Dispatches-supermarket Secrets

[Macaroni]

Did anyone watch this last night??

Its really made DH and I think about the food we buy-it was gross !! :(

[jimblies]

Yep - somehow my supermarket Turkey curry just wouldn't settle after!!

[Ravenfire]

No I didnt see it what food was it highlighting?

[Macaroni]

Chicken production,the conditions they were kept in, the differences between free range/organic and the 'normal' chickens. Dead and ill chickens being trampled by the others. Dead chickens in wheelie bins crawling with maggots.

Ready meals being shovelled out of, what DH said was, a concrete mixer

I think we're going to buy less meat, but good stuff in future.

Part 2 is on next week looking at milk production amongst other things

[angel1980]

Ewww it was gross.

[Ravenfire]

So "fresh" chickens were included in this?

[lisa1980]

yeah they were toni or what they considered "fresh" the conditions were terrible hose poor chickens the next episode is actually on monday wonder what delights they will have for us

[Ravenfire]

Oh no I normally buy quite a bit of chicken. So it recommends we buy the organic only?

[angeleyes]

yeah we buy a lot of chicken, its the only meat dp will eat, it really made us think, i found it was very upsetting aswell.

Is the need for chicken that bad in this country, that they have to breed them like that??

[Macaroni]

Thursday 28 July, 9pm
Monday 1 August, 8pm

How and what we eat has radically changed over the past few decades with the all-consuming rise of the supermarket. But what price are we paying for the homogenised, cheap and convenient food that supermarkets specialise in? In a two-part programme, journalist Jane Moore investigates how supermarkets have affected the food on our plates and reveals the tell-tale signs that the food we buy may not have been grown in the way we think.

Using a combination of undercover filming and scientific analysis, Supermarket Secrets investigates whether the food on supermarket shelves is really as good as it looks, whether prices are as good as they seem and what happens behind the scenes in the production of supermarket food.

This year Britain's shoppers are expected to spend around £70billion on food. 56% of this total expenditure will take place in supermarkets. These films ask how supermarkets manage to push prices down and profits up. Are farmers and growers being pressured to produce food in a manner that leads to it being less nutritious than in the past? And what of the conditions that livestock is reared in today?

The first of the two programme features secret filming which uncovers the horrific conditions inside a chicken broiler house preparing chickens for a company which supplies all the major supermarkets. One study carried out by a professor from Cambridge University revealed that 82% of chickens bought in supermarkets had hockburns – a tell-tale sign of poor animal welfare caused by sitting in litter. Jane Moore shows how to examine chickens for hockburns.

The programme also examines why chickens nowadays have more fat and less protein and why it is vitally important to read the ingredients lists on healthy option meals. Also, top chef Raymond Blanc puts some supermarket 'ready meals' to the taste test.

Programme two meets the organic potato farmer who feeds much of his crop to his cows because, he says, the supermarkets deem his produce to be insufficiently cosmetically pleasing. The film also hears from a toxicologist about the levels of pesticide residues in supermarket fresh produce; reveals how dairy cattle are now factory farmed and why packaged fruit and vegetables from your local supermarket may be more expensive that you think – and not as good for you.

With contributions from leading experts including Joanna Blythman, Professor Tim Lang, Dr Vyvyan Howard and Felicity Lawrence.

For information about nutrition and healthy eating, plus how to campaign for good farming go to get active.

http://www.channel4.com/news/microsites/S/...rets/index.html (http://www.channel4.com/news/microsites/S/supermarket_secrets/index.html)

[Katiequiggle]

I must admit that we eat lots of chicken cause we keep being told it's so much better for us than red meat and I often buy the smart price chicken breasts in Asda. Will have to have a re-think, Now Im dieting I'm putting the whole family on healthier food, more fresh and less junk, but how do you know what you're eating sometimes. We can't afford to eat organic everything so your really at the mercy of the providers aren't you.

Kate

[RebeccaMc]

There is no need to eat less meat - most local butchers sell their meat at less than the supermarkets charge for a higher quality product.

I would never dream of feeding my family anything that had been mass produced.

My local butcher is fantastic - all the cattle and lamb are selected by him personally from local farms and slaughtered in his own abattoir on the same site as his shop.

[Ravenfire]

I agree the meat from the butchers is better but have tbh in my experience is always more expensive, but then you do get what you pay for.

[Ems]

My partner is a veggie, reading this I think I might join him!!!

[RebeccaMc]

In my opinion the programme succeeded in raising public awareness of the reason why supermarkets can sell their meat so cheaply, adding water to pork and charging for it, labelling lamb cutlets as loin chops and charging the extra premium and highlighting the horrific conditions chickens are raised in which allow them to be sold 2 for £5.

Supermarkets may be cheaper but perhaps that's because as the butcher in the programme said you're paying for water rather than meat.

Before you go veggie, visit your local butcher and talk to him. Don't be afraid to ask questions - any reputable butcher will be delighted to talk to you and to answer your questions and if you're fortunate, like me, he will only deal with locally produced animals and slaughter the animals himself.

The butcher in the programme said his meat was cheaper than that being sold by the supermarkets so perhaps we all need to think again as to whether they are more expensive.

[Netty]

We buy our meat from the "family butcher" - he moved premises last year so we now have a car ride to our "local" butcher - but it is worth it.

Think most of his pork and lamb is slaughtered in the abattoir next door to our house(!) :rolleyes:

[househusband]

Hi,
well we are all veggie in our house hold and the problems with supermarkets are not just about meat. It has an effect on all the food we eat, from unripe/out of season fruit to chemical treated veggies. I think I missed few shows. Did they cover the journey of chicken from the farms to the shelf? Its amazing, if you got air miles with the food you would never have to pay for a holiday again.

There are a couple of interesting books on the subject and yes it will put you off some of the supermarket products. But its worth reading as its an eye opener on where some of our food comes from and how "its made" for supermarket consumption. We all suffer from a lack of time/money and supermarkets seem to be offering the idea way of saving both. But they are only interested in profit.

Rob.