Main content

Is the food you鈥檙e eating what you think it is?

A visit to a spice testing lab reveals how fraudsters tamper with food to make money

How can you be sure you鈥檙e eating what you think you鈥檙e eating? In most cases, food fraud won鈥檛 make you ill, but you won鈥檛 be getting quite what you鈥檙e paying for.

In this programme, Ruth Alexander hears why high food prices and the war in Ukraine mean food fraud is more likely to happen. She visits a laboratory in Belfast in Northern Ireland, where food products are analysed to sort what鈥檚 real and what鈥檚 fake, and she speaks to a food fraud investigator who tells us just how difficult it is to stop the criminals.

And we hear from a spice market in Delhi where vendors and shoppers tell us how they try to avoid fake products.

If you would like to get in touch with the show, please email: thefoodchain@bbc.co.uk

Producer: Elisabeth Mahy

(Image: A row of jars of spices, but the one in the middle is highlighted. Credit: Getty Images/麻豆社)

Available now

29 minutes

Last on

Thu 18 May 2023 22:32GMT

Broadcasts

  • Thu 18 May 2023 03:32GMT
  • Thu 18 May 2023 10:32GMT
  • Thu 18 May 2023 21:32GMT
  • Thu 18 May 2023 22:32GMT

Food Chain highlights

Tea, coffee, spices, chillies ... snack on a selection of programme highlights

Podcast