Jimmy’s Food Factory – What’s In My Sandwich?
Jimmy Doherty’s mission to unravel the scientific secrets behind mass food production continues with an investigation into the contents of homemade sandwiches.
Why does supermarket bread stay soft longer than home-baked bread? Jimmy attempts to recreate some “supermarket bread”, building his own factory mixer from a metal dustbin. He also wonders what it is about processed cheese slices that people love so much – after all, they’re only 60 per cent cheese. Could it simply be that they’re sliced-bread shaped? Back in the barn, Jimmy sets up his own processed-cheese production line to find out what the other ingredients are.
Bugs and caterpillars are rarely found in ready-bagged supermarket salad leaves so Jimmy investigates how one Wiltshire producer checks that 1.5 million bags a week are bug-free.
He is also keen to discover how supermarket suppliers grow tomatoes out of season and wonders whether they are doing anything to the fruit to be concerned about. He visits a tomato farm in Hertfordshire, where he discovers that it’s not greenhouses alone that help their tomatoes grow.
Wednesday 28 October
7.30-8.00pm BBC ONE
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I can’t believe how poor quality this programme was. Or was it aimed at 6 year olds?
Jimmy didn’t explain what was in the products at all! He claims to be interested in the ’science’ but he didn’t tell us that (for example) the rennet in the cheese is from a cow’s stomach and is only there because the cheese has to be made quickly and doesn’t have time to set properly. (Vegetarians beware)! Also that the salad is washed in chlorine then packed in a bag with the oxygen taken out – hence whenever we open the bags the lettuce starts to rot as its already often a month old! The bread that stays ‘fresh’ for a week isn’t really fresh. Its packed with extra fats to make it appear soft and preservatives to prevent mould growth.
If Jimmy really means it when he says “My way of thinking is that if you give people all the information, they can make their own decisions.” then he has to be honest and give people all the information. NOT what perhaps the supermarkets want us to hear. My question is – did Jamie set this opportunity up for him? Did sainsburys pay for it perhaps? Either way – he has let us all down, badly.