meet you.
- Lovely cows! - Right, well, let's see your cheese.
- Yeah, let's go.
'This family business has been producing award-winning cheeses 'for the last 25 years.
' So, Mary, this is incredible! How many cheeses would you have in here? At the moment, I think there's about 5,000 cheeses in here.
But what's the big difference, then, between extra-mature and your mature? For us, mature cheese is 12 to 15 months old.
Extra-mature, for us, is 18 to 21 months.
Over two years old, which is our vintage, starts developing some really interesting flavours.
Mary's cheddar is made the old-fashioned way, by wrapping cheese curd in cloth, then leaving each individual truckle to mature on the shelf for as long as it needs.
What you've got on the outside of these cheeses is that lovely mould garden.
And there are things that like to eat that mould -- cheese mite.
- Mites? - Yeah.
So the kind of mites that you find in the garden? Tiny little spider mites, those types of things? Oh, even tinier.
Tiny, weeny, weeny.
I mean, I mean you can't see that they're individual little creatures.
Are they eating the cheese or eating the rind? What are they doing? In the right balance, they're just walking through the mould garden that's sitting on the outside of a traditional cheese, helping to form the rind.
- They're an important part of cheese-making.
- They really are.
Let's have a look at these critters, then.
Where are they? - Look! Can you just see? Like dust.
- Yes.
Little microscope.
The cheese is alive with mites! - In a way, keeping your mould under control.
- Yeah.
So, if you get too many, they will start eating away at Not just at the moulds, which is really helpful, but they will actually start eating into the rind and then into the cheese themselves, So they will then go into the cheese or certainly cause the cheese to open up and have more mould.
So the purpose of these mites is to eat the mould.
But too many mites and they'll spoil the cheese.
Mary's come up with a way of keeping this greedy mite population under control.
The truckles are regularly zapped with air to keep their numbers down.
When the cheese leaves Mary's factory, she likes to give it one last zap to make sure they are cheese mite-free.
But do all cheese-makers do the same? Later, I'll be testing some of our favourite high street fromages to find out! Oh, yes, I can see mites on that.
Next up, whisky.
You might think I'm a bit stupid really, but what gives whisky that whisky flavour? On the box, it says loads of things like "Subtle hint of marzipan and chocolate.
" So, what, do you put all those things in there? 'I'm not sure, to be honest.
' 'It turns out that there is plain caramel 'which is blended into the whisky.
' Ah, so the caramel gives its flavour.
'The germination of barley gives it its rich flavour.
' Ah.
It makes you frisky, whisky! I'm not getting anywhere on this one.
But I know a man who'd be happy to oblige.
Tomorrow, I'm going to get up very early and I'm going to fly to Scotland, obviously the home the spiritual home of whisky, to find out exactly what goes into this and what gives it its unique flavour.
Yeah, ain't life tough, eh? Matt's come to the banks of the River Spey in the Highlands of Scotland.
This is what I've come to see, this is proper Scotland.
This is whisky country and now I need to find out how they make the stuff.
Matt's visiting one of the most famous distilleries -- Glenfiddich.
- Hello.
- Hi.
- How you doing? Matt.
- Pleased to meet you.
Jennifer.
- Nice to meet you.
Jennifer Proctor is Senior Guide here at the distillery.
Ah.
Ha-ha! This is great! Whisky is made by fermenting barley, then refining the alcohol, using these giant stills.
- So what's this coming out here? - That's what will become whisky.
It's doesn't look like whisky.
It looks more like vodka at the moment.
It's going to take all of its colour and about 60 to 70% of its flavour - from the casks that we're going to use.
- Really? - Yeah.
So a large part of what becomes whisky and what we know whisky to be is going to come from the barrel? Yeah.
- Like Disney.
- Yeah.
Wow! I like it in here.
It's good, isn't it? God, there's a lot of whisky sat here.
'The same clear spirit goes into each and every barrel 'and it's the barrels that add the colour to the whisky.
'Surprisingly, they add up to 70% of the flavour, 'which is helped along because the barrels have been used before.
' So, that's from a sherry cask.
That looks like sherry.
Really rich, really dark colours.
And this one is an ex-American bourbon cask.
Look at the difference.
So, it's much lighter in colour.
Yeah.
Look at that.
- I mean, these are entirely different drinks, aren't they? - Mm-hmm.
So the difference between that and that is purely based on the barrel - that it's sat in? Really? - Yeah.
The contents of these second-hand barrels will eventually be blended together, water added, and aged for at least 12 years, before being bottled.
This is where the magic sort of takes over a little bit.
You could have all of these casks here maturing for the same length of time, but what's going on inside each one will vary hugely from one to another.
After the break Wow! Now, this is totally different.
Matt's in Scotland, discovering what gives whisky its world-famous flavour.
Look at those barrels! Look at that! Turns out it's mostly to do with the second-hand barrels the whisky's aged in.
- Hello, there.
- Good morning! - Nice to meet you.
- I'm Andrew Russell.
Andrew Russell recycles mainly American bourbon casks for the Scottish distilleries.
That's amazing! How many have you got here? - We've probably got around 70,000.
- Jeez! Yeah, those are ex-bourbon barrels which have come in from Kentucky.
So, what is it about the barrel that gives whisky its flavour? The oak itself will give off flavours.
- It's always oak? - Scotch whisky law says that it has to be oak.
A little of it depends on the type of heat treatment inside, whether it's been toasted or charred.
The toasting releases flavours from the wood.
It almost cracks open the surface.
- When you say toast, you mean basically set fire to it? - Yes.
- Can I see that? - Yes, we can go and see that right now.
- Good.
Is it warmer? - It is a bit warmer.
This cask is ready for charring.
If you want to grab it, we'll put it on to one of these fires.
This charring or toasting process exposes the fresh oak, releasing the natural flavours of the wood, and the bourbon that was aged in the barrel back in Kentucky.
What sort of temperatures are going through that? - Maybe 450 degree Fahrenheit.
- Really? Look at that! Get the old camera in there.
That is lovely.
- You can smell the whisky fumes as well.
- Oh, yeah.
After the barrels have been charred, they're renovated by a team of craftsmen.
Their impressive speed might have something to do with the fact that they are paid per barrel.
This is the finished article.
It is fair to say that there's a lot more going on in a barrel than simply just the vessel that holds the whisky.
The cask is extremely important to the whisky making process.
Speaking from a cooperage point of view, the cask is the most important.
Morning! Kate's investigating an epidemic that could wipe out the banana business.
- I'm looking for Richard.
- You've got him.
- Oh, morning! - Good morning, how are you? - I'm Kate.
Richard Hickson has been keeping Britain in bananas for over 20 years.
Why is it that it is just the Cavendish banana on our shelves, and yet I've seen lots of other different types of banana around the world? Basically, they've created a genetic clone that was capable of shipping over long distances, surviving two, three week journeys and then arriving on the supermarket shelves fresh, sweet and tasty for the consumer.
So, you're telling me that every single banana in this warehouse is a genetic clone? Yes, it is.
I've been to a banana plantation, where there's been utter devastation.
And it's killing these off.
You can't help not being worried about it.
If a disease hits, it will wipe out the entire crop of banana itself.
- Should I be stockpiling these? - No.
You'll tend to find that most of the bananas that we have in here, or Europe itself, come from Latin America.
Probably referring to Panama disease or TR4? It hasn't reached Latin America yet.
So, why hasn't the disease hit Latin America? Surely, it's only a matter of time.
We're bound for Peru, to get to the bottom of whether we really are facing a banana-geddon! Kate's headed to Piura, in the north of the country.
Just landed in Peru.
I'm at the baggage belt and a big golden retriever has just been jumping at my rucksack.
He wouldn't leave me alone and it's a sniffer dog.
Anyway, the man said "Have you got anything in your bag? "Have you got any fruit?" I was like, "We're doing a story on bananas, "of course I've got a banana!" So, I had to hand it over.
Kate's going to a fair trade cooperative plantation to find out how, so far, Peru has avoided this banana blight.
Head Farmer, Ramil Garcia, is all set to give her the guided tour.
- I've come to see your bananas! - Si.
Nobody told me we were going on a bike.
I've got a skirt on.
That wasn't the most glamorous.
Peru, and its neighbours, Ecuador, Colombia and Costa Rica, are now known as the Banana Belt.
This plantation alone has nearly 40,000 clone Cavendish banana trees.
Now, Ramil, I've just been in Malaysia, where their banana trees are sick.
They have Panama disease.
You know, it's coursing around the world.
Are you concerned? So, is Peru a little haven where Panama disease will never hit? This dry climate means the trees are thriving, so harvesting is a year round operation.
Each Cavendish tree only ever produces one bunch, so as soon as it's picked the tree is felled, to make way for a new sapling growing next to it.
Look at this! So you're pulling bananas on your giant banana conveyor belt? He is a very, very strong man.
200,000 bananas a week are processed here, by hand.
It's a giant banana bath.
The cloned Cavendish banana has been designed to be picked while still green and then ripened only at their destination.
They're rinsed in water and potassium sulphate, to remove the sap.
Whoa, that is sticky! See, it's all gone.
They are then boxed, before they set off on their two-week boat journey to our supermarkets.
The arid climate in this small pocket of Peru may well provide a safe haven for the Cavendish banana, but the world eats a lot of them.
Coming here, you would not think for a second that the Cavendish banana is facing a global epidemic.
But I can't see how on earth these guys in this small area of Peru are going to be able to supply the world's demand for the banana.
That's just bonkers.
If Panama disease continues its march across the world and wipes out our beloved Cavendish, the only solution is another test tube banana.
A new, improved disease-resistant version.
Back to cheese.
Earlier, I discovered that some traditionally-made mature cheeses have mites living on their rind.
The cheese is alive with mites.
And one thing is still really bugging me.
What I want to find out is, are there mites on the cheese you can get in delis and supermarkets? So, I've brought this lot to a top scientist to find out.
- Hi.
Nice to see you.
- Good to see you.
Richard Wall is a professor of zoology, who knows a cheese mite when he sees one.
- They're related to the spiders.
- Yeah? So, they've all got piercing, sucking mouthparts.
These are the mouthparts.
Essentially, the rest of the body is just gut.
They're just machines for feeding and reproducing.
Time to get unwrapping, to see whether any of our supermarket deli cheeses have got mites stowed away on their rind.
This is like CSI Cheese, isn't it really? Indeed.
Good cheese, that.
First up, the UK's favourite -- Cheddar.
There's no signs of anything, mite faeces or anything.
- Nothing? - No eggs, no.
So far, no cheese mites.
Try this pecorino, this one I found has a bit more mouldy rind.
Oh, yes, I can see mites on that.
Wow, there we are.
Ba-boom! Mr Mite.
Hello, mate.
Next up, mimolette.
So, Richard, I've got a little treat here for you.
I've got some French cheese.
They intentionally put mites on it, to help give it flavour.
Wow! Now, this is totally different.
- Whoa! - Absolutely heaving with mites.
What you can see there is the movement of the mites.
Look at that! They're beautiful little things, aren't they? What kind of extra flavour are they going to add? - They're supposed to give it a slightly more nutty flavour.
- Yeah.
Is it the mites that are changing the flavour of the cheese or are we tasting the nuttiness of the mites? I don't think people are actually sure.
The mites are supposed to aerate the surface of the cheese slightly, so they break through the surface and they allow more oxygen through to the cheese.
Do you think we need to grow up a little bit when we look at things like this and go, ugh, mites on my cheese? Actually, do you think, well, grow up, they're everywhere.
If you want to enjoy really good cheese, - you've got to enjoy it with the mites.
- That's right.
These microorganisms, these mites are all around us in every ecosystem, on us all the time, and so we just have to get used to them.
They're there, they're extremely useful and important components for natural ecosystem.
- Delicious cheese, though! - Good long flavour.
Yeah, very nice.
And that's thanks to the mites, as well.
What about mature cheeses that don't have rinds? Like the ones you make your sarnies with? I've come to Somerset to meet cheesemaker, Charlie Barber.
- Nice to meet you, I'm Jim.
- Yeah, nice to meet you.
I've come to see if you've got cheese mites.
Cheese mites? Well, I sincerely hope not, - but perhaps we better go and have a look.
- Right, lovely.
The cheese curd in this factory is produced using the same traditional method as smaller, artisan farms, just on a massive scale.
But it's the way the cheese is left to mature that makes it different.
Why are you putting it in this plastic? To protect it.
So, we want the cheese to mature in the bag, so that there's no contact with the air, so there's no mould growth.
So, the final yield of the cheese is going to be the best it can be.
What about cheese mites? Cheese mites are not something that we want to react with our cheese.
What we've got there is all we need.
So, that just needs to get into a cheese store at 11 degrees and start maturing.
Despite spending up to two years maturing in its airtight wrapper, like other supermarket cheeses packaged in this way, it's rind-free and mite-free.
So, the way you keep cheese mites off your cheese, you don't let them on there in the first place.
- Plus you don't create the habitat that they love.
- Exactly.
That's going to work every time.
Coming up Kate chases some cockney treats on the waterways of England.
How do I pick one of these up? I find out why Danish bacon has been making a killing in the UK supermarkets.
Oh, my word! And Matt's invited to his first hen do to find out how to spot a double-yolker.
I've never seen so many chickens in my life.
Now, bacon! In Britain, we consume over 200,000 tons of it a year.
It's an industry worth 1.
3 billion.
'Customer Services, how can I help?' Hi there, a quick question about bacon.
'And there's one country who are making a killing.
' The Danish bacon seems to be predominant and I don't understand what it is about them.
Is it because they've got bigger, fatter, juicier pigs? Why don't you see French bacon or Russian bacon or Spanish bacon? Do you know? 'I can't actually answer that, I'm afraid.
' It's everywhere, Danish this, Danish that.
It's a bacon conspiracy! 'It is, yes.
I was totally Yeah, I was there with you.
' There, we need to investigate.
'We will definitely.
We have pigs everywhere, but it's very true.
' I reckon when a pig disappears, it ends up turning up in Denmark.
- 'They've kidnapped the' - They're pig-napped.
To find out just how they're doing it, this little pig's on his way to Denmark.
The company I'm visiting is in the town of Horsens, a couple of hours drive from Copenhagen.
Look at the size of that factory.
In Star Wars terms, this is the Death Star of pork factories.
That makes you Han Solo.
And that makes me Luke Skywalker.
This is the largest meat processing company in Europe.
- Hi there, I'm Jim.
- Hi.
I'm Per.
- Nice to meet you.
- Nice to meet you.
I'm here to find out why you Danes are so good at producing so much bacon.
Oh, sounds nice.
I would like to tell the story.
- Great.
It's a huge factory you've got here.
- Yes.
My guide for the day is factory manager Per Larson.
Pigs are processed 24 hours a day.
Oh, my word! I've never seen so many pigs in my life! It's absolutely incredible! How many pigs do you process a day? We have a total capacity of 20,000.
20,000 pigs a day? The scale of this place is enormous.
The slaughterhouse itself is the size of ten football pitches.
- How many rooms like this have you got? - Three.
- You've got three of these? - Yes.
- Whoa! Despite processing 20,000 pigs a day, there aren't many people on the factory floor.
- Make a decision.
- Whoa! Pigs everywhere! 'Wherever you turn, the machines seem to be in charge.
' So, what are they doing here? The first process here, when they go on the blue belts, they have taken a picture, there's two cameras.
And what does that do? It automatically adjusts the saw.
- By taking that picture, it allows the robot to adjust? - Yes.
'Each bit of the pig is heading to the country which will pay 'the highest price.
'While the trotters and heads go to China, we bring home the bacon.
' - That's the bit that you're going to turn into bacon, is it? - Exactly.
'Next stop is Per's latest gadget.
' This is new machine.
It's called a 3D scanner.
- 3D scanner for bacon? - Yeah.
We do not leave more or less fat than the customer wants.
Three millimetres, eight millimetres, whatever.
- That's how good it is? - Yes.
Basically, that's being peeled like a banana.
- Exactly.
- I wouldn't want to put my banana in there, would you? Ah, no, thank you.
Just five days after the pigs first arrived, they're vacuum-packed and exported, ready to be sliced as bacon.
Why are you Danes so good at producing bacon? We have been exporting bacon to England now for more than 125 years, so it's by tradition.
Danish is a brand.
And then I believe that we can produce a quality and a volume that satisfies a lot of companies.
Export is a little bit more than 90% of all pork meat produced in Denmark.
- Where is this going? - England.
- Shall I jump in with it? - Yes, please.
'Later, we see how the Danes are winning the bacon war 'with the real stars of this abattoir.
' Next up, eels.
Do you know what I've got on my plate? No and I don't like the look of it either.
Jellied eel sales are booming! They're now sold in over 300 supermarkets nationwide Have you ever eaten them in London town? No.
I know they get them out the sewers though, don't they? - Sometimes.
- Eels, out the sewers? - Yeah.
.
.
despite the fact we don't seem to know much about them.
Where in the world do you think these eels come from? I'm going to go for Asia somewhere.
I'm going to gamble.
- Where do you think these traditionally came from? - London.
- Cornwall? To get to the bottom of where eels really come from, Kate headed to the West Country at the height of the floods.
Oh, my God! Water as far as the eyes can see.
And when you see it close up, it is unbelievable! Like nothing I have ever seen before.
- Well, you must be Andrew, waiting for me on the hillside.
- Very nice to see you.
- Yeah, great to see you.
- Lovely to meet you.
- Yeah.
Andrew Kerr is the Chairman of the Sustainable Eel Group, and at the forefront of eel conservation.
- Now, what has all of this got to do with eels? - Ah! OK.
Well, their population has collapsed, and one of the reasons the population has collapsed is all their migration routes are blocked.
But when you get a flood like this, the eels can get round all those man-made obstacles that stop them - What, the eels, they're loving it? - Absolutely loving it.
So, am I right in thinking that our waterways are causing problems for eels at, what, at first base? - I mean, they're encountering obstacles - Yes, throughout.
- .
.
everywhere? - Everywhere.
And what I'm going to do is take you to one now, right at the mouth, a really big obstacle.
Andrew and Kate head to the Dunball Sluice, a huge dam which is helping to drain The Somerset Levels, and keep sea water at bay.
What is it about a barrier like this that's causing problems for eels? It's the entry, for this particular barrier, that's the problem.
The babies can't get in.
The baby ones have floated for two years across the ocean.
- So eels do not have their babies here, in rivers, in England? - Nope.
They've come from the Sargasso Sea, somewhere north of Bermuda.
- What?! - Yep.
And - What?! Unbelievable journey.
So a barrier like this, of concrete and steel doors, shuts them out of the river system that they're trying to float into, and then into their nursery habitats.
I want to see one.
Let's go and find some baby eels that have just arrived.
Along the river bank, lights twinkle in the distance.
Every 50 yards or so, a lantern with a fisherman underneath it.
Can we go and see one of these fishermen? Yeah, let's head down and find Anna.
Anna is one of 400 people in Britain with a licence to catch baby eels for conservation.
- This is Kate.
- Hi.
- Hi, Kate.
Nice to meet you at this ungodly hour.
This river is a prime route for the lucky eels who've made it all the way from the Caribbean.
So, what have you got in? Oh gosh! Incredible! Nothing like I expected.
They don't look like grown up eels, do they? No, not at all.
Come on little guys, come on.
Only 1% of baby eels, known as elvers, make it upriver to nutrient-rich ditches, streams and eventually to adulthood.
So, if you didn't do what you're doing here tonight, what would happen to these little guys? What happens to a lot of them, unfortunately, they get caught up in the man-made obstacles in the way and they get killed, basically.
Around a quarter of rescued elvers are reared for consumption, the rest are used for restocking British and European eel habitats.
They will go to farms, and they will be grown from this big, to this big, over two or three years.
And then we fly them to be released into the rivers and wetlands of Europe.
Later, Kate travels to London, to find out how many eels still survive in their traditional homeland.
Next up, eggs.
It used to be once in a blue moon that you'd crack open your morning egg to find two tasty yolks inside.
Now, you can even buy special double-yolker boxes.
But how do the hen farmers guarantee these wonder eggs? How do you get your double-yolkers? 'Erm I'm not quite sure about that, sir.
' Are they great big chickens? 'Erm, yeah.
' 'It's the same species of chicken, it's just a lot larger chicken.
'It's just a giant chicken.
' They must sit on two eggs and they form one egg? 'It must be special type of chickens, I'm not quite' I thought it was a special type of chicken.
'Yeah, definitely, special type of chicken, yeah.
' - Bye-bye.
- 'Bye-bye.
' Special type of chicken.
Matt's taking the high road, to find out if these double-yolkers really are from special chickens, or if there's another explanation altogether.
I've come to the Scottish Borders, where there's a massive chicken farm on an industrial scale, to find out.
Hopefully they've got a few.
This is one of the largest egg producers in the UK, popping out 1.
5 million eggs every day of the year.
In the early 1990s, they started selling boxes of double yolkers to the British supermarkets.
So, this is my chicken farm.
Are you a double-yolker? What about you? Matt's come to meet John Campbell, who set up this business with his wife back in 1959.
- John? - How do you do? - Matt.
- Matt.
- Nice to meet you.
- Nice to meet you, Matt.
I'm on a hunt for these double-yolkers.
Could be your lucky day.
- Here's my pal, Keith.
- Wow! The farm has ten of these huge barns, each containing 32,000 free-range hens.
These are 25 weeks old.
- This is when they lay most of the double-yolkers.
- Oh, really? - Yeah.
- And they're quite rare? - A double-yolker is like a twin.
Where do they lay their eggs? Oh, well, they lay in the nest.
We must come and show you.
- All right, where is it? - A bird always lays in the nest.
Come around and see it.
I've never seen so many chickens in my life.
So, what am I looking for, John? Am I looking for a brown egg, a white egg? No, you're looking for an egg that's a wee bit bigger than - the ordinary eggs.
- All right.
And I'll look along here.
So, there's quite a lot of eggs they're just laying just now and here's one here.
Yeah, lovely big brown egg.
So, that could be a double-yolker? - Yeah, most likely to be a double-yolker.
- OK.
How can you tell? I mean, it's very heavy.
- Yeah, but it's bigger than all the rest.
- Really? - Yep.
- So, how does that compare? Can I grab another one? - Yeah.
- Is there another egg in here? - Yeah.
- That's a normal egg? - That's a normal one.
Oh, OK.
All right then, so they're very - They're very different actually.
- Yeah.
- The weight of that - That's right.
- And they're still warm.
- Yep.
The process of laying an egg is not as painful as it looks.
The 1,500 double-yolkers that pass through here every day cost twice as much as a normal egg.
Each of them has to be tested by hand, by a candling lamp, which is actually little more than a domestic torch.
Take an egg and we'll hold it up to the torch, - and we'll see if it's got two yolks in it.
- Ah.
So, that's what I can see bobbling around inside? Yeah, see two yolks spinning around inside there.
Oh, all right, OK.
Subtle, isn't it? I think.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Two there.
- I've got it.
So, can I check that? - Yeah.
- That tray there.
All right.
Ah! - Two yolks.
- Beautiful! - Bingo! First double-yolker, Matt.
- OK, off you go then.
- Know where they come from now.
Yeah.
Chickens.
After the break, Matt finds out the science behind his double-yolkers.
- Got a frozen chicken here - Yep.
- .
.
that you've sawn in half.
I go back to see how the Danes make bacon from 20,000 pigs a day.
Come and have a look.
And join a school trip on a tour of the abattoir, where even children are shown the entire process.
So, this knife is put into the trachea.
The heart itself actually pumps out the blood.
Earlier, Matt visited a farm which provides a steady supply of eggs, not with one yolk, but two.
So now I know how to find a double-yolker, I need to know how to make one.
So I'm going to go and meet an "eggspert".
He's come to Glasgow's School of Veterinary Medicine to meet Dr Maureen Bain, who's in the middle of an unusual operation.
- Hi.
- Oh, I wouldn't shake my hands.
- Oh, OK.
- My hands are contaminated.
- Nice to meet you.
- Hi.
- Maureen, I'm hoping? - Yes.
So, Maureen, what I really want to know is, how do you make a double-yolker egg? Well, she actually makes a double-yolked egg by mistake.
It's a young chicken that produces double-yolked eggs and, in a normal situation, what would happen is - a single yolk mass would be released from the ovary - Right.
.
.
and then it would just be basically forming an egg.
- But in a young bird, she basically sometimes sheds two yolks.
- OK.
And they basically get wrapped up in one egg.
Mistake or not, double yolks go through exactly the same process as any regular egg.
- So we've got a frozen chicken here - Yeah.
- .
.
that you've sawn in half.
Yeah.
Not, not the type of frozen chicken that you're maybe used to, - cos we've got all of the guts and everything in here.
- Yeah.
Um, but it's really good, because this is actually a laying hen and you can actually see where she's producing her egg in this area here.
- So these are all yolks, are they? - Yeah.
So what she does is, every day, in her ovary, - she will have one yolk mass which is ready to be shed - Mm.
.
.
and she'll have six other ones that are at different stages of development.
So the next one down from it starts to develop and then 24 hours later, it will shed as well.
24 hours it takes to get start from the ovary and out? - Yeah, to an egg.
Yeah.
- Really? - Yeah.
- Is that all? Maureen's laid out a hen's ovarian tube to help illustrate the journey of a yolk.
- It's about a metre long.
- Good Lord! - You can see these little beady things.
- Yeah.
These are all potential eggs.
This yolk mass here is probably the next one that would have been shed, and it would basically be released from the ovary into this funnel, and then it travels all the way down here, and as it's travelling down this bit, it's getting the egg white.
And then this is the big shell gland, where it spends about 18 hours forming.
- And that's where it collects the shell? - Yeah.
- And that's where it goes out? - Yeah.
In the case of some young birds, one of the next yolks in line is released from the ovary by accident, giving us two yolks in one shell.
So, can you predict a double-yolker? Well, if you're a producer and you had a young flock coming in to lay, a proportion of the birds will be producing double-yolked eggs.
But it's difficult to know how many of those birds would actually do this because it is a freak of nature.
So, as sure as eggs is eggs, it seems there'll always be a ready supply of double-yolkers.
'Back to bacon.
' Please mind the head.
We will go under here.
OK.
Go! 'I'm in a Danish pig factory, finding out just how they ensure 'we Brits get our daily fix.
' They process up to 20,000 pigs a day.
There's a constant stream of trucks each delivering pigs from farms across Denmark.
'Within minutes of arriving here, 'they're separated into small groups to say a final farewell.
' - It's their final destination up there, isn't it? - Yes.
How do you kill them? We knock them out with CO2.
- So you use gas, CO2, to knock them out? - Yes.
- So it just knocks them out and they go to sleep? - Yes.
- Then we will take them out on a belt, put a chain on the back leg - Yeah.
- .
.
then we will stick them.
- OK.
- To remove the blood.
Can I go see that? No.
We cannot film it.
This company policy protects the identity of the workers who slaughter the pigs.
The blood is then drained.
The carcasses are dehaired and washed, then moved swiftly onto the production line.
- They've had their hair removed.
- Yes.
So what's the first process of actually breaking down the carcass? The first process, you'll see here on your right-hand side -- first robot.
This is how it's done, by opening the chest by a saw.
Well, do you know what, I have never, ever seen a robot working in a slaughterhouse before.
That is incredible! Robots are routinely used here for some of the bloodiest, messiest jobs 'that would normally be done by hand.
' Yes, this is the most automised robot we have.
It has several operations.
It's cutting their tenderloin and their diaphragm, and taking out the guts and organs.
All the guts and organs coming out now? - Yes, coming out now.
- Wow! It's this advanced automisation that makes this abattoir one of the most efficient in the world, and the Danes are very matter of fact about it all.
Come and have a look, by these windows.
They have 25,000 visitors a year, including schoolchildren, who can see for themselves the entire process.
It's entering the conveyor system, brings it along to the next guy, who is standing with a knife, and the knife is added on to the end of a tube.
So this knife is put into the trachea .
.
and entering more or less up to the heart, where you've got some big veins.
You've got them and the pig's got them.
And then the heart itself actually pumps out the blood.
Are you quite happy with what you've seen? - You think it's not so bad? - Yeah.
- Do you think more people should come and see this? - Yes.
It's an important thing to know how it happens, when you eat it.
If you eat meat, I think it's a very important part of your education.
You're very lucky.
Not many abattoirs have got glass walls.
If we had a completely closed policy, they would say, "What's actually going on behind those walls?" And they wouldn't get the complete idea of how the production works.
- It hasn't put you off eating bacon? - No.
- No, yeah? And are you glad that you've seen it? - Yes.
Well, good for you.
Enjoy the You're only at the beginning.
At the end, we could ask you again.
Yeah! Now, back to eels.
Earlier, Kate found out that our eel stocks are on the decline.
To find out if jellied eels are still swimming in their traditional home, she's gone fishing.
There he is, the white boat.
Dave Pearce is one of the longest serving commercial eel fishermen on the Thames.
Ahoy! So, if anyone can get hold of our slippery friends, it's him.
So, there are eels in there? Hopefully.
Otherwise, I'm going to look a fool! - So where's a good eel spot? - Well, anywhere, really.
- They're all in the Thames, everywhere? - Everywhere, yeah.
- So how do we catch them? - Today, we want to catch quite a few, so we're using what they call a fyke net.
The prime season for catching eels is April until December.
On a good day, Dave can haul in over 100 of the little wrigglers.
- Have you got some in there? - Yeah.
Look at those! Look at those! A wriggling, writhing mass of net and eel.
Urgh! Dave, I need some help -- how do I pick one of these up? - Well - It's impossible! They're so slippery.
Oh, they're so slippery.
These are the bags I keep them in.
- Yeah? - Put your hand in a bag - Like that.
- Oh, right! You just need a bit of traction.
- Bit of grip.
- Right, OK.
Lovely job.
- So, you put your hand in there Right, got it.
Got it, got it, got it.
So how old do you reckon this eel is? A 2lb eel can be 20, so he's he's not quite 2lb.
- 20 years old?! - He's a teenager.
Gosh, it takes them an awful long time to grow, doesn't it? Yeah, yeah.
So, this is the kind of eel that I will find in my jellied eels? - My ones go to Holland.
They're - They go to Holland? - Yeah.
Why don't you sell them in the East End? I mean, we're literally We're pretty much here.
I mean, I can only do the summer, and obviously, the shops are open all year.
And so, if I want to find out where my jellied eels come from Well, there are sort of factories who deal in just making jellied eels.
And the one I suggest you go to is a firm called Bradleys.
They, er, they make tons of jellied eels.
Bradleys, in southwest London, produce 15,000 pots of jellied eels a week.
But if their eels aren't coming from the Thames, where are they coming from? Blimey, that is fishy! - Hello! - Hello.
- Kate.
- Frank, pleased to meet you.
- Right, where are these eels? - Come and follow me.
This is eels.
- Look at those! - The way we produce them.
I'll tell you something, Frank, I've just seen a bag of eels on a boat.
- Cool, yeah.
- Just this morning, we went fishing on the Thames, caught some eels Well, that, you're very lucky to do, cos there's not many people in England catch eels now.
You're telling me that this eel didn't come from the Thames? No.
This eel came from New Zealand.
Halfway round the world.
- From New Zealand?! - New Zealand.
What's wrong with our stocks? In this country, we can't get enough eels to make it worth our while, so the only way we can do it is to buy them from New Zealand.
New Zealand eels are grown in rivers to their optimum size in just five to six years, before being frozen and transported 11,000 miles, ready to be defrosted by Frank's team.
Cos looking at them here in this big bucket, - I mean, they all look the same size.
- They are, yeah.
Whereas this morning on the Thames, all different shapes and sizes.
We like this particular size, so we pay more money for it.
- For the jellied eel - For the jellied eel, this is the best one.
- .
.
this is the best size? - That's the best size.
- Unfortunately, our waters can't supply - No.
- .
.
enough eels for you to supply jellied eels all year round? - No.
Once the eels have been topped, tailed and gutted, Frank's chopper cuts the fish into uniform half-inch rounds.
So that is the perfect cut for a jellied eel? That's the perfect size.
And that's what they call that's what they call a horseshoe.
You get people come up and they want the horseshoe bits, cos when you eat it, you eat it like that.
It comes off the bone.
Once the eels are boiled, Frank adds gelatine.
Blimey! After filling, the pots are then chilled for three hours.
Look at that! That's more like it.
The finished product.
Come on, back round the shop.
And now the moment Kate's been waiting for This is my first jellied eel, Frank.
This is this is going to convert you.
OK, I'm ready.
Right, now, what I'll do to make it easier for you Take it off the bone and just give you the piece of eel.
Right, lovely.
OK.
Right.
I don't know what I was afraid of, really.
It's really nice! One day, hopefully, in a few years, you'll be like "Yeah, just hauled these out the Thames.
Here we go!" I hope that's the truth as well.
Whoa! Whoa-ho-ho-ho-ho! Don't ride camels round here.
Oh, right
' Sweet! Really peppery.
'But what do we really know about where our food comes from' I've never been cornered by an ostrich.
This is like Oxford Circus, but for cows.
'.
.
and how it's processed before it reaches our plates?' This is incredible.
The place is run by robots! 'We're going to the ends of the earth 'to find out what's really in our food.
' Whoa! I've got to change my transport.
'We're meeting the people who make it.
' Don't know where to look.
'And we're asking the questions to learn the truth.
' Let's do it! 'On tonight's show, we revisit our most exotic 'and intrepid food investigations.
' I wouldn't want to put my banana in there, would you? Er, no, thank you.
'Kate's on a mission in Malaysia, 'discovering the unappealing truth about bananas' There might be one day when I go to the supermarket, there's no bananas.
'.
.
and gets to grips with the slippery truth 'about the origins of jellied eels.
' - So, there are eels in there? - Hopefully! 'Matt's off to Scotland 'to discover how whisky gets its distinctive flavour' You can smell the whisky fumes.
'.
.
and gets an explanation 'into how farmers find those elusive double yolkers.
' I've come to the Scottish Borders, where there's a massive chicken.
'I discover that, to make mature cheese, 'you need a little help from some very little friends' The cheese is alive with mites! '.
.
and visit Denmark to discover how their pigs 'keep our supermarket shelves stacked with bacon.
' How many pigs do you process a day? 20,000.
'First up, bananas.
' Now, why is it that you only sell one type of banana? You know, like, with an apple, you get, like, a Cox apple and then you get a Braeburn and, if you're lucky, you'll get a Pink Lady Those are my favourites.
'I mean, you do get a choice.
I mean, you get, like, '"Eat Me bananas", you get Everyday Value bananas.
' - 'With bananas, it is just a banana.
' - Yeah.
I'm sitting here looking at my bananas and I thought, "They're all the same, they're just all" 'They are all boring, they're all yellow.
' Yeah, all yellow, sitting there like they own the place and you think, "Well, there should be at least "a couple of different varieties.
" 'Bananas are just like strawberries.
' I'm on a quest to get the bottom of why there is only one type of banana for sale in the supermarket.
Oh, dear! 'I think bananas, they all taste the same.
'I'll will pass your comments on to our Buying Department.
' Pass it on to the top banana.
Kate's headed to one of the countries where the world's first edible bananas were discovered -- Malaysia.
Wow! It is hot! Kate's en route to a plantation just north of the capital, Kuala Lumpur.
Here they grow the Cavendish banana.
It's pretty special, as the Cavendish is the only one available in most British supermarkets.
These don't look very healthy.
Look at the state of them! Kate's arranged to meet agricultural expert Dr Ting Su Yien.
Your banana plants all look pretty ropey.
So what is wrong with them? Cavendish here is very susceptible to Panama Wilt Disease.
What happens to the plant itself is the yellowing of the leaves.
- The trunk of the tree - The trunk, yes.
.
.
is just splitting.
Yeah.
And eventually, it will just collapse, yeah.
And how does this tree contract this disease? This is in the soil and it enters into the feeder roots and it gets into the plant.
And is there anything you can do about it? Unfortunately, no.
Because Panama Disease is a fungus, it thrives in Malaysia's warm, wet climate and has decimated plantations all across South East Asia.
There might be one day when I go to the supermarket, there's no bananas.
And they're not coming back.
- Probably, yeah.
- Probably?! Probably, yes.
- That's pretty serious, isn't it? - Yes.
I mean, can you imagine a whole fruit wiped out? Wiped out, yes.
The extinction of banana, yeah.
Could it really be the end of this banana and are there any other varieties? Kate's off to the capital's main market to see what's on offer.
- I'm looking for banana.
- Banana! You want banana, this side.
Ah.
Look at these, hey.
Just like apples, they've got over a dozen different varieties on this stall alone.
Come on, darling, this one.
This one small one.
This one gold banana.
Mm.
It's much sweeter, you know.
Very sweet, yes.
Really sweet.
Amazingly, there are over 1,000 varieties of banana in the world.
But all of them are susceptible to this banana blight.
Does this disease really have the potential to kill off the world's bananas? We'll find out later.
Next up, cheese! I love my cheese and I'm not alone.
We eat a staggering 700,000 tonnes of it every year and the more mature, the better.
But what makes mature cheese mature? So, what's the difference between sort of the extra-mature and the vintage and the sort of traditional, then? 'Oh, that I wouldn't know, I'm afraid.
' I don't mind waiting, I'm just here having some cheese and biscuits.
Maybe it's really old? Mouldy? So, the difference, say, like, from an extra-mature and a traditional - is just the taste? - 'Just the taste, yeah.
' - Right.
'The only thing I could say is give the makers a call.
' So, none the wiser! I'm off to Devon to meet cheese-maker Mary Quick.
- Hey, Mary.
- Hi, how you doing? - Nice to see you.
I'm Jim.
- Great to meet you.
- Lovely cows! - Right, well, let's see your cheese.
- Yeah, let's go.
'This family business has been producing award-winning cheeses 'for the last 25 years.
' So, Mary, this is incredible! How many cheeses would you have in here? At the moment, I think there's about 5,000 cheeses in here.
But what's the big difference, then, between extra-mature and your mature? For us, mature cheese is 12 to 15 months old.
Extra-mature, for us, is 18 to 21 months.
Over two years old, which is our vintage, starts developing some really interesting flavours.
Mary's cheddar is made the old-fashioned way, by wrapping cheese curd in cloth, then leaving each individual truckle to mature on the shelf for as long as it needs.
What you've got on the outside of these cheeses is that lovely mould garden.
And there are things that like to eat that mould -- cheese mite.
- Mites? - Yeah.
So the kind of mites that you find in the garden? Tiny little spider mites, those types of things? Oh, even tinier.
Tiny, weeny, weeny.
I mean, I mean you can't see that they're individual little creatures.
Are they eating the cheese or eating the rind? What are they doing? In the right balance, they're just walking through the mould garden that's sitting on the outside of a traditional cheese, helping to form the rind.
- They're an important part of cheese-making.
- They really are.
Let's have a look at these critters, then.
Where are they? - Look! Can you just see? Like dust.
- Yes.
Little microscope.
The cheese is alive with mites! - In a way, keeping your mould under control.
- Yeah.
So, if you get too many, they will start eating away at Not just at the moulds, which is really helpful, but they will actually start eating into the rind and then into the cheese themselves, So they will then go into the cheese or certainly cause the cheese to open up and have more mould.
So the purpose of these mites is to eat the mould.
But too many mites and they'll spoil the cheese.
Mary's come up with a way of keeping this greedy mite population under control.
The truckles are regularly zapped with air to keep their numbers down.
When the cheese leaves Mary's factory, she likes to give it one last zap to make sure they are cheese mite-free.
But do all cheese-makers do the same? Later, I'll be testing some of our favourite high street fromages to find out! Oh, yes, I can see mites on that.
Next up, whisky.
You might think I'm a bit stupid really, but what gives whisky that whisky flavour? On the box, it says loads of things like "Subtle hint of marzipan and chocolate.
" So, what, do you put all those things in there? 'I'm not sure, to be honest.
' 'It turns out that there is plain caramel 'which is blended into the whisky.
' Ah, so the caramel gives its flavour.
'The germination of barley gives it its rich flavour.
' Ah.
It makes you frisky, whisky! I'm not getting anywhere on this one.
But I know a man who'd be happy to oblige.
Tomorrow, I'm going to get up very early and I'm going to fly to Scotland, obviously the home the spiritual home of whisky, to find out exactly what goes into this and what gives it its unique flavour.
Yeah, ain't life tough, eh? Matt's come to the banks of the River Spey in the Highlands of Scotland.
This is what I've come to see, this is proper Scotland.
This is whisky country and now I need to find out how they make the stuff.
Matt's visiting one of the most famous distilleries -- Glenfiddich.
- Hello.
- Hi.
- How you doing? Matt.
- Pleased to meet you.
Jennifer.
- Nice to meet you.
Jennifer Proctor is Senior Guide here at the distillery.
Ah.
Ha-ha! This is great! Whisky is made by fermenting barley, then refining the alcohol, using these giant stills.
- So what's this coming out here? - That's what will become whisky.
It's doesn't look like whisky.
It looks more like vodka at the moment.
It's going to take all of its colour and about 60 to 70% of its flavour - from the casks that we're going to use.
- Really? - Yeah.
So a large part of what becomes whisky and what we know whisky to be is going to come from the barrel? Yeah.
- Like Disney.
- Yeah.
Wow! I like it in here.
It's good, isn't it? God, there's a lot of whisky sat here.
'The same clear spirit goes into each and every barrel 'and it's the barrels that add the colour to the whisky.
'Surprisingly, they add up to 70% of the flavour, 'which is helped along because the barrels have been used before.
' So, that's from a sherry cask.
That looks like sherry.
Really rich, really dark colours.
And this one is an ex-American bourbon cask.
Look at the difference.
So, it's much lighter in colour.
Yeah.
Look at that.
- I mean, these are entirely different drinks, aren't they? - Mm-hmm.
So the difference between that and that is purely based on the barrel - that it's sat in? Really? - Yeah.
The contents of these second-hand barrels will eventually be blended together, water added, and aged for at least 12 years, before being bottled.
This is where the magic sort of takes over a little bit.
You could have all of these casks here maturing for the same length of time, but what's going on inside each one will vary hugely from one to another.
After the break Wow! Now, this is totally different.
Matt's in Scotland, discovering what gives whisky its world-famous flavour.
Look at those barrels! Look at that! Turns out it's mostly to do with the second-hand barrels the whisky's aged in.
- Hello, there.
- Good morning! - Nice to meet you.
- I'm Andrew Russell.
Andrew Russell recycles mainly American bourbon casks for the Scottish distilleries.
That's amazing! How many have you got here? - We've probably got around 70,000.
- Jeez! Yeah, those are ex-bourbon barrels which have come in from Kentucky.
So, what is it about the barrel that gives whisky its flavour? The oak itself will give off flavours.
- It's always oak? - Scotch whisky law says that it has to be oak.
A little of it depends on the type of heat treatment inside, whether it's been toasted or charred.
The toasting releases flavours from the wood.
It almost cracks open the surface.
- When you say toast, you mean basically set fire to it? - Yes.
- Can I see that? - Yes, we can go and see that right now.
- Good.
Is it warmer? - It is a bit warmer.
This cask is ready for charring.
If you want to grab it, we'll put it on to one of these fires.
This charring or toasting process exposes the fresh oak, releasing the natural flavours of the wood, and the bourbon that was aged in the barrel back in Kentucky.
What sort of temperatures are going through that? - Maybe 450 degree Fahrenheit.
- Really? Look at that! Get the old camera in there.
That is lovely.
- You can smell the whisky fumes as well.
- Oh, yeah.
After the barrels have been charred, they're renovated by a team of craftsmen.
Their impressive speed might have something to do with the fact that they are paid per barrel.
This is the finished article.
It is fair to say that there's a lot more going on in a barrel than simply just the vessel that holds the whisky.
The cask is extremely important to the whisky making process.
Speaking from a cooperage point of view, the cask is the most important.
Morning! Kate's investigating an epidemic that could wipe out the banana business.
- I'm looking for Richard.
- You've got him.
- Oh, morning! - Good morning, how are you? - I'm Kate.
Richard Hickson has been keeping Britain in bananas for over 20 years.
Why is it that it is just the Cavendish banana on our shelves, and yet I've seen lots of other different types of banana around the world? Basically, they've created a genetic clone that was capable of shipping over long distances, surviving two, three week journeys and then arriving on the supermarket shelves fresh, sweet and tasty for the consumer.
So, you're telling me that every single banana in this warehouse is a genetic clone? Yes, it is.
I've been to a banana plantation, where there's been utter devastation.
And it's killing these off.
You can't help not being worried about it.
If a disease hits, it will wipe out the entire crop of banana itself.
- Should I be stockpiling these? - No.
You'll tend to find that most of the bananas that we have in here, or Europe itself, come from Latin America.
Probably referring to Panama disease or TR4? It hasn't reached Latin America yet.
So, why hasn't the disease hit Latin America? Surely, it's only a matter of time.
We're bound for Peru, to get to the bottom of whether we really are facing a banana-geddon! Kate's headed to Piura, in the north of the country.
Just landed in Peru.
I'm at the baggage belt and a big golden retriever has just been jumping at my rucksack.
He wouldn't leave me alone and it's a sniffer dog.
Anyway, the man said "Have you got anything in your bag? "Have you got any fruit?" I was like, "We're doing a story on bananas, "of course I've got a banana!" So, I had to hand it over.
Kate's going to a fair trade cooperative plantation to find out how, so far, Peru has avoided this banana blight.
Head Farmer, Ramil Garcia, is all set to give her the guided tour.
- I've come to see your bananas! - Si.
Nobody told me we were going on a bike.
I've got a skirt on.
That wasn't the most glamorous.
Peru, and its neighbours, Ecuador, Colombia and Costa Rica, are now known as the Banana Belt.
This plantation alone has nearly 40,000 clone Cavendish banana trees.
Now, Ramil, I've just been in Malaysia, where their banana trees are sick.
They have Panama disease.
You know, it's coursing around the world.
Are you concerned? So, is Peru a little haven where Panama disease will never hit? This dry climate means the trees are thriving, so harvesting is a year round operation.
Each Cavendish tree only ever produces one bunch, so as soon as it's picked the tree is felled, to make way for a new sapling growing next to it.
Look at this! So you're pulling bananas on your giant banana conveyor belt? He is a very, very strong man.
200,000 bananas a week are processed here, by hand.
It's a giant banana bath.
The cloned Cavendish banana has been designed to be picked while still green and then ripened only at their destination.
They're rinsed in water and potassium sulphate, to remove the sap.
Whoa, that is sticky! See, it's all gone.
They are then boxed, before they set off on their two-week boat journey to our supermarkets.
The arid climate in this small pocket of Peru may well provide a safe haven for the Cavendish banana, but the world eats a lot of them.
Coming here, you would not think for a second that the Cavendish banana is facing a global epidemic.
But I can't see how on earth these guys in this small area of Peru are going to be able to supply the world's demand for the banana.
That's just bonkers.
If Panama disease continues its march across the world and wipes out our beloved Cavendish, the only solution is another test tube banana.
A new, improved disease-resistant version.
Back to cheese.
Earlier, I discovered that some traditionally-made mature cheeses have mites living on their rind.
The cheese is alive with mites.
And one thing is still really bugging me.
What I want to find out is, are there mites on the cheese you can get in delis and supermarkets? So, I've brought this lot to a top scientist to find out.
- Hi.
Nice to see you.
- Good to see you.
Richard Wall is a professor of zoology, who knows a cheese mite when he sees one.
- They're related to the spiders.
- Yeah? So, they've all got piercing, sucking mouthparts.
These are the mouthparts.
Essentially, the rest of the body is just gut.
They're just machines for feeding and reproducing.
Time to get unwrapping, to see whether any of our supermarket deli cheeses have got mites stowed away on their rind.
This is like CSI Cheese, isn't it really? Indeed.
Good cheese, that.
First up, the UK's favourite -- Cheddar.
There's no signs of anything, mite faeces or anything.
- Nothing? - No eggs, no.
So far, no cheese mites.
Try this pecorino, this one I found has a bit more mouldy rind.
Oh, yes, I can see mites on that.
Wow, there we are.
Ba-boom! Mr Mite.
Hello, mate.
Next up, mimolette.
So, Richard, I've got a little treat here for you.
I've got some French cheese.
They intentionally put mites on it, to help give it flavour.
Wow! Now, this is totally different.
- Whoa! - Absolutely heaving with mites.
What you can see there is the movement of the mites.
Look at that! They're beautiful little things, aren't they? What kind of extra flavour are they going to add? - They're supposed to give it a slightly more nutty flavour.
- Yeah.
Is it the mites that are changing the flavour of the cheese or are we tasting the nuttiness of the mites? I don't think people are actually sure.
The mites are supposed to aerate the surface of the cheese slightly, so they break through the surface and they allow more oxygen through to the cheese.
Do you think we need to grow up a little bit when we look at things like this and go, ugh, mites on my cheese? Actually, do you think, well, grow up, they're everywhere.
If you want to enjoy really good cheese, - you've got to enjoy it with the mites.
- That's right.
These microorganisms, these mites are all around us in every ecosystem, on us all the time, and so we just have to get used to them.
They're there, they're extremely useful and important components for natural ecosystem.
- Delicious cheese, though! - Good long flavour.
Yeah, very nice.
And that's thanks to the mites, as well.
What about mature cheeses that don't have rinds? Like the ones you make your sarnies with? I've come to Somerset to meet cheesemaker, Charlie Barber.
- Nice to meet you, I'm Jim.
- Yeah, nice to meet you.
I've come to see if you've got cheese mites.
Cheese mites? Well, I sincerely hope not, - but perhaps we better go and have a look.
- Right, lovely.
The cheese curd in this factory is produced using the same traditional method as smaller, artisan farms, just on a massive scale.
But it's the way the cheese is left to mature that makes it different.
Why are you putting it in this plastic? To protect it.
So, we want the cheese to mature in the bag, so that there's no contact with the air, so there's no mould growth.
So, the final yield of the cheese is going to be the best it can be.
What about cheese mites? Cheese mites are not something that we want to react with our cheese.
What we've got there is all we need.
So, that just needs to get into a cheese store at 11 degrees and start maturing.
Despite spending up to two years maturing in its airtight wrapper, like other supermarket cheeses packaged in this way, it's rind-free and mite-free.
So, the way you keep cheese mites off your cheese, you don't let them on there in the first place.
- Plus you don't create the habitat that they love.
- Exactly.
That's going to work every time.
Coming up Kate chases some cockney treats on the waterways of England.
How do I pick one of these up? I find out why Danish bacon has been making a killing in the UK supermarkets.
Oh, my word! And Matt's invited to his first hen do to find out how to spot a double-yolker.
I've never seen so many chickens in my life.
Now, bacon! In Britain, we consume over 200,000 tons of it a year.
It's an industry worth 1.
3 billion.
'Customer Services, how can I help?' Hi there, a quick question about bacon.
'And there's one country who are making a killing.
' The Danish bacon seems to be predominant and I don't understand what it is about them.
Is it because they've got bigger, fatter, juicier pigs? Why don't you see French bacon or Russian bacon or Spanish bacon? Do you know? 'I can't actually answer that, I'm afraid.
' It's everywhere, Danish this, Danish that.
It's a bacon conspiracy! 'It is, yes.
I was totally Yeah, I was there with you.
' There, we need to investigate.
'We will definitely.
We have pigs everywhere, but it's very true.
' I reckon when a pig disappears, it ends up turning up in Denmark.
- 'They've kidnapped the' - They're pig-napped.
To find out just how they're doing it, this little pig's on his way to Denmark.
The company I'm visiting is in the town of Horsens, a couple of hours drive from Copenhagen.
Look at the size of that factory.
In Star Wars terms, this is the Death Star of pork factories.
That makes you Han Solo.
And that makes me Luke Skywalker.
This is the largest meat processing company in Europe.
- Hi there, I'm Jim.
- Hi.
I'm Per.
- Nice to meet you.
- Nice to meet you.
I'm here to find out why you Danes are so good at producing so much bacon.
Oh, sounds nice.
I would like to tell the story.
- Great.
It's a huge factory you've got here.
- Yes.
My guide for the day is factory manager Per Larson.
Pigs are processed 24 hours a day.
Oh, my word! I've never seen so many pigs in my life! It's absolutely incredible! How many pigs do you process a day? We have a total capacity of 20,000.
20,000 pigs a day? The scale of this place is enormous.
The slaughterhouse itself is the size of ten football pitches.
- How many rooms like this have you got? - Three.
- You've got three of these? - Yes.
- Whoa! Despite processing 20,000 pigs a day, there aren't many people on the factory floor.
- Make a decision.
- Whoa! Pigs everywhere! 'Wherever you turn, the machines seem to be in charge.
' So, what are they doing here? The first process here, when they go on the blue belts, they have taken a picture, there's two cameras.
And what does that do? It automatically adjusts the saw.
- By taking that picture, it allows the robot to adjust? - Yes.
'Each bit of the pig is heading to the country which will pay 'the highest price.
'While the trotters and heads go to China, we bring home the bacon.
' - That's the bit that you're going to turn into bacon, is it? - Exactly.
'Next stop is Per's latest gadget.
' This is new machine.
It's called a 3D scanner.
- 3D scanner for bacon? - Yeah.
We do not leave more or less fat than the customer wants.
Three millimetres, eight millimetres, whatever.
- That's how good it is? - Yes.
Basically, that's being peeled like a banana.
- Exactly.
- I wouldn't want to put my banana in there, would you? Ah, no, thank you.
Just five days after the pigs first arrived, they're vacuum-packed and exported, ready to be sliced as bacon.
Why are you Danes so good at producing bacon? We have been exporting bacon to England now for more than 125 years, so it's by tradition.
Danish is a brand.
And then I believe that we can produce a quality and a volume that satisfies a lot of companies.
Export is a little bit more than 90% of all pork meat produced in Denmark.
- Where is this going? - England.
- Shall I jump in with it? - Yes, please.
'Later, we see how the Danes are winning the bacon war 'with the real stars of this abattoir.
' Next up, eels.
Do you know what I've got on my plate? No and I don't like the look of it either.
Jellied eel sales are booming! They're now sold in over 300 supermarkets nationwide Have you ever eaten them in London town? No.
I know they get them out the sewers though, don't they? - Sometimes.
- Eels, out the sewers? - Yeah.
.
.
despite the fact we don't seem to know much about them.
Where in the world do you think these eels come from? I'm going to go for Asia somewhere.
I'm going to gamble.
- Where do you think these traditionally came from? - London.
- Cornwall? To get to the bottom of where eels really come from, Kate headed to the West Country at the height of the floods.
Oh, my God! Water as far as the eyes can see.
And when you see it close up, it is unbelievable! Like nothing I have ever seen before.
- Well, you must be Andrew, waiting for me on the hillside.
- Very nice to see you.
- Yeah, great to see you.
- Lovely to meet you.
- Yeah.
Andrew Kerr is the Chairman of the Sustainable Eel Group, and at the forefront of eel conservation.
- Now, what has all of this got to do with eels? - Ah! OK.
Well, their population has collapsed, and one of the reasons the population has collapsed is all their migration routes are blocked.
But when you get a flood like this, the eels can get round all those man-made obstacles that stop them - What, the eels, they're loving it? - Absolutely loving it.
So, am I right in thinking that our waterways are causing problems for eels at, what, at first base? - I mean, they're encountering obstacles - Yes, throughout.
- .
.
everywhere? - Everywhere.
And what I'm going to do is take you to one now, right at the mouth, a really big obstacle.
Andrew and Kate head to the Dunball Sluice, a huge dam which is helping to drain The Somerset Levels, and keep sea water at bay.
What is it about a barrier like this that's causing problems for eels? It's the entry, for this particular barrier, that's the problem.
The babies can't get in.
The baby ones have floated for two years across the ocean.
- So eels do not have their babies here, in rivers, in England? - Nope.
They've come from the Sargasso Sea, somewhere north of Bermuda.
- What?! - Yep.
And - What?! Unbelievable journey.
So a barrier like this, of concrete and steel doors, shuts them out of the river system that they're trying to float into, and then into their nursery habitats.
I want to see one.
Let's go and find some baby eels that have just arrived.
Along the river bank, lights twinkle in the distance.
Every 50 yards or so, a lantern with a fisherman underneath it.
Can we go and see one of these fishermen? Yeah, let's head down and find Anna.
Anna is one of 400 people in Britain with a licence to catch baby eels for conservation.
- This is Kate.
- Hi.
- Hi, Kate.
Nice to meet you at this ungodly hour.
This river is a prime route for the lucky eels who've made it all the way from the Caribbean.
So, what have you got in? Oh gosh! Incredible! Nothing like I expected.
They don't look like grown up eels, do they? No, not at all.
Come on little guys, come on.
Only 1% of baby eels, known as elvers, make it upriver to nutrient-rich ditches, streams and eventually to adulthood.
So, if you didn't do what you're doing here tonight, what would happen to these little guys? What happens to a lot of them, unfortunately, they get caught up in the man-made obstacles in the way and they get killed, basically.
Around a quarter of rescued elvers are reared for consumption, the rest are used for restocking British and European eel habitats.
They will go to farms, and they will be grown from this big, to this big, over two or three years.
And then we fly them to be released into the rivers and wetlands of Europe.
Later, Kate travels to London, to find out how many eels still survive in their traditional homeland.
Next up, eggs.
It used to be once in a blue moon that you'd crack open your morning egg to find two tasty yolks inside.
Now, you can even buy special double-yolker boxes.
But how do the hen farmers guarantee these wonder eggs? How do you get your double-yolkers? 'Erm I'm not quite sure about that, sir.
' Are they great big chickens? 'Erm, yeah.
' 'It's the same species of chicken, it's just a lot larger chicken.
'It's just a giant chicken.
' They must sit on two eggs and they form one egg? 'It must be special type of chickens, I'm not quite' I thought it was a special type of chicken.
'Yeah, definitely, special type of chicken, yeah.
' - Bye-bye.
- 'Bye-bye.
' Special type of chicken.
Matt's taking the high road, to find out if these double-yolkers really are from special chickens, or if there's another explanation altogether.
I've come to the Scottish Borders, where there's a massive chicken farm on an industrial scale, to find out.
Hopefully they've got a few.
This is one of the largest egg producers in the UK, popping out 1.
5 million eggs every day of the year.
In the early 1990s, they started selling boxes of double yolkers to the British supermarkets.
So, this is my chicken farm.
Are you a double-yolker? What about you? Matt's come to meet John Campbell, who set up this business with his wife back in 1959.
- John? - How do you do? - Matt.
- Matt.
- Nice to meet you.
- Nice to meet you, Matt.
I'm on a hunt for these double-yolkers.
Could be your lucky day.
- Here's my pal, Keith.
- Wow! The farm has ten of these huge barns, each containing 32,000 free-range hens.
These are 25 weeks old.
- This is when they lay most of the double-yolkers.
- Oh, really? - Yeah.
- And they're quite rare? - A double-yolker is like a twin.
Where do they lay their eggs? Oh, well, they lay in the nest.
We must come and show you.
- All right, where is it? - A bird always lays in the nest.
Come around and see it.
I've never seen so many chickens in my life.
So, what am I looking for, John? Am I looking for a brown egg, a white egg? No, you're looking for an egg that's a wee bit bigger than - the ordinary eggs.
- All right.
And I'll look along here.
So, there's quite a lot of eggs they're just laying just now and here's one here.
Yeah, lovely big brown egg.
So, that could be a double-yolker? - Yeah, most likely to be a double-yolker.
- OK.
How can you tell? I mean, it's very heavy.
- Yeah, but it's bigger than all the rest.
- Really? - Yep.
- So, how does that compare? Can I grab another one? - Yeah.
- Is there another egg in here? - Yeah.
- That's a normal egg? - That's a normal one.
Oh, OK.
All right then, so they're very - They're very different actually.
- Yeah.
- The weight of that - That's right.
- And they're still warm.
- Yep.
The process of laying an egg is not as painful as it looks.
The 1,500 double-yolkers that pass through here every day cost twice as much as a normal egg.
Each of them has to be tested by hand, by a candling lamp, which is actually little more than a domestic torch.
Take an egg and we'll hold it up to the torch, - and we'll see if it's got two yolks in it.
- Ah.
So, that's what I can see bobbling around inside? Yeah, see two yolks spinning around inside there.
Oh, all right, OK.
Subtle, isn't it? I think.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Two there.
- I've got it.
So, can I check that? - Yeah.
- That tray there.
All right.
Ah! - Two yolks.
- Beautiful! - Bingo! First double-yolker, Matt.
- OK, off you go then.
- Know where they come from now.
Yeah.
Chickens.
After the break, Matt finds out the science behind his double-yolkers.
- Got a frozen chicken here - Yep.
- .
.
that you've sawn in half.
I go back to see how the Danes make bacon from 20,000 pigs a day.
Come and have a look.
And join a school trip on a tour of the abattoir, where even children are shown the entire process.
So, this knife is put into the trachea.
The heart itself actually pumps out the blood.
Earlier, Matt visited a farm which provides a steady supply of eggs, not with one yolk, but two.
So now I know how to find a double-yolker, I need to know how to make one.
So I'm going to go and meet an "eggspert".
He's come to Glasgow's School of Veterinary Medicine to meet Dr Maureen Bain, who's in the middle of an unusual operation.
- Hi.
- Oh, I wouldn't shake my hands.
- Oh, OK.
- My hands are contaminated.
- Nice to meet you.
- Hi.
- Maureen, I'm hoping? - Yes.
So, Maureen, what I really want to know is, how do you make a double-yolker egg? Well, she actually makes a double-yolked egg by mistake.
It's a young chicken that produces double-yolked eggs and, in a normal situation, what would happen is - a single yolk mass would be released from the ovary - Right.
.
.
and then it would just be basically forming an egg.
- But in a young bird, she basically sometimes sheds two yolks.
- OK.
And they basically get wrapped up in one egg.
Mistake or not, double yolks go through exactly the same process as any regular egg.
- So we've got a frozen chicken here - Yeah.
- .
.
that you've sawn in half.
Yeah.
Not, not the type of frozen chicken that you're maybe used to, - cos we've got all of the guts and everything in here.
- Yeah.
Um, but it's really good, because this is actually a laying hen and you can actually see where she's producing her egg in this area here.
- So these are all yolks, are they? - Yeah.
So what she does is, every day, in her ovary, - she will have one yolk mass which is ready to be shed - Mm.
.
.
and she'll have six other ones that are at different stages of development.
So the next one down from it starts to develop and then 24 hours later, it will shed as well.
24 hours it takes to get start from the ovary and out? - Yeah, to an egg.
Yeah.
- Really? - Yeah.
- Is that all? Maureen's laid out a hen's ovarian tube to help illustrate the journey of a yolk.
- It's about a metre long.
- Good Lord! - You can see these little beady things.
- Yeah.
These are all potential eggs.
This yolk mass here is probably the next one that would have been shed, and it would basically be released from the ovary into this funnel, and then it travels all the way down here, and as it's travelling down this bit, it's getting the egg white.
And then this is the big shell gland, where it spends about 18 hours forming.
- And that's where it collects the shell? - Yeah.
- And that's where it goes out? - Yeah.
In the case of some young birds, one of the next yolks in line is released from the ovary by accident, giving us two yolks in one shell.
So, can you predict a double-yolker? Well, if you're a producer and you had a young flock coming in to lay, a proportion of the birds will be producing double-yolked eggs.
But it's difficult to know how many of those birds would actually do this because it is a freak of nature.
So, as sure as eggs is eggs, it seems there'll always be a ready supply of double-yolkers.
'Back to bacon.
' Please mind the head.
We will go under here.
OK.
Go! 'I'm in a Danish pig factory, finding out just how they ensure 'we Brits get our daily fix.
' They process up to 20,000 pigs a day.
There's a constant stream of trucks each delivering pigs from farms across Denmark.
'Within minutes of arriving here, 'they're separated into small groups to say a final farewell.
' - It's their final destination up there, isn't it? - Yes.
How do you kill them? We knock them out with CO2.
- So you use gas, CO2, to knock them out? - Yes.
- So it just knocks them out and they go to sleep? - Yes.
- Then we will take them out on a belt, put a chain on the back leg - Yeah.
- .
.
then we will stick them.
- OK.
- To remove the blood.
Can I go see that? No.
We cannot film it.
This company policy protects the identity of the workers who slaughter the pigs.
The blood is then drained.
The carcasses are dehaired and washed, then moved swiftly onto the production line.
- They've had their hair removed.
- Yes.
So what's the first process of actually breaking down the carcass? The first process, you'll see here on your right-hand side -- first robot.
This is how it's done, by opening the chest by a saw.
Well, do you know what, I have never, ever seen a robot working in a slaughterhouse before.
That is incredible! Robots are routinely used here for some of the bloodiest, messiest jobs 'that would normally be done by hand.
' Yes, this is the most automised robot we have.
It has several operations.
It's cutting their tenderloin and their diaphragm, and taking out the guts and organs.
All the guts and organs coming out now? - Yes, coming out now.
- Wow! It's this advanced automisation that makes this abattoir one of the most efficient in the world, and the Danes are very matter of fact about it all.
Come and have a look, by these windows.
They have 25,000 visitors a year, including schoolchildren, who can see for themselves the entire process.
It's entering the conveyor system, brings it along to the next guy, who is standing with a knife, and the knife is added on to the end of a tube.
So this knife is put into the trachea .
.
and entering more or less up to the heart, where you've got some big veins.
You've got them and the pig's got them.
And then the heart itself actually pumps out the blood.
Are you quite happy with what you've seen? - You think it's not so bad? - Yeah.
- Do you think more people should come and see this? - Yes.
It's an important thing to know how it happens, when you eat it.
If you eat meat, I think it's a very important part of your education.
You're very lucky.
Not many abattoirs have got glass walls.
If we had a completely closed policy, they would say, "What's actually going on behind those walls?" And they wouldn't get the complete idea of how the production works.
- It hasn't put you off eating bacon? - No.
- No, yeah? And are you glad that you've seen it? - Yes.
Well, good for you.
Enjoy the You're only at the beginning.
At the end, we could ask you again.
Yeah! Now, back to eels.
Earlier, Kate found out that our eel stocks are on the decline.
To find out if jellied eels are still swimming in their traditional home, she's gone fishing.
There he is, the white boat.
Dave Pearce is one of the longest serving commercial eel fishermen on the Thames.
Ahoy! So, if anyone can get hold of our slippery friends, it's him.
So, there are eels in there? Hopefully.
Otherwise, I'm going to look a fool! - So where's a good eel spot? - Well, anywhere, really.
- They're all in the Thames, everywhere? - Everywhere, yeah.
- So how do we catch them? - Today, we want to catch quite a few, so we're using what they call a fyke net.
The prime season for catching eels is April until December.
On a good day, Dave can haul in over 100 of the little wrigglers.
- Have you got some in there? - Yeah.
Look at those! Look at those! A wriggling, writhing mass of net and eel.
Urgh! Dave, I need some help -- how do I pick one of these up? - Well - It's impossible! They're so slippery.
Oh, they're so slippery.
These are the bags I keep them in.
- Yeah? - Put your hand in a bag - Like that.
- Oh, right! You just need a bit of traction.
- Bit of grip.
- Right, OK.
Lovely job.
- So, you put your hand in there Right, got it.
Got it, got it, got it.
So how old do you reckon this eel is? A 2lb eel can be 20, so he's he's not quite 2lb.
- 20 years old?! - He's a teenager.
Gosh, it takes them an awful long time to grow, doesn't it? Yeah, yeah.
So, this is the kind of eel that I will find in my jellied eels? - My ones go to Holland.
They're - They go to Holland? - Yeah.
Why don't you sell them in the East End? I mean, we're literally We're pretty much here.
I mean, I can only do the summer, and obviously, the shops are open all year.
And so, if I want to find out where my jellied eels come from Well, there are sort of factories who deal in just making jellied eels.
And the one I suggest you go to is a firm called Bradleys.
They, er, they make tons of jellied eels.
Bradleys, in southwest London, produce 15,000 pots of jellied eels a week.
But if their eels aren't coming from the Thames, where are they coming from? Blimey, that is fishy! - Hello! - Hello.
- Kate.
- Frank, pleased to meet you.
- Right, where are these eels? - Come and follow me.
This is eels.
- Look at those! - The way we produce them.
I'll tell you something, Frank, I've just seen a bag of eels on a boat.
- Cool, yeah.
- Just this morning, we went fishing on the Thames, caught some eels Well, that, you're very lucky to do, cos there's not many people in England catch eels now.
You're telling me that this eel didn't come from the Thames? No.
This eel came from New Zealand.
Halfway round the world.
- From New Zealand?! - New Zealand.
What's wrong with our stocks? In this country, we can't get enough eels to make it worth our while, so the only way we can do it is to buy them from New Zealand.
New Zealand eels are grown in rivers to their optimum size in just five to six years, before being frozen and transported 11,000 miles, ready to be defrosted by Frank's team.
Cos looking at them here in this big bucket, - I mean, they all look the same size.
- They are, yeah.
Whereas this morning on the Thames, all different shapes and sizes.
We like this particular size, so we pay more money for it.
- For the jellied eel - For the jellied eel, this is the best one.
- .
.
this is the best size? - That's the best size.
- Unfortunately, our waters can't supply - No.
- .
.
enough eels for you to supply jellied eels all year round? - No.
Once the eels have been topped, tailed and gutted, Frank's chopper cuts the fish into uniform half-inch rounds.
So that is the perfect cut for a jellied eel? That's the perfect size.
And that's what they call that's what they call a horseshoe.
You get people come up and they want the horseshoe bits, cos when you eat it, you eat it like that.
It comes off the bone.
Once the eels are boiled, Frank adds gelatine.
Blimey! After filling, the pots are then chilled for three hours.
Look at that! That's more like it.
The finished product.
Come on, back round the shop.
And now the moment Kate's been waiting for This is my first jellied eel, Frank.
This is this is going to convert you.
OK, I'm ready.
Right, now, what I'll do to make it easier for you Take it off the bone and just give you the piece of eel.
Right, lovely.
OK.
Right.
I don't know what I was afraid of, really.
It's really nice! One day, hopefully, in a few years, you'll be like "Yeah, just hauled these out the Thames.
Here we go!" I hope that's the truth as well.
Whoa! Whoa-ho-ho-ho-ho! Don't ride camels round here.
Oh, right