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The Food Programme

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Jul 12, 2024 • 43min

Just One Thing with The Food Programme

As part of Just One Thing Day on Radio 4, Sheila Dillon looks back at Dr Michael Mosley's legacy and comes up with 5 reasons why he mattered in getting us all to understand why eating better leads to living better. Through listening to the Just One Thing archive, and some of The Food Programme archive, we can see how his "just one things" were connected to much bigger things, and how he was able to show us, through examining the evidence for that thing, and trialling it on willing members of the public, that change can begin, and maybe has to begin, with individuals. As promised, here's a list of the programmes featured: Just One Thing: Change Your Meal Times - https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m000zt7d Snack Smartly - https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m001wq7f Swap Out Sugar - https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m001gx56 Try Some Turmeric – https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m001jt2h Eat Slowly – https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m001zvvr Enjoy Oily Fish - https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m0017tbn Food Special with Tim Spector - https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m001ngjx The Food Programme: Doctor's Orders: Getting Tomorrow's Medics Cooking - https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b09wr9q9 The Eatwell Guide - https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b0b86702 Turmeric – https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b08rpd85 Mindful Food and the Art of Attention - https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/m00193rb How We Eat: 4. Eating as a Family - https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b099w3v4 Omega 6 - https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/b00jc3sw The Food Programme – Fixing Dan - https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m001h44h Presented by Sheila Dillon Produced in Bristol for BBC Audio By Natalie Donovan
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Jul 8, 2024 • 42min

Has Finland Found the Future of Food?

Saunas, pickled food.. even Nokia phones. But do you associate Finland with the future of food? Sheila Dillon visits the new factory making microbial protein out of hydrogen, oxygen and various minerals. Solar Foods, in Finland, is the latest frontier in the commercial lab-grown food sector; their invention, Solein, is a novel food ingredient that can replace animal products like milk, eggs and meat. Rather than using animal cells as a starting point, their process uses electrolysis to separate water into oxygen and hydrogen, followed by machinery usually found in the dairy industry to dry and then pasteurise the resulting protein powder. After a tour of this futuristic factory, Sheila sits down for lunch cooked by Solar Foods’ head chef to find out how this so-called ‘food of the future’ actually tastes.Lab-grown meat has been touted as the future for many years, but it has yet to take off – in fact, companies in this space are struggling. Changes to global politics as well as the high cost of scaling up have all limited the sector's growth so far. Meanwhile, it's still not clear if people want lab-grown meat as part of their lives or diets. Sheila hears from Dutch biology and ethics professor, Cor van der Weele, who found that people were more interested in small-scale production of lab-grown meat, in containers alongside animals on farms, rather than scaled up mega factories. So how does lab-grown meat fit into our future food system? Is it really the best way to reduce the environmental impact of our diets? And how might it help us when climate change or wars make global trade too difficult? Sheila asks professor Tim Benton, of think tank Chatham House, for his views on all the big questions.Produced by Nina Pullman for BBC Audio in Bristol.
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Jun 28, 2024 • 42min

Pastry Nation: Hype Bakeries on the Rise

Author Milly Kenny-Ryder explores the rise of viral viennoiseries in British bakeries with Leyla Kazim and Robbie Armstrong. They visit TOAD bakery and Philippe Conticini, discuss the appeal of Greggs, and showcase Quince Bakery's traditional British baking. Robbie explores Lannan and a fifth-generation bakery in Fife with internationally famous fudge doughnuts.
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Jun 21, 2024 • 42min

What Makes Food Safe?

As a major outbreak from a new strain of E. coli makes headlines, we ask: what makes food safe? How are food producers coping with new strains of food pathogens? And what does safe food even mean in a world where processed food is increasingly seen as the top cause of dietary ill health? Meeting over a platter of various foods from raw milk cheese to salad, Sheila Dillon and producer Nina Pullman hear from microbiologists, food safety experts and cheese makers to hear the challenges of staying ahead of the curve when it comes to food and science. They speak to a scientist testing bacteria-eating viruses that can be inserted into feed or food packaging to tackle these new E. colis, known as STECs, and they chat to a global expert in food microbiology on how climate change is making pathogens more difficult to predict. While such pathogens can get into a variety of foods, raw or unpasteurised cheese makers are feeling the pressure more than most due to the perception of risk around their products. Cheese makers at a panel in London explain the human impact on a small family business that is linked to an outbreak, while a tour of Neals Yard Dairy reveals the number of cheesemakers considering turning to pasteurisation due to fears around the new strains of STEC E. colis. In a conversation about food that makes us sick, Sheila also meets members of the pubilc who took part in a recent national conversation on food for their views on food safety more broadly. What does food safety mean to them and what do the public expect from food? Produced by Nina Pullman for BBC Audio in Bristol.
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Jun 14, 2024 • 43min

D-Day - The Food that fuelled the assault

As we mark 80 years since the D-Day assaults, Leyla Kazim gets a peek at what's thought to the be the world's only surviving unopened D-Day ration pack, and explores the food that fuelled the troops through the challenge ahead. She's heading back in time in one Wiltshire village that housed the famous "Band of Brothers" to find out what they were eating.. and she sits down to with two Army veterans to talk about their food memories, getting a taste of a genuine British ration pack along the way. Presenter Leyla Kazim Producer Tory Pope
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Jun 7, 2024 • 43min

The BBC Food and Farming Awards 2024: The Search Begins...

Jaega Wise heads to Glasgow to open the nominations for this year's BBC Food and Farming Awards, and to announce that the 2024 ceremony will be held in the city on December 2nd. The head judge for 2024 is Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall, a long time supporter of the Awards, and there is a brand new award for those championing the best Scottish local produce with a strong connection to their community - BBC Scotland Local Food Hero, which will be judged by Dougie Vipond (Landward & The Great Food Guys) and Rachel Stewart (Out of Doors). Another new face on the judging panel is social media star Max La Manna, a low-waste chef, who will be judging the Digital Creator Award. On Jaega's mini-tour of Glasgow she visits past winner Matt Fountain from Freedom Bakery, has tea and scones at one of Glasgow's famous tearooms with food journalist Robbie Armstrong, visits the Old Fruitmarket where the Awards will be hosted, and she shares a Pizza Crunch with one of Glasgow's most famous chefs, Julie Lin. To see the full list of awards and to nominate, go to bbc.co.uk/foodawards where you can also find the terms and privacy notice. Nominations open Friday 7 June at 11am and close 23:59 Sunday 30 June 2024. Presented by Jaega Wise Produced in Bristol for BBC Audio by Natalie Donovan
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May 31, 2024 • 42min

Danny Trejo: A Life Through Food

Danny Trejo is a Hollywood legend appearing in hundreds of films mostly playing tough guys, convicts and henchmen. He has starred in some of the greatest action films of all time like Con Air with John Malkovich and Nicolas Cage and Heat with Robert De Nero and Al Pacino. Life wasn’t easy for Danny growing up. He started taking hard drugs and committing serious crimes from a very young age. He ended up in some of the most violent prisons in America but through finding God and sobriety turned his life around. He became a drugs counsellor and through a series of unlikely events worked his way into Hollywood as an actor.At 80 he is also the owner of a chain of taco restaurants as well as a number of food and drink brands. In the programme Jaega meets him in the last branch of Trejo’s Tacos and talks to him about his memories of food growing up, brewing hooch in prison and filming Old El Paso adverts in Mexico.We also hear from food historian and writer Chloe-Rose Crabtree about why eating tacos in London has become a thorny issue for Americans and BBC entertainment reporter Colin Paterson on the history of celebrity restaurants.Presented by Jaega WiseProduced by Sam Grist for BBC Audio in Bristol
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May 24, 2024 • 42min

The Fight to Improve School Food in 2024

Sheila Dillon hears stories of how headteachers are transforming food in their schools in difficult economic conditions, as well as how flagship universal free primary school meal policies in Scotland and London are playing out so far.Presented by Sheila Dillon and produced by Sophie Anton for BBC Audio in Bristol.
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May 17, 2024 • 42min

The Hong Kongers finding a new home through food

Jimi Famurewa meets the Hong Kongers who are serving, growing and eating the food of their home country to connect with their own food heritage and find a new sense of belonging.Almost 200,000 Hong Kongers have arrived in the UK since a new government visa offered safe passage and the chance of a new life in January 2021. And, as they settle into communities across the UK, including in New Malden, Manchester and Reading, there’s been a noticeable impact on food culture. At Holy Sheep, in Camden, Jimi tastes the spicy rice noodles beloved by this new generation of Hong Kongers, before visiting Hong Kong's most famous organic farmer who relocated and now helps new migrants grow the culturally-significant Choy Sum and other Asian vegetables.As he talks to Hong Kongers about the role food has played in settling into the UK, Jimi also finds out how, for some, food has become an act of resistance and a way to express political solidarity. From the so-called 'yellow economy' of pro democracy restaurants and food shops in Hong Kong, to choosing to travel miles to buy ingredients that don't come from China, Jimi starts to realise how food has become more than just a taste of home. Produced by Nina Pullman for BBC Audio in Bristol.
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May 10, 2024 • 44min

Posh Nosh: Food's Class Dilemma

Food historian Pen Vogler joins the discussion on food and social class in the UK, exploring how class markers influence food choices and perceptions. The episode dives into the history of class distinctions in British food culture and the impact on health. Guests shed light on the challenges of promoting healthier options and breaking these class connections. The conversation extends to community engagement through a shared garden space and the importance of childhood food education.

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