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BBC Radio 4


Investigating every aspect of the food we eat


The Food Programme

After concerns that honey from overseas is being watered down with cheap rice and corn syrups, Sheila Dillon investigates the scale of global honey fraud. It's a story of complex international supply chains with the world's food security at its heart. 

In 2023, the European Commission found that 46 per cent of the honey it sampled was suspected to be fraudulent. Just last year at the World Beekeeping Awards the prize for Best Honey had to be cancelled after fears that adulterated honey might be entered. The fake version can be very difficult to detect and beekeepers warn that it is forcing down the price of honey, potentially driving them out of business.

So how serious an issue has international honey fraud become and how concerned should consumers in the UK be? Sheila visits Bermondsey Street bees in Essex in search of answers and speaks to the UK's two biggest honey producers - Rowse and Hilltop Honey. Food fraud expert Professor Chris Elliott from Queen's University Belfast analyses the situation and Robin Markwell reports from Copenhagen where the world's largest convention of beekeepers was recently held. 

Produced for BBC Audio in Bristol by Robin Markwell

The Honey Trap

One thing that could make us all healthier is drinking less alcohol – and there’s now a huge market for alcohol‑free drinks. But one category that has long struggled to deliver great taste is non‑alcoholic wine. In this episode Jaega Wise looks to find out why it’s so difficult to make a wine without alcohol that still tastes good, and asks what difference these drinks can make to people trying to cut back. 

Jaega begins the story of German producer Bernhard Jung, whose family pioneered vacuum distillation more than a century ago. She meets Fiona Graham and Alex Viol of Vino Zero along with wine expert Jane Rakison to taste some of today’s most promising alcohol‑free bottles, and speaks to David Hodgson of Zeno Wines about the challenges behind creating convincing 0% options. At Plumpton College, master’s student George Coles and programme manager James Clapham explain how future winemakers are experimenting with new approaches.

During the programme, Jaega also brings together Professor John Holmes of the University of Sheffield and Richard Piper from Alcohol Change UK to explore how no‑ and low‑alcohol drinks might influence our drinking habits. And with Tom Ward of Wise Bartender, she looks at the growing world of mid‑strength wine - a category some believe could be the next step in helping people drink differently.

Presented by Jaega Wise
Produced in Bristol for BBC Audio by Natalie Donovan

The Low-Alcohol Drinks Revolution: Can Wine Keep Up?

Fermented foods are more popular than ever, but what's the science? Dan Saladino explores the latest research into fermentation and the many health claims made for fermented food. Featuring the gut microbiome expert Tim Spector and fermentation expert Robin Sherriff.

Produced and presented by Dan Saladino.

The Science of Fermentation

Desi pubs, boozers run by people of South Asian heritage, have been around since the 1960s. Originally a safe haven for immigrant drinkers during a time when they were often barred or excluded from pubs, they are now celebrated as successful businesses and diverse spaces. They are also food destinations serving some of the best grills and curries in the country. In this programme, Jaega Wise visits desi pubs in London and the Midlands to talk to landlords and drinkers about why these places are so special. She also interviews author David Jesudason on his books Desi Pubs: A guide to British-Indian Pints, Food and Culture.

Pubs featured:
The Gladstone Arms, Borough in London
The Red Lion, West Bromwich
The Red Cow, Smethwick
The Regency Club, Queensbury in London

She also talks to journalist Nina Robinson and curator/historian Raj Pal. His podcast with Corinne Fowler is Only in Birmingham

Produced for BBC Audio Bristol by Sam Grist

Desi Pubs

Sheila Dillon goes foraging for wild mushrooms in the Peak District in Derbyshire to find out what common fungi are easy to find - and delicious to eat. She hears from expert foragers, mushroom buyers and fungi fanatics about how the supply chain for this wild food works, from the forest floors of Eastern Europe to China's vast mushroom drying warehouses, as well as the lucrative, and sometimes dubious, trade of some of the most valuable mushrooms. 
Produced by Nina Pullman.

A Wild Mushroom Chase

Whisky writer Dave Broom has helped transform how the world tastes and talks about spirits, bringing flavour, culture, and meaning to a new generation. In this festive edition of the programme, Jaega Wise finds out how his ideas and passions came about, and what has made him one of the most influential voices in the drinks world.

Born in Glasgow, Dave Broom began his career in the industry with a job at the wine merchants OddBins. He later ran a pub in Bristol before moving into writing about spirits for the trade media. Since then, he’s written 15 books on whisky and other spirits. His writing is known for drawing people into the world of flavour through music and food references, and through connections to place. As well as writing about Scotch, he has also long explored whiskies and spirits from around the world - and was an early advocate for Japanese whiskies. 

In June 2019 Dave Broom presented a crowd-funded documentary film called The Amber Light, which took him across Scotland, meeting distillers, musicians, and writers, and exploring the idea that whisky reflects the place it comes from. The film was directed and produced by Adam Parks.

Presented by Jaega Wise
Produced for BBC Audio in Bristol by Natalie Donovan

A Life Through Drink: Dave Broom

Dan Saladino explores culinary cultures and world religions to find out how the date became one of the earliest, most revered, and diverse of all cultivated fruits, and also a feature of Christmas. 

Some of the world's historically important date palm oases have survived in the south of Tunisia. Dan travels to the ancient cities of Gafsa and Tozeur to visit two of them and watches the date harvest underway. There he tastes Tunisia's most prized date, the Deglet Nour, which translates as 'fingers of light' because of it's amber colour and almost translucent appearance. In Tozeur he also explores Eden Palm, the site of of a museum dedicated to dates and date palm, where he hears how the date has been an important food and source of trade for thousands of years. 

Featuring food historian Ivan Day, food writers Yasmin Khan, Itamar Srulovich and Nawal Nasrallah, archeobotanist Professor Dorian Fuller, and scientist Shahina Ghazanfar. 

Produced and presented by Dan Saladino.

Dates: A User's Guide

Annie Gray always rejects turkey and the trimmings at Christmas. She believes they are a construct of a bygone era and will often eat pizza on the big day instead.
She explores alternative dinners from Christmases past, present and future. She visits Bath to discover what would have been eaten over Christmas in the Regency period and bakes traditional mince pies - made with minced meat. She'll look at how Christmas is celebrated differently around the world and will discuss Christmas dinners to come with a food futurologist.

Presented by Dr Annie Gray
Produced in Bristol by Robin Markwell for BBC Audio

Going Cold Turkey: Alternative Christmas Dinners

Leyla Kazim takes a look at the best food books and writing from 2025, and chats to food writer Ruby Tandoh about her new book looking at why we eat the way we eat now. 

We hear picks from the rest of The Food Programme presenters - Sheila Dillon, Dan Saladino and Jaega Wise; books to get you cooking and books to get you thinking.

Tom Tivnan from The Bookseller discusses the latest bestsellers, and Carla Lalli - cookbook author and former Bon Appétit food director - helps bust some common myths and even lies we see in about recipe books and in online recipes.

Food Books for 2025:
* Serving the Public: The Good Food Revolution in Schools, Hospitals and Prisons by Professor Kevin Morgan 
* Give It a Grow: Simple Projects to Nurture Food, Flowers and Wildlife in Any Outdoor Space by Martha Swales
* Food Fight: From Plunder and Profit to People and Planet by Stuart Gillespie 
* Boustany: A Celebration of Vegetables from My Palestine by Sami Tamimi 
* Naturally Vegan: Delicious Recipes from Around the World That Just Happen to Be Plant-based by Julius Fiedler 
* WINE: Everything You Need to Know by Olly Smith 
* Winter Wellness: Nourishing Recipes to Keep You Healthy When It’s Cold by Rachel de Thample 
* Abundance: Eating and Living with the Seasons by Mark Diacono 
* Kapusta: Vegetable-Forward Recipes from Eastern Europe by Alissa Timoshkina 
* Indian Kitchens: Treasured Recipes from India’s Diverse Food Culture by Roopa Gulati
* All Consuming: Why We Eat the Way We Eat Now by Ruby Tandoh 
* Chop Chop: Cooking the Food of Nigeria by Ozoz Sokoh 

Presented by Leyla Kazim
Produced by Natalie Donovan for BBC Audio in Bristol.

The Food Books of 2025

When Tam o’ Braan began marketing Scottish Tea from his Wee Tea Plantation, the response was astonishing. Upmarket retailers such as Fortnum and Mason and hotels from the Dorchester in London to the Balmoral in Edinburgh paid top prices for the supplies of this rare treat. Scottish farmers caught the bug and bought tea bushes from Tam's plantation that he promised were bred especially for harsh Scottish conditions. Magazines, national newspapers and even the BBC profiled the entrepreneur behind the innovations that were putting Scotland on the tea map of the world. 

The only problem was that Tam’s business was based on lies. His name wasn’t Tam o’ Braan, he wasn’t an award-winning tea grower and his tea certainly wasn’t Scottish. Jaega Wise follows the story of Tam and his tea from the hills of Perthshire through the tea salons of London to Falkirk's Sheriff Court. 

Producer: Nina Pullman

The Great Tartan Tea Swindle

Dan Saladino explores the impact a Christmas Carol and other Charles Dickens novels have had on festive eating, with food historian Ivan Day and food writer Penelope Vogler. 

Produced and presented by Dan Saladino.

The Dickens Effect: How the Writer Influenced Food at Christmas.

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