Food Inspectors - Season 3

We've never been more interested in food. The average household spends £5,000 a year on food and drink, but how much do we really know about what ends up on our plates? The Food Inspectors are back and this time the show lifts the lid on Britain's food, revealing the real facts you have a right to know about. Joining the team of Matt Allwright and Chris Hollins is Gaby Roslin.

Matt investigates how clean our supermarkets really are by sending an undercover team to test for levels of bacteria in 10 London stores. Supermarket trolley handles, potato trays and chicken shelves are all put to a swabbing test. Chris and Gaby team up to find out what is in ice cream. They uncover the difference between dairy ice cream and soft scoop. Gaby gets a lesson in how to make home-made traditional ice cream and Chris visits Reading University to learn how to make the economy soft scoop version which contains coconut oil instead of cream, skimmed milk powder and the cheapest ingredient - air. Gaby visits a school to put the different ice creams to the taste test - but which ice cream is higher in fat?

Each week Chris and Gaby will reveal what's in the nations favourite mass produced foods, and Matt will put our billion pound food industry under the microscope.

And the team are back on the front line with the food inspectors who keep us safe by shutting down restaurants and food shops which aren't up to scratch. From rat droppings in a kitchen to cockroaches in a curry house and undercooked burgers in a gastro pub; the food inspectors have their work cut out to protect the nation from rogue restaurants and poisonous food.

After 'Horsegate', Matt Allwright looks at the impact of the scandal and asks where the next big food scandal may be coming from. Even after the crisis, the numbers of trading standards officers nationwide has been cut. Matt speaks to Professor Chris Elliott, who was commissioned by the government to investigate the horsemeat scandal. He thinks that there is potential for fraud in the fish industry as it comes from a complex supply chain.

Chris and Gaby put yoghurt drinks with added bacteria under the microscope. What is really in them? Gaby tries them out on a Zumba class. How will they feel after taking the drinks for three weeks?

Oxford inspectors Richard and Rachel visit a brand new café which is hoping for a high food safety rating. Their hopes may be dashed though as Richard only narrowly avoids treading on a pair of freshly baked cakes on the kitchen floor, where they have been left to cool.

Finally, Chris meets the couple who held their wedding reception in a four star country hotel. The couple and a large number of their guests fell violently ill a few days after the wedding.

Britain consumes almost 220,000 tonnes of bacon every year. Chris finds out how mass-produced bacon can be made, while Gaby cooks up the posh stuff. Both types can have the chemical additives sodium nitrite and sodium nitrate added - but what do they do and could they be harmful?

Matt reveals the role of slave labour in bringing food to the table. Matt meets two immigrant workers from Slovakia who were recruited in their home town to work in the UK. They say they were made to work for up to 70 hours a week and threatened with violence.

Chris visits a butcher to learn the importance of storing and preparing cooked and raw meat separately to avoid cross-contamination. He also demonstrates how washing a raw chicken under running water can result in campylobacter being splattered across work surfaces, the wall, nearby food and utensils. Campylobacter is present in 65 per cent of raw chickens in the UK and it can be really dangerous, with 110 people a year being killed by it.

In Oxford, food inspector Richard visits a hairdressing salon which is selling food and drinks outside its premises. There is no handbasin, no fridge and the wooden work surfaces are impossible to keep clean. And in Newcastle inspectors Paula and Caroline visit a kebab shop where they discover a boiler has broken down, which means the staff can't wash their hands properly.

Around half the meat we eat in Britain is chicken. But in the past decade the UK's poultry industry has experienced some fairly unpleasant bugs. Matt reports on the single biggest problem facing the industry - campylobacter. It's a form of food poisoning which is carried in two in every three chickens and can be deadly.

Chris and Gaby find out exactly what's in chicken nuggets. While Gaby gets a lesson on how to make homemade chicken nuggets Chris investigates what's in the shop-bought version. Gaby also looks at takeaway nuggets and reveals what's in them to a group of school children.

In Oxford environmental health officer Richard visits a Chinese restaurant where he finds seaweed being stored in boxes which were previously used for chicken, and fat dripping from a ceiling fan. The seaweed has to be binned and the restaurant owner is asked to tighten up procedures ahead of a return visit.

In Coventry food safety officer Nicki inspects a takeaway where she finds cockroaches and closes the business. It's one of the worst infestations she has ever seen. Pest control are called in by the owner and the place is given a major clean. After several return visits the food safety officers give the go-ahead for the premises to re-open.

Chris looks at an outbreak of food poisoning from a food festival which was traced back to raw curry leaves used in a chutney. He gets a lesson on the best way to clean and cook herbs, including curry leaves, from Michelin-starred chef Atul Kochhar.