The Food Programme

Sheila Dillon explores the world of the modern British tomato. Great improvements have been made in variety, flavour and quality over the last decade thanks to some technological breakthroughs including computer controlled glasshouses and use of micro-environments, green energy and smart water use. Now many more varieties can be trialled, grown and marketed in the UK. But with the emphasis on quality and flavour rather than quantity, can they ever compete with Spanish imports?Producer: Maggie Ayre.

Simon Parkes reports from the London International Wine fair to discover the latest trends in the wine industry.Simon meets wine producers from emerging wine producing countries such as India and Brazil to taste the wines that could soon be hitting the supermarket shelves in the UK. He also samples wines with a lower alcohol strength to discover if it is possible to produce wines that taste good without the high levels of alcohol.The Food Programme also reports on two smaller festivals focussing on 'natural wine': wines made with a minimum of chemical input to find out whether natural wines are now becoming more established in the UK wine market.Presenter: Simon Parkes Producer: Martin Poyntz-Roberts

Tim Hayward offers his reflections on the past, present and future of the British breakfast. Has the first meal of the day become a problem to solve rather than a pleasure?Joined by food writer and breakfast historian Seb Emina, Tim finds out how the great British breakfast became the envy of the world. With its origins dating back to aristocratic Edwardian country houses, the cooked breakfast spread through the chop houses of working class London and beyond. But with the huge amount of breakfast choices now available and our increasingly busy lives, eating breakfast has become an increasingly diverse and fragmented food experience. For some breakfast is an exercise in "grab-and-go" and indulging in more of a "desk-fast" than a meal, but there are some other interesting trends underway; sales of the big name cereal brands have been falling, porridge sales have been making something of a comeback. For an insight into this trend, Tim meets Nick Barnard of Rude Health, one of the more recent players on the breakfast scene competing for our morning appetite.With the help of food writer Anna Berrill, Tim finds out how, for some, the traditional breakfast is becoming more of a whole social occasion. Writer and comedian Chris Neill explains his own personal problem with breakfast and we learn how the so called "third wave" coffee scene is a growing influence on our mornings.Producer: George Casey.

For many years the symbol of stodgy service station fare, the humble pie is enjoying a renaissance as chefs and public alike discover the joys of a lovingly made pastry containing top quality ingredients. The Food Programme meets piemakers and connoisseurs at the annual British Pie Awards and hears why top chefs and food writers are extolling the virtues of the pieProducer: Maggie Ayre.

What's the future for one of the world's most successful and controversial crops, soya? It has become one of the main ingredients in feed for livestock, so crucial in meat production, and it's a major source of edible oil used in food processing and cooking, but have we become too dependent on the soya bean?This year supplies of soya have tightened and the world price is approaching a record high. Because it's so widely used it has become a powerful trigger for food price inflation. For this reason, the food industry is now looking for alternative sources of protein. The rise of the soya bean in the west has been a relatively recent development. Its history as a food crop in south east Asia goes back 5000 years as an ingredient for traditional foods like tofu, soya sauce, Tempe and soya milk. Then, in the 1930's, technology was developed in the United States that allowed the protein and oil in the soya bean to be extracted on a large scale. From that point on it has become one of the most important and widely used ingredients in our food supply. In the last fifteen years alone, the global soya crop has doubled, most of which can be found in north America, Brazil, Argentina and Paraguay. If world demand increases where will these new supplies of the soya bean come from? Dan Saladino reports on the latest trends.

Despite a long history of use in coastal areas of the British Isles, and with a well-established role in folklore and traditional medicine - seaweed is not an ingredient currently found in many British kitchen cupboards. The raw ingredient is something of an acquired taste, and knowledge of different seaweeds and their uses is not widespread. However, as Sheila Dillon discovers in this edition of The Food Programme, things are starting to change.In food cultures such Japan's, seaweeds have long been an important and treasured food. Through the work of people such as Prannie Rhatigan, author of Irish Seaweed Kitchen, people are starting to rediscover how to cook and utilise seaweeds and are looking again out to sea.With a rise in scientific interest into the unique compounds within seaweeds, appreciation of its unique flavour properties, and trials of its uses as a food fortificant, Sheila asks if seaweed is a food of the future?Producer: Rich Ward.

Sheila Dillon looks at changes to the UK's egg supply following the EU's ban on battery cages and how the food industry is dealing with shortages and escalating prices. Although there may still be enough eggs on the shelves of our supermarkets, the programme discovers that egg products used in some of our most popular dishes are in ever shorter supply and some may even be replaced with egg substitute produced by the dairy industry. Three different food producers explain how the use eggs on a large scale and the impact the EU changes have made on their access to supplies of whole, liquid and frozen products.Producer: Maggie Ayre.

From barrel ageing beer to sourcing intensely bitter hops, Dan Saladino reports on the latest trends in American brewing that are starting to influence British beer styles.The US "craft beer" scene started to take shape 30 years ago. Prohibition in the 1920s and post-war industrialisation brought an end to one of the world's most diverse brewing cultures.In 1979 President Jimmy Carter made home brewing legal again, and soon after, a network of adventurous brewers started to emerge. Known as craft brewers, they operate on a small scale and use traditional brewing techniques but also place great emphasis on experimentation and innovation.American brewer and editor of The Oxford Companion to Beer, Garrett Oliver puts their quest for new flavours down to the US losing its own brewing culture and so being free to explore all others. Now a young generation of brewers in the UK are looking at these new US styles and discovering techniques like barrel aging as well embarking on experiments with new, intensely flavoured, hop varieties.

Since ancient times humans have harnessed the power of microbes to preserve food and enhance its flavours. Rich and complex food cultures have developed that use this power in a process called fermentation - making pickles, breads, wines and much, much more.Sheila Dillon joins Sandor Katz - author and 'fermentation revivalist' - to find out more about the wonders of fermentation as well as our very relationship with these microbes.Producer: Rich Ward.

Sheila Dillon looks at the spiritual and therapeutic value many place on breadmaking. She meets a group of refugees who've experienced torture, all using baking in their recovery.Producer: Maggie Ayre.