Food Unwrapped (2012) s07e02 Episode Script

'We Brits are a nation of food lovers.
' Oh, my goodness! Hello! 'Our supermarkets are jam-packed with products 'from every corner of the globe' Konnichiwa! '.
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but how much do we really know about the journey our food makes 'to our plates?' Wow, I've never seen anything like it in all my life.
Oh! 'The Food Unwrapped team travel all over the world and beyond' This is like stepping into the future.
'.
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to reveal the trade secrets behind the food we eat.
' 'Coming up, I travel to Japan 'in search of the ancient secret behind tofu.
' Well, we're at the sea.
Have fish got anything to do with it? I travel 60 years back in time to investigate if modern portions are making us lot porkers.
Whoa! Is that for one person? 'And I'm travelling down the road to Wales to get up close and personal 'with a new type of milk.
' - They don't seem to mind.
- No.
- Wow.
First, tofu.
Once the reserve of vegetarians, this meat substitute has wobbled its way onto more of our plates.
I want to know how they make soy beans into white tofu.
You like making me work, don't you? What exactly is tofu? Good question.
I don't know.
Is this like one of those mystery foods? I mean, what is it? - I have no idea.
- Nor have I.
Is there chemicals in my tofu? E575 and E509.
Yeah? What's all that about? They mean absolutely nothing to me.
So, how do they make the squidgy stir-fry staple? And what are these weird-sounding E numbers? To get some answers, I'm flying east to tofu-loving Tokyo.
Along with their Chinese neighbours, the Japanese have been enjoying this protein-rich food for thousands of years.
In fact, tofu is such a staple here you can pick it up pretty much anywhere.
Now, I'm waiting on this street corner because I've heard that there is a tofu man that sells tofu out the back of his van, and this is on his route.
Konnichiwa! This is bonkers.
- Konnichiwa.
- Konnichiwa! Can I see what you've got in the back? Ooh, it's a proper little tofu shop.
All different types of tofu.
What type of tofu is this one? Oh, deep-fried.
Oh, yeah.
Gosh, you're like the ice cream van, but loaded up with tofu.
'The food is so popular here that there's a tofu van like this 'serving every suburb of the city.
' So, how do you go from soy bean to get to this? OK, well, arigatou.
Arigatou gozaimasu.
You've got a customer.
Konnichiwa.
'The Japanese even eat tofu freshly made for breakfast,' so, much like our bakers and milkmen, producers are up at the crack of dawn, as am I.
It is 5am on a Saturday morning and I'm looking for a tofu shop.
'I'm on my way to meet third-generation tofu-maker 'Mr Higuchi, whose family business has been keeping Tokyo in tofu 'for nearly a century.
' Konnichiwa.
Konnichiwa.
- Higuchi-san? - Hai.
- Kate.
- Kate-san.
So, today we're going to make some tofu.
OK, where do we start? Gosh, they've, like, doubled in size, haven't they? 'The bloated soybeans are loaded into a stone grinder, 'which crushes them down into a paste.
'This is then steamed for around half an hour 'before being passed through an industrial sieve, 'which siphons off the pulp, leaving behind soy milk, 'which is key to making tofu.
' So, this is the stuff you're really interested in, the soy milk? Soy.
That is the freshest milk you are ever going to milk from a bean.
'But what magic trick turns this liquid into solid?' Oh, what is that? Calcium sulphate? 'Now, that rings a bell from chemistry class.
' It's like plaster of Paris.
'Both this and plaster of Paris start life as the mineral gypsum.
' 'So, if you spot "E516" on your packet, it's this stuff.
' If it's OK on my tofu, I'm going to have a little dib-dab off of my finger, OK? I feel like I've run my tongue over a building site.
'Calcium sulphate acts as a coagulant, which congeals the milk 'and sets it into the solid blocks we know as tofu.
' And that is it -- just that little bit of gypsum.
That's all you need to coagulate your tofu.
'And, 30 minutes later, we have liftoff.
' Oh, and there we have it.
We've made tofu.
Can I try one? It's very silky smooth.
That is delicious.
'So, apart from gypsum, is anything else ever used to make tofu?' What is nigari? Your gypsum tofu is fantastic but I think I need to taste some nigari tofu.
'Later, there's a surprise in store 'when I discover what this mystery of the deep actually is.
' Oh! This is not what I was expecting.
Next, portion size.
That was jolly good.
Do you think I could have a little more? Here, the bloke in 146 wants three Shredded Wheat.
Three? Oh, really, Philip, you might at least wait until we've all finished.
Judging by these iconic adverts from back in the day, big portions used to raise a few eyebrows.
We want to investigate if things have changed over the years, so where better to start than a trip back in time? I've got a bit of a theory.
Things are getting bigger.
Portions seem to be getting bigger.
I've been reading reports lately about portion size and the fact that, with these ready meals, actually, they've been getting bigger.
I mean, do you think portion sizes are getting bigger? - Well - Or smaller? I don't know.
Everyone's getting fatter, aren't they? Well, yeah.
You almost need to look at the trajectory of a lasagne over the last ten years.
'So, to hunt out the food packaging of yesteryear, 'I've come to one of Britain's most remarkable museums.
' Wow.
Look at this.
- Oh, hello.
- Hello.
- Hello.
- Hi.
- Are you Stella? - Yes, I am.
Hello.
- Nice to meet you.
- Nice to meet you.
- This is incredible.
'For the past 46 years, 'Stella Mitchell has been collecting 20th-century memorabilia 'celebrating British consumerism.
' Look at this.
See, this is something from my childhood -- Action Man.
I never had the tank.
You've got Matt Tebbutt's pants up here, as well.
Cigarettes.
Look, that brand "will not affect your throat".
It's like being round my nan's house.
So, Stella, can I have a look at some food packaging? Yeah, sure, just come this way.
There's chicken and vegetable pies, lasagnes - 1994.
- Mm-hmm.
- I mean, that is incredible.
Look at these, then.
Late '50s, early '60s.
- There's shepherd's pie - Mm-hmm.
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but it's quite small, isn't it? 'Bingo -- my all-time favourite.
' For me, growing up, the Black Forest gateau was something very exotic.
It was Oh, yes.
Well, you knew it was from the Black Forest.
Yeah, it was straight out of the woods.
- Straight out, exactly, yes.
- Wasn't it? - Yes.
'To establish whether our portions have grown over time, 'my retro basket and I are meeting Professor Theresa Marteau, 'an expert in eating behaviour from the University of Cambridge.
' I've got all these food packages here, OK, from the '90s and '80s and even earlier, and I want to know, have they changed in size? Good question.
Shall we find out? Yeah, let's do it.
Here we are.
Hi, there, guys.
'We have enlisted some shoppers to go on a reconnaissance mission.
' Now, what I'd love you all to do is choose something on that shopping list and buy some of those items for me.
'The brief is to buy modern-day supermarket equivalents to 'the ones I've got in my basket.
' OK, let's go.
Get shopping.
So, Theresa, hopefully they should come back with some interesting stuff.
'An hour later, they're back, 'their bags bulging with ready meals for one.
' OK, shoppers, if I look at my packaging, that's for one person, from 1999.
Who's got cottage pies? There you go.
All right, a nice cottage pie, there.
I mean, straight away, they look bigger, don't they? So this is 230g, that's 400g and that's 450g.
That's a big increase.
- Yeah.
- So, Theresa, is that what's happening across the board? Well, we've looked at the portion size in cottage pies across four supermarkets and what we find is that 400g is about the average.
'That's an increase of a staggering 73% in just 17 years.
' That's incredible -- a 73% increase.
'And what about the nation's favourite, chicken curry?' Whoa! - Is that for one person? - Yeah.
- That's for one person.
- Wow.
Do you know what? If I hadn't have pulled this up beforehand, I'd have probably gone, "Oh, yeah, nice, one person.
" 'We compared products from four leading British supermarkets 'and found that on average 'curry for one has gone from 300g to 400g -- 'an increase of 33% in just over 15 years.
'And it was a similar story for single portions of lasagne, 'fish fingers, and my favourite, Black Forest gateau -- 'all of which have got bigger by around 20% over a decade or so.
' - I mean, would you be happy if you got that now? - Not really.
- No.
- No? No.
'So it seems like portion size is growing in line with our demands.
'Later, Theresa and I travel back in time to find out 'it's not just portion size that affects how much we eat.
' You broke all the laws of science.
Next, there's a new type of milk appearing in the supermarkets -- something to do with A2.
Now, I've driven on it, but drunk it? I've bought some of that A2 milk from you and it says on the side that it's easy to digest.
Do you know how? That I wouldn't know, sorry.
Is it easier to digest, the A2 than the A1? Or is it just milk that's, like Well, I don't understand what A1 and A2 is.
Right, no, nor do I.
There's no major distinction between the two - apart from very good advertising.
- Really? But it's not, like, from, like, the second-class cows -- so they've got one teat or something, and a bent horn? No, I don't think so.
'So, to find out what A2 is, 'I'm heading up the A525 to a dairy farm 'which specialises in the stuff.
' So I've come to North Wales on the allocated sunny day that they have this year to meet a man about a cow.
- Dewi.
- Hi, Matt.
How are you doing? - Nice to meet you.
'Dewi Jones has managed this farm for the last 12 years.
' I've heard there's this A2 milk on the market and I don't know anything about it, but you do.
Is that right? We do, cos we're involved in producing some A2 milk - on the farm here.
- Yeah.
We've got two herds.
- One herd produces standard milk - OK.
- .
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and the other herd produces just A2 milk.
- A2.
The A2 cows produce milk that only has the A2 protein in it .
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whereas the other cows will have a mixture of A1 and the A2 protein in the milk.
'So it's a type of protein which, 'along with lactose, fat and water, makes up milk, 'but how on earth do you get a cow to produce it? 'Luckily for me, Dewi says I've come at just the right time to find out.
' Hello, John.
He brings the A2 semen 'I'm pretty sure I know where this is going.
' Right, we're ready to go.
Good.
I'm glad to see I don't have the gloves.
'Coming up, just how far will I go in the name of research?' Do you want a go? I've been learning about a new type of milk which only contains the A2 protein and I'm about to find out how they get cows to produce it.
John Gwynedd is an old hand at artificial insemination.
He's here to insert A2 bull semen into the females.
- They don't seem to mind? - No.
No, they don't.
Each metal vial contains 50,000 precious semen.
Push the plunger, in the semen goes.
- You want a go? - Not a chance.
So, A2 cows are genetically different from your standard ones but what about this claim that their milk is easier to digest? Is there any mileage in it? To find out, I've come to Reading University to meet Professor Ian Givens and Lindy Moors who has a history of digestive issues with milk.
- Nice to meet you, Lindy.
- Hello.
- Nice to meet you.
- Professor, nice to meet you.
Reports suggest that up to one in five Brits believe they may be lactose intolerant so, to see if Lindy is one of them, I've brought along a rudimentary test.
Hold your breath for 15 seconds and then just exhale.
If she is, the reading should be over 20.
Zero.
Which would suggest that Lindy isn't intolerant to lactose.
So, Lindy, what's your experience? My stomach was having terrible digestive problems and I had severe constipation for many years.
Once I had seen the specialist and she said to me that I was intolerant to lactose then I stopped taking milk.
So, Lindy stopped drinking milk altogether which seemed to do the trick, then recently, this new milk caught her eye.
I just read on the side that it said that people who have digestive problems can sometimes tolerate this milk.
- So, she decided to try it.
- I had a little teaspoon and I was fine.
And then I had a tablespoon and I was still fine.
So, you found this different to drinking normal milk? If I was going to have a reaction, I'd have had a reaction - fairly quickly.
- I mean, because this milk, this contains lactose.
I now feel that it is the A1 protein that was causing me a problem and not the lactose.
The assumption is if you're allergic to milk it's always the lactose.
There are a range of intolerances that people can have to milk which are not just lactose intolerance.
It's clear Lindy feels this is the milk for her but is it easier to digest for everyone? There has only been, to my knowledge, one study in adults looking at the differences between A1 and A2 protein on digestive issues, if you like.
- Yeah.
- And of course, it's very, very difficult to interpret one study in terms of how it applies to the population as a whole.
As only one study has been done so far, the jury's still out.
So, if you're suffering from any digestive issues, safest bet is to get down to your GP and see what they think.
Back to Japan, where I've been getting to grips with how you make tofu from the humble soya bean.
I've learnt that as well as gypsum something from the sea, known as nigari, is used to solidify soymilk.
To delve deeper, I've popped down the tofu aisle at the local Tokyo supermarket.
It's almost the space that would be dedicated to cheese in a UK supermarket -- here it is a vast array of tofu.
Around half of the ones here are made with nigari and, curiously, they tend to have higher price tags.
So, keen to find out what this mysterious nigari is, I'm trekking halfway across the country to the coastal town of Akao.
I mean, we're at the sea, have fish got anything to do with it? Konnichiwa.
So, Suzuki, you're going to tell me all about nigari? - Let's go.
- Let's go.
- This way? Corporate officer, Mr Suzuki, isn't taking any chances with his precious nigari.
Whoa! It's like a hurricane.
Oh! This is not what I was expecting.
- What is it? - What is it? Nigari.
So, what is nigari? Now, Suzuki, I still don't quite understand how you get this nigari from seawater.
Brilliant.
As the process happens inside closed machines, Mr Suzuki is going to show me exactly how they do it.
Oh, what's cooking, Suzuki? So, it's as simple as that? You've got seawater, you boil it, evaporate off the water leaving you with salt and then there's magic serum from the sea and that's called nigari? So, if you see E511 on packaging, it's this salt mineral.
Suzuki, do you drink a little bit of nigari everyday? It's working.
You look fantastic.
With that glowing review, I've got to try some.
Whether you use nigari or gypsum to make tofu, the process is the same but what about the all-important taste? I'm going to go for a nice big bit.
Fresh tofu.
That is so lovely and silky, silky smooth.
And quite different to the tofu that I ate that was made with gypsum.
I like both gypsum and nigari equally but what do these guys think? Hands up for gypsum.
Tofu made with nigari? I'm no psychic but I had a sneaky suspicion they'd say that.
Back to portion sizes.
Along with our waistlines, they're getting bigger.
It's incredible, that 73% increase.
But is this the only thing encouraging us to eat more? To find out, we need a group of people who've worked up an appetite.
After you.
Wow, look at this.
We've gone back to the slimmer 1950s to reconstruct one of Theresa's recent studies and to see whether something as simple as plate size can have an effect on the amount we eat.
That was brilliant, guys, absolutely fantastic.
Are you all hungry? - All: Yes! - Right, well, that's good because we've got some food for you.
There's two tables over here so if you split yourself into two groups, take a seat and we'll serve you some lovely food.
We are serving up two equal serving bowls of pasta to two groups of dancers.
But, unbeknown to them, one table will eat from the average size plate from the 1950s, eight inches, and the other will pig out on modern-sized plates of 12 inches.
At least, that's the theory.
So, both tables have got the exact same amount of food but the only difference is the size of plate.
Will that really make a difference? Well, the evidence tells us that it does.
If you imagine an amount of food on this plate, it's going to look larger on that plate than the same amount on this.
Right, so you feel that you've got a bigger portion on the small plate? - You do.
- It seems to be working.
The guys with the big plates are really piling on the pasta, while the dancers with the smaller plates seem to be serving smaller portions.
We've estimated that if we could get rid of those increased packages, portions and tableware that we've seen, that we could reduce the number of calories an adult in the UK consumes by 279 calories a day.
Wow.
- That's a lot of calories.
- It's a lot of calories.
But hold on, the small plate people are coming back for seconds.
Right, guys, have you all finished? You're not finished? And she's probably had thirds! Right, OK.
The large plate people seemed to show a bit more restraint, so just how pear-shaped has this demo gone? OK, guys, we've got the results and it's quite interesting.
This table here has ate just over 400g per person.
You guys ate 200g per person so you guys ate twice as much.
So, I'm not sure what happened over here because you had everything against you and you still broke all the laws of science.
And ate the most pasta.
Despite at least ten academic studies providing strong evidence that larger plates make you eat more, we seem to have shown, well, the opposite.
Sod's law.
Next week, I travel to Ecuador to learn how bananas could one day save lives.
Something in the banana can help fight some very serious diseases.
I'm looking at meat substitutes to see what scientists are cooking up.
It looks like a doner kebab.
And I wonder why some crisps are green and not golden.